Pride Beyond the Pain of Walking 100km.
26 July 2020COVID-19 and some mental health aspects.
18 January 2021Ban Chaining! Stop Torture! Prevent Destitution! Challenging and Changing Attitudes through Accessible Mental Health Services.
Misconceptions, stigma and discrimination sustain attitudes to mental health illness that cause chaining, torture and destitution of mentally ill people. As in many parts of the world, inaccessible mental health services in Nigeria, worsen the situation of disadvantaged people who become mentally ill. The BanStopPrevent Campaign is purposed to challenge the attitudes underpinning the chaining, torture and destitution that mentally ill people are susceptible to in Nigeria.
Join the Conversation for Action.
Kickstarting the campaign this Saturday 29th August 2020, the Zoom conference aims to bring experts in mental health and experienced with the various efforts especially by non-governmental organisations to improve access to Mental Health Services in Nigeria. The conference will allow for the sharing of knowledge and ideas that are effective towards changing attitudes to mental disorders, within families and communities.
The key objective is to identify and campaign against certain unwholesome practices in mental health care settings, reduce specific cruel and degrading practices in care settings, as well as raise awareness about social inequalities, such as homelessness, that accompany and complicate mental health disorders in our community.
Overall, the campaign the conference is spearheading aims to improve understanding of mental disorders, reduce the stigma around them and help mobilise opinion towards improved health and social care provision in Nigeria.
With Dr. Femi Adebajo, a Consultant Psychiatrist with the NHS in the United Kingdom, moderating; we have assembled a cross section of experts with a range of health and allied care professionals from diverse backgrounds and with a wide range of local and international experience. They include:
- Dr Julian Eaton, Public Health Psychiatrist & Associate Professor at London School of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene.
- Dr Chris Piwuna, Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer, Jos University University Teaching Hospital.
- Mr Folajaiye Kareem, Clinical Psychologist, Training Lead, MANI, Director of Psychological Services Asido Foundation.
The collective wisdom of this multidisciplinary group of panellists, added to the free-flowing deliberations of the lay public, will add to a growing clamour for improved service delivery to this vulnerable group of individuals and their friends, families and the rest of society.