Community Psychiatry Care: An Urgent Need in Nigeria

Abstract

Modupeoluwa Omotunde Soroye,1,2 Obinna O Oleribe,3 Simon D Taylor-Robinson4 1School of Public Health, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria; 2Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria; 3Klamath Tribal Health & Family Services, Klamath Falls, OR, 97601, USA; 4Department of Surgery and Cancer, St Mary’s Hospital Campus, Imperial College London, London, W2 1NY, UKCorrespondence: Obinna O Oleribe Email [email protected]: Nigeria’s mental health policy was formulated in 1991, but it did not make adequate provision for community-based psychiatric care. Since there are only seven government-owned psychiatry facilities in Nigeria and these are always overwhelmed, there is the need to overhaul the existing policy and emphasise the urgency of a shift from inpatient psychiatric mental healthcare towards a community-based multidisciplinary psychiatric healthcare system.Keywords: community psychiatry, Nigeria, depression, mental health

Keywords

• community psychiatry
• nigeria
• depression
• mental health