FG Reiterates Commitment To Mental Health Act Legalization

The Federal Government has expressed its commitment towards the implementation of new mental health acts for the protection of the human rights of mentally challenged persons.

The Minister for Health and Human Service, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate made the disclosure at a stakeholder dialogue organized by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to commemorate the 2023 World Mental Health Day held on Friday in Abuja.

Pate stressed that to effectively implement the new act, mentally challenged persons (patients) would be mainstreamed into activities that relate to them.

The executive secretary of NHRC, Tony Ojukwu (SAN) in his address stated that under the principle for the protection of persons with mental health illness and the improvement of mental health, care adopted by the UN general,” all persons have the rights to the best available mental health care, which shall be part of the health and social care system.”

This, he said, has not been achieved but is being pursued by the government.

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According to Ojukwu, it is in efforts to raise the bar and consciousness about mental and related rights and to mobilize agencies to discharge government international human rights commitments in relation to mental health that the dialogue was organized.

In her goodwill message, the Minister of Women Affairs, Ms Uju Kennedy, urged for proper incorporation of mental health patients into the Nigeria National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for better medical services and affordability for the mentally challenged.

Chime Asonye of the Nigerian Mental Health (NMH), a civil society group, urged for decriminalization of suicide in Nigeria

According to Asonye victims of mental health who attempt suicide would rather need help than be punished, he, therefore called for a repeal of the law of suicide.

The 2023 Nigeria Mental Health Act not only establishes human rights protections for patients and promotes community-based care, it also addresses mental health issues as well as other matters such as advocacy prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.