Boma Achenimie 
The Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Kware, Sokoto State on Sunday held a roadshow to educate Nigerians about mental health and related issues.
The activities were held in observance of the 2023 World Mental Health Day with the subject “Mental Health is a Universal Human Right.”
According to Prof. Shehu Sale, the hospital’s medical director, who spoke to reporters during the roadshow said the initiatives are part of a forward-thinking strategy to raise awareness of problems with mental health, substance misuse, and other connected concerns as well as decriminalised mental health viewpoints to increase access.
Educating people about mental health worldwide, raising awareness of it, fighting societal stigma, and encouraging policymakers to take preventive measures are all goals of the day, according to him.
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We are looking beyond celebrating this day and look closely at the individuals around us with the eye of empathy.
”If one suffers from a disease, there is no reason to be stigmatised or to be criminalised, mental health is an integral part of the health system which is a complete state of physical, social, and mental well-being.
The Mental Health Act, the policy, and the guidelines to be developed, all represent an approach that we are taking as a country. ” Sale said.
He explained that access, affordability and quality of mental health care should be an important direction that we should take in the context of our strategic blueprint for health.
Sale noted that FNPH Kware hosts a regional Women and Children Drug Dependent Treatment Center catering to the population in northern states as the first of its kind established by the Federal Government.
The center concentrates on women and children drugs drug-dependent victims coupled with the stigma always faced by patients on accessing such services even though they exist in some hospitals.
According to him, the hospital also provided integrated health services, providing treatment on forms of illnesses with standard laboratory services and other tests besides mental health services as an effort to reduce the stigma associated with such facilities.
