Before the last two years, drug abuse and use of hard drugs was at a manageable level in the South-East. Before this period, those in the habit of drug abuse engaged in excessive intake of medications; while those in hard drug use indulged in taking the ubiquitous cannabis sativa, locally known as “Igbo”.
Cannabis sativa was very popular among the hard drug users to the extent that in communities during wee hours, one or two spots would be very notorious to the smell of this local intoxicating weed.
For two years running, new and more active intoxicating psycho-stimulating substances have emerged and continued to flood the South-East with the latest being crystal methamphetamine, locally known as “Mkpurumili”.
The activeness of mkpurumili even in slight intake had made it the most sought after and used currently by those engaging in hard drug use in the region. This development persists notwithstanding mkpurumili’s capacity to damage or negatively re-set one’s brain after a few intakes.
The Executive Director of Bensther Development Foundation, Mr Nonso Maduka, noted that the country would do well by investing in treatment of drug-abuse-related illnesses and equipping health institutions and organisations to stem the tide.
Maduka, whose NGO deals with advocacy against drug abuse and hard drug use, said: “Nigerians and indeed those in authority should see drug abuse and hard drug use as an issue of public health concern and be empathetic to our brothers and sisters suffering mental health challenges. Our people with mental health challenges should be fully rehabilitated and re-integrated into the society to continue their normal lives”.
The Federal Government working pro-actively in stemming mental challenges among Nigerians, has continued to invest heavily in adopting best international practices., which have led to huge investment at Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu.
The Federal Government, within two years, had re-positioned the managerial, clinical capacity and accessibility of the only and stand-alone neuropsychiatric facility within the South-East.
The Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Monday Igwe, noted that all manners of mental health challenges, both neuro-dysfunctions and drug abuse/hard drug use-induced mental illnesses, are curable and patients under these conditions fully rehabilitated and re-integrated into the society.
Igwe noted that viewing it from the pro-active and best international practices perspectives, the Federal Government had funded and encouraged the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, to deliver on its mandates to Nigerians, especially those living in the South-East, some parts of South-South and North-Central.
The medical director revealed that the Federal Government had recently funded four critical intervention projects to push up the capacity and day-to-day service delivery of the hospital through its COVID-19 intervention package in the hospital.
According to him, “we really appreciate President Muhammadu Buhari for bolstering healthcare delivery by these interventions meant to serve Nigerians.”
He said: “First, is the recently-completed advanced molecular test laboratory that has capacity to take test and analyse samples of 100 persons per day. The advanced molecular test laboratory is meant for COVID-19 test in the hospital as well as other virus and high precision clinical tests, which before now the hospital had to source such services in sister federal hospitals in the zone at a fee. So, with the advanced molecular laboratory, we can conduct instant COVID-19 and other tests on our patients and get quick results to attend to them on time.
“Second, the Federal Government has completed the 10-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) building. The ICU building had been equipped with the state-of-the-art medical equipment to attend to emergencies and intensive care situations at the hospital. This development has put the hospital at par with other tertiary health institutions in the country in that direction. The third item in the intervention – Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) provision; was a serious burden to the hospital before the Federal Government intervention, as daily the hospital spends scarce resources purchasing it at exorbitant prices. The fourth intervention is the ongoing construction of a 20-bed Isolation Centre in the hospital meant for isolation of patients suffering infectious diseases such as COVID-19, Lassa fever, Ebola etc”.
Contributing, the Head of Clinical Services of the hospital, Dr Vincent Ubochi, noted that the Federal Government, through the hospital management, had invested in vital and state-of-the-art clinical instruments/equipment meant for neuropsychiatric care. Ubochi noted that the hospital management had procured psychological instruments and installed close circuit television cameras for psychotherapy in the clinical psychology unit.
He said: “The hospital within the past 18 months had procured an electroconvulsive therapy machine and anaesthetic equipment. The hospital also procured an electroencephalogram machine for management of patients with epilepsy challenge. We have purchased a state-of-the-art ambulance to assist in clinical emergencies as well as other two utility vehicles.
“All these modern machines and equipment have assisted the clinical staff to give the needed medical attention as quickly as possible in their day-to-day duties. It also checked frustration and haplessness of clinical staff, when they see that the patients under them are not progressing in their treatment, due to the lack of vital machines/equipment to work with. Through these provisions, the hospital has helped in checking brain drain and retaining those professionals with passion to see mentally-challenged patients get well and fit again”.
In the same vein, Head of Training and Research of the hospital, Dr Nneka Unaogu, noted that the hospital management had emphasised capacity building of staff and in this direction organised in-house training for staff of many departments with external professional resource persons invited to facilitate such training. Staff also have benefited from outside training and attendance to conferences and workshops within the country.
“Our resident doctors are also sponsored to update and revision courses to enable them to qualify for examinations. A consultant Community Physician and Bio-statistician was engaged to train all interested staff of the hospital on writing of research, manuscripts, proposals, dissertations, guide on road map to publishing academic journals and books as well as interpretation and analysis of data. The hospital, every six months, hosts and sponsors mock examinations for all psychiatric resident doctors undergoing training in South-East Nigeria. Currently, the hospital has brought on board internship training programme; got accreditation of residency programmes in two colleges and got accreditation of Post Basic School of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing,” Unaogu said.
In a new move to make mental healthcare accessible, the Federal Government, through the hospital management, is already in the process of completing 15 community mental health outposts in the 15 senatorial zones in South-East. The community mental health outposts had been designed to be three in each of the five states in the zone and scattered among the senatorial zones.
Again, Igwe said that the hospital had completed the building of six of the community mental health outposts, adding that the contract for the construction of the remaining nine had been awarded. He noted that the community outpost project is a legacy project of the hospital meant to support the efforts of the Federal Government in revamping the health sector, especially mental healthcare within the South-East.
He said: “Six of such outposts have been completed and furnished as well as ready for official commissioning. Those completed are spread as follows: two in Ebonyi, one in Imo and three in Enugu State. Our clinical and administrative staff will soon be posted to the ones already completed to offer services to our people under the supervision of a dedicated consultant psychiatrist. However, serious cases at the outposts will be referred to the main hospital in Enugu, which is currently the only stand alone psychiatric health facility in South-East, Nigeria”.
Shading light on the re-vigored capacity of the hospital to deliver on its mandates, the Board Chairman of the hospital, Chief Shaban Shuaibu, said that in the last two years, the Federal Government had continued a conscious effort to increase the capacity, quality and accessibility of the hospital. Shuaibu noted that the hospital was moving to a level where Nigerians would know and have access to holistic mental health challenge cure in a short while and be re-integrated back to the society even within their communities.
The chairman said: “The Federal Government envisioned the need to change the community value system on how mental health challenged persons are attended to by making the hospital a community-focused institution; thus, checking abandonment and stigmatisation of mental health challenged persons.
The government is appealing to communities, even when the immediate families of persons with mental health challenges abandon them, not to leave them roaming around when there are mental healthcare facilities to give them needed humane medical attention, cure, rehabilitation and re-integration therapies nearby. We are also urging faith-based groups, NGOs and institutions of socialisation to join in checking addictive behaviours and taking persons with mental health challenges to specialised mental healthcare facilities around them in order to complement the Federal Government’s huge investment in the mental healthcare of Nigerians.
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