By VICTOR NWACHUKWU

A report by the World Health Organization, WHO, says 20 million Nigerians, representing 20 per cent of the country?s population, live with mental health conditions.

Dr. Azubike Aliche, the Secretary, Board of Trustees of the Nigeria-American Institute for Mental Health (NAIMH), said this at a mental health GAP Action training programme organized by the institute, in Owerri, on Tuesday.

The training was organized in collaboration with the Centre for Social Awareness, Advocacy and Ethics (CSAAE), a Non-Governmental Organization.

Aliche said that the training, sponsored by the Nigeria Mental Health Practitioners (NMHP) USA Incorporated, would equip non-psychiatrists to be able to conduct screens to identify mental health symptoms and work with people to manage those symptoms.

He described as ?alarming? the caseload of depression in Nigeria, which he said, was reportedly the highest in the world and called for deliberate efforts to change the narrative.

?Available reports indicate that only 10 per cent of people living with mental illness have access to care in Nigeria and this has to change.?

Speaking, an Executive Member of the NMHP USA, Rev. Sr. Josephine Nzeke, said that the four-day training would capture a total of 25 health care professionals, five from each of five council areas of Imo in its pilot stage.

She said that the trainees would return to their different community health centres after the training to provide grassroots services.

The state?s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Chioma Egu, described the mental health crisis as a ?global challenge? and called on the institute to leverage government?s mental health policies.

One of the training facilitators, Mr. Justice Ulunta, of the Federal University of Allied Health Sciences, Enugu, called for the allocation of adequate resources by the government for the training of mental health experts and equipping of facilities.

Also, CSAAE?s Chief Operations Officer, Miss Francisca Ekwonu, said that the organisation was open to effective collaborations to tackle the challenge head on.

?As Nigerians grapple with hardship and young people are subjected to information overload, it is part of our mission, through our C-Health program, to propagate mental health support at the grassroots.

?Our toll free line 08009001000 is open and our mental health support specialist will be there to provide support?, she said. (NAN)

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