URGES ALL TO COMMIT TO IMPROVING PEOPLE’S MENTAL HEALTH
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare Prof. Muhammad Pate has urged all to ensure the promotion of good mental health of people around them to reduce the risk of diseases in the country.
He made the call on the commemoration of the 2023 World Mental Health Day, themed ‘Mental health is a universal human right’’ in Abuja.
Prof. Pate noted that People living with mental health conditions have a treatment gap ranging between 55% and 90% in high and low-income countries, accounting for about 15% of the global disease burden.
This according to him contributes about 28% to the Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) arising from non-communicable diseases.
While speaking, the minister said averting these ugly health challenges requires the effort of all at various levels to ensure that people around them are mentally sound
Mental and physical health are important and interrelated components of overall well-being. Evidence has shown that depression increases the risk for many types of physical health problems, particularly chronic conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer among others. Similarly, the presence of disease conditions such as HIV /AIDS, Tuberculosis, Neglected Tropical Diseases, and other infectious diseases such as COVID-19 can increase the risk for mental health conditions.Having a mental health condition should not be the reason to deprive a person of their human rights or to exclude them from decisions about their health. Yet people with mental health conditions continue to experience a wide range of human rights violations globally.Regardless of who you are or where you are, everyone has a right to the highest attainable standard of mental health.
October 10th is a day set aside globally to create awareness about Mental Health challenges aimed at setting an agenda to finding a lasting solution through collaboration.
