By: Aisha Sale and Babagana Bukar Wakil, Yarwa
World Health Organisation has lamented that the mental health disorder cases have doubled in Boko Haram ravaged Borno State.
WHO said this while handing over a renovated psychiatric hospital to the Borno state Government.
According to the organisation, the hospital was built in 1976 with 48 bed capacity and had served parts of Northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
WHO’s Public Health Officer, Emergency Programme, Northeast, Dr. Henry Okoro-Nwanja, said the rate of common mental health disorders has doubled to as much as 20% comparatively because of violent conflict in the state.
Okoro-Nwanja, while stating that People with severe mental disorders are particularly vulnerable, lamented that most of the affected population in the state will continue to suffer from a wide range of mental disorders even after the emergency and acute trauma phase is over.
He however advised the state government to scale up mental health interventions to meet urgent needs.