Drug Abuse: Mental health expert harps on welfare of citizens

Drug Abuse: Mental health expert harps on welfare of citizens
By Olanrewaju Akojede
Ban
Lagos, June 29, 2018 (NAN) A mental health expert, Dr Eniabitobi Kuyinu, has called on the Federal Government to provide social welfare security for Nigerians to discourage citizens from indulging in drug abuse.
Kuyinu made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of an International Mental Health Conference on Friday in Lagos.
He said that the federal government’s ban on Codeine and Tramadol might not be the solution to its being abused.
NAN reports that the International Mental Health Conference is organised by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Educator USA/Africa.
The NGO seeks to provide information and enlightenment programmes toward managing mental health, as well as ways to avoid depression and suicide.
The three-day conference had participants drawn from across Nigeria, with delegates from government parastatal agencies including the Prisons, Police, Clergy and Lagos State Government officials.
The international facilitators included Dr Dan Sartor, Vice President, Integration, Richmont Graduate University, U.S.; Dr Sonja Sutherland, Director of Institutional Effectiveness, and Mrs Andrea Jones, President, International Parenting Institute, U.S.
Others are Dr Yolanda Fountain, Founder, Play Wellness, U.S., and Mrs Renee Bryan.
Kuyinu, who is the Founder of Educator, U.S.A/Africa, said that government should do more than banning the abused products but also improve on the social well being of citizens.
According to her, this will make people not to be seeking alternatives.
“Dealing with drug abuse should be multifaceted, it is not only by banning; experience has shown that all over the world, once a substance is banned, there is increase in demand.
“These banned substance becomes hot cake and attractive; however, what the government needs to do in this regard is to engage the citizens socially, as well as create social awareness.
“Parents should endeavour to take care of their children; nowadays, things are hard out there, both parents are fighting for survival, working from dawn to dusk leaving the children vulnerable.
“We are also in a state now in Africa that we are losing our identity, our societal values; we are losing our identity of being our neighbours keeper and caring for ourselves,” she said.
Kuyinu said that social media abuse was also impacting negatively on the social interaction of many.
According to her, many people now prefer to source for solutions online rather than seeking physical help.
“The social media is also not helpful to us, most people now communicate through phones, no physical interaction; people now keep to themselves; we need to start talking about these things.
“Technology should not take away our physical social interaction, western culture must not be a problem to us; this adoption of foreign culture is one of the reasons for the increasing numbers of suicide.
“Government should also fight corruption because a case where someone stole billions of Naira while others are impoverished means we don’t care about others.
“The abuse of drugs does not stand alone; there are certain factors that are contributing to it which include economic, social and physiological problems and government can help fight the economic factor,” she said. (NAN)
KOJE /VIV/MST
Editing by Vivian Ihechu/Muhammad Suleiman Tola