Understanding mental illness in Nigeria: Bringing culture and traditional medicine into mental health policy

One of the major challenges in treating mental illness in Nigeria is that the health care facilities and mental health care professionals are not enough in number or well equipped to handle the burden of mental illness. There are several barriers to treatment for individual Nigerians which include the following: such as the lack of understanding of the root causes of mental illness, lack of financial support to get mental treatment, lack of social support (family, friends, neighbors), the fear of stigmatization concerning being labeled as mentally ill or being in association with the mentally ill, and the consultation of traditional native healers who may be unknowingly prolonging illness, rather than addressing and treating them due to lack of formal education and standardization of their treatments. Another barrier is the non-health nature of the mental health services in Nigeria. Traditional healers are essentially the mental health system. The elderly, women, and children are the most vulnerable groups in times of strife and hardships. Their mental well-being must be taken into account as well as their special needs in times of personal or societal crisis. ^ Nigerian mental health policy is geared toward forming a mental health system, but in actuality only a mental illness care system is the observed result of the policy. The government of Nigeria has drafted a mental health policy, yet its actual implementation into the Nigerian health infrastructure and society waits to be materialized. The limited health legislation or policy implementations tend to favor those who have access to these urban areas and the facilities' health services. Nigerians living in rural areas are at a disadvantage; many of them may not even be aware of services available to help them understand and treat mental illness. Perhaps, government driven health interventions geared toward mental illness in rural areas would reach an underserved Nigerians and Africans in general. Issues with political instability and limited infrastructure often hinder crucial financial resources and legislation from reaching the people that are truly in need of governmental leadership in regards to mental health policy.^ Traditional healers are a severely untapped resource in the treatment of mental illness within the Nigerian population. They are abundant within Nigerian communities and are meeting a real need for the mentally ill. However, much can be done to remove the barriers that prevent the integration of traditional healers within the mental health system and improve the quality of care they administer within the population. Mental illness is almost exclusively coped with through traditional medicine practices. Mobilization and education from each strata of Nigerian society and government as well as input from the medical community can improve how traditional medicine is utilized as a treatment for clinical illness and help alleviate the heavy burden of mental illness in Nigeria. Currently, there is no existing policy making structure for a working mental health system in Nigeria, and traditional healers are not taken into account in any formulation of mental health policy. Advocacy for mental illness is severely inadequate due to fear of stigmatization, with no formally recognized national of regional mental health association.^

Work instability versus mental health

This contribution is part of a research on guidance and employment in La Plata , province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) undertaken jointly by the Chairs of Preventive Psychology and Vocational Guidance, both pertaining to the course of studies for Psychology at the National University of La Plata. This research is based on four axes, namely, education-work-social policies-health. This paper shall focus around the health axis, which is not provided with placement and employment services. Some unsystematical guidance experiences from the services of Adolescence and Mental Health are currently under way in the area. Research points to the existence of new demands of psychological treatment from a population ("the new poor") afraid of losing their jobs -or even unemployed- who was not in the habit of going to the public hospital. In the casuistry explored here, people afraid of losing their jobs present more psychosomatic complexities. Local population is also analysed and the said analysis is linked with several national and international research projects.

Work instability versus mental health

This contribution is part of a research on guidance and employment in La Plata , province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) undertaken jointly by the Chairs of Preventive Psychology and Vocational Guidance, both pertaining to the course of studies for Psychology at the National University of La Plata. This research is based on four axes, namely, education-work-social policies-health. This paper shall focus around the health axis, which is not provided with placement and employment services. Some unsystematical guidance experiences from the services of Adolescence and Mental Health are currently under way in the area. Research points to the existence of new demands of psychological treatment from a population ("the new poor") afraid of losing their jobs -or even unemployed- who was not in the habit of going to the public hospital. In the casuistry explored here, people afraid of losing their jobs present more psychosomatic complexities. Local population is also analysed and the said analysis is linked with several national and international research projects.

Work instability versus mental health

This contribution is part of a research on guidance and employment in La Plata , province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) undertaken jointly by the Chairs of Preventive Psychology and Vocational Guidance, both pertaining to the course of studies for Psychology at the National University of La Plata. This research is based on four axes, namely, education-work-social policies-health. This paper shall focus around the health axis, which is not provided with placement and employment services. Some unsystematical guidance experiences from the services of Adolescence and Mental Health are currently under way in the area. Research points to the existence of new demands of psychological treatment from a population ("the new poor") afraid of losing their jobs -or even unemployed- who was not in the habit of going to the public hospital. In the casuistry explored here, people afraid of losing their jobs present more psychosomatic complexities. Local population is also analysed and the said analysis is linked with several national and international research projects.

Urban forest health survey on Roznik in Ljubljana in 2013 by two methods

Urban forest health was surveyed on Roznik in Ljubljana (46.05141 N, 14.47797 E) in 2013 by two methods: ICP Forests and UFMO. ICP Forests is most commonly used monitoring programme in Europe - the International Co-operative Programme on the Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests, which is based on systematic grid. UFMO method - Urban Forests Management Oriented method was developed in the frame of EMoNFUr Project - Establishing a monitoring network to assess lowland forest and urban plantations in Lombardy and urban forest in Slovenia (LIFE10 ENV/IT/000399). UFMO is based on non-linear transects (GPS tracks). ICP forests monitoring plots were established in July 2013 in the urban forest Roznik in Ljubljana .The 32 plots are located on sampling grid 500 × 500 m. The grid was down-scaled from the National Forest Monitoring survey, which bases on national sample grid 4 × 4 km. With the ICP forests method the following parameters for each tree within the 15 plots were gathered according to the ICP forests manual for Visual assessment of crown condition and damaging agents: tree species, percentage of defoliation, affected part of the tree, specification of affected part, location in crown, symptom, symptom specification, causal agents / factors, age of damage, damage extent, and damage extent on the trunk. With the UFMO method, the following parameters for each tree that needed sylviculture measure (felling, pruning, sanitary felling, thinning, etc.) were recorded: tree species, breast diameter, causal agent / damaging factor, GPS waypoint and GPS track. For overall picture in the urban forest health problems, also other biotic and abiotic damaging factors that did not require management action were recorded.

A genome-wide search for chromosomal loci linked to mental health wellness in relatives at high risk for bipolar affective disorder among the Old Order Amish

Bipolar affective disorder (BPAD; manic-depressive illness) is characterized by episodes of mania and/or hypomania interspersed with periods of depression. Compelling evidence supports a significant genetic component in the susceptibility to develop BPAD. To date, however, linkage studies have attempted only to identify chromosomal loci that cause or increase the risk of developing BPAD. To determine whether there could be protective alleles that prevent or reduce the risk of developing BPAD, similar to what is observed in other genetic disorders, we used mental health wellness (absence of any psychiatric disorder) as the phenotype in our genome-wide linkage scan of several large multigeneration Old Order Amish pedigrees exhibiting an extremely high incidence of BPAD. We have found strong evidence for a locus on chromosome 4p at D4S2949 (maximum genehunter-plus nonparametric linkage score = 4.05, P = 5.22 × 10−4; sibpal Pempirical value <3 × 10−5) and suggestive evidence for a locus on chromosome 4q at D4S397 (maximum genehunter-plus nonparametric linkage score = 3.29, P = 2.57 × 10−3; sibpal Pempirical value <1 × 10−3) that are linked to mental health wellness. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that certain alleles could prevent or modify the clinical manifestations of BPAD and perhaps other related affective disorders.

Mental health problems of homeless children and families: longitudinal study

Objective: To establish the mental health needs of homeless children and families before and after rehousing.