The House of Representatives Committee on Specialty Healthcare chaired by Hon. Dr. Alex Egbona held an interactive session with stakeholders on the need to prioritize and implement the provisions of the Mental Health Act to tackle suicide and suicidality in Nigeria. Stakeholders from the government, neuropsychiatric hospitals, professional associations, the development sector, and civil society were in attendance.
The chair of the Committee noted that this was an opportunity to address suicidal tendencies in Nigeria and ensure evidence-based mental health care for Nigerians. He stated the mandate of the Committee was to evaluate the content of the Mental Health Act and provide legislative support to ensure that the Act is well implemented for the benefit of Nigerians. He passionately shared the desire Committee’s objective of determining the visibility of efficient rehabilitative centres in Nigeria.
CHELD, represented by its executive director of CHELD, Prof. Cheluchi Onyemelukwe thanked the Committee for its efforts towards ensuring that the Act is implemented for the benefit of all Nigerians, especially Nigerians with key mental health conditions. She made several recommendations to the Committee to this end.
She noted the need for establishing the Mental Health Department as required under the Act to provide direction for efforts towards implementing the Act. She made practical proposals towards accomplishing this.
Further, she suggested some modalities and recommendations for the full implementation of the Mental Health Act, as well as the decriminalization of attempted suicide in Nigeria.
She called attention to the need to decriminalise attempted suicide in Nigeria. She offered CHELD’s significant expertise and support to the Committee with the drafting of the Bill to decriminalize Attempted suicide in Nigeria. She also emphasized the importance of research and deploying a phased approach to implementing the Act.
A holistic implementation of the Act will result in remarkable growth in Nigerians’ mental health and well-being. It is important to note that Nigeria will be the first country to contextualize the MHGap, taking cognizance of the Nigerian reality. The legislative strides are laudable and a reminder that better days are ahead.
