Some mental health experts have identified factors limiting effective suicide prevention strategies in Nigeria and proffered solutions on the way forward.
The experts spoke at a virtual webinar organised by the Nigerian Mental Health, an NGO, in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Health, on the topic: “Understanding the New Mental Health Policy & Suicide Prevention Framework” on Friday in Lagos.
The webinar was organized in commemoration of the World Health Day celebrated annually on April 7.
Speaking, Founder, Sotonye Okolombo Mental Health Foundation, Ms Sotonye Okolombo, said that family support and understanding were key to suicide prevention and survival of an individual with mental health challenges/suicidal behaviours.
Okolombo listed inadequate finances, lack of social support and fear of stigmatisation as some of other factors limiting suicide prevention as well as help seeking among people with mental health challenges.
According to her, lack of family support and understanding were her major challenges when she battled with mental health conditions for over 20 years.
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“Many people with mental health challenges and suicidal ideation are not seeking help or speaking out due to fear of stigmatisation, lack of family support and financial capability to pay for mental health services.
“I suffered mental health challenges for over 20 years; which started when I was 17 years old till last year (2023) in my 38 years of age, when I was healed.
“In my case, lack of family support and understanding was a big challenge.
“Initially, my family did not understand what I was going through because it comes and after sometimes it stops.
“This continued to the extent that some members of my family started saying ‘I was faking it.
“Sometimes, my siblings will be stigmatising and laughing at me.
“As a result, I was not given adequate care and support by my family at the initial stage, though, my parents later realised that I have underlying mental health conditions.
“During that period, I was tired of life and the only reason I didn’t kill myself was because am a Christian and I learnt from the Bible that people who kill themselves go to hell,” Okolombo said.
Okolombo, therefore, emphasised the need for increased community education on mental health, saying that some communities still believed that people with mental health challenges were being tormented by some evil spirits.
She added that education campaigns would not only help to stimulate community/family support, but would also help to stop all sorts of stigmatisation against mental health.
A professor of Psychiatry, Olayinka Atilola, described suicide as a “process”, saying that one doesn’t just wake up to commit suicide without having been with some prior suicidal thoughts and ideations.
Olayinka, a Senior Lecturer at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), said that before committing suicide, the individual would have had suicidal ideation for one month, two months, one year or more as the case might be.
According to him, suicide can be prevented with possible intervention strategies.
Olayinka explained that the recently launched New Mental Health Policy and Suicide Prevention Framework contained information on suicide management, intervention and prevention strategies.
“Suicide doesn’t just happen.
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“Before an individual dies by suicide, there must be some processes that lead to it.
“Before suicide, there must have been some suicidal thoughts and ideation for certain periods.
“Some people would have bought snipper and kept it for a while before finally using it to commit suicide.
“Some would have kept knives in their rooms for days, weeks or months before the conclusion to take away their lives.
“So, suicide can be prevented during those periods of suicide pathway,” he said.
The National Coordinator, National Mental Health Programme, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Tunde Ojo, called for integration of mental health services into primary, secondary and tertiary health institutions to increase access to care.
Ojo said that to make mental health services available, accessible and affordable, it should be integrated across other disease programmes like the HIV or Cancer programmes.
According to him, everyone has a role to play in the prevention of suicide as contained in the Suicide Prevention Strategy Framework.
NAN
