Nigeria urgently needs a Mental Health Act

, was enacted in 1916. In 1958, the Lunacy Ordinance was revised to provide medical practitioners and magistrates with authority to imprison mentally ill people. However, these laws have not been amended more than five decades after. In 2003, the National Assembly introduced a Mental Health Bill. Unfortunately, the bill was dropped in 2009 after making little progress for more than six years.

In 2013, a new bill was introduced as part of the National Policy for Mental Health Services Delivery. The aim was to establish the foundations for delivering care to people with mental, neurological, and substance addiction difficulties. Due to a lack of support, the new bill has yet to come to fruition.of Nigerians with mental health needs cannot access care due to several factors.

Mental healthcare must be treated as an essential part of primary care. However, this is impossible in the absence of reformed laws and policies. Some African countries like South Africa, Uganda, and Ghana have recognised mental health as an essential element of primary care. Mental health diseases should be treated the same way as any other illness covered by primary care.

It is most successful when mental health integration into primary care is supported and included in the health policy and legislative framework with sufficient resources and good governance. The WHO set afor 50 per cent of countries to adopt or revise their mental health laws in conformity with regional and international human rights standards by 2020, as part of the world body’s mental health action plan 2013–2020. Nigeria has fallen behind this goal.

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