A group, Support, Comprehensive Care and Empowerment for People with Psychosocial Disabilities (SUCCEED), has called on the Federal Government to enact laws to empower people with disabilities in the country.
The group made the call at a workshop organized in collaboration with the Global Disability Inclusion (CBM) in Nigeria on Friday in Abuja. The workshop was to create regional centers of excellence in research, capacity building and outreach on psychosocial disabilities.
The Nigerian News Agency reports that SUCCEED is a research consortium from five countries in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
The consortium is coordinated by the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and funded by the Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in the UK.
Mr. Michael Njenga, Regional Advisor for Global CBM Africa, explained that the aim of the workshop was to enlighten the government and Nigerians as a whole on the challenges facing the whole of society.
“The reason we have this particular workshop is to strengthen OPPD in Nigeria, because people with psychosocial disabilities and mental health conditions are underrepresented groups.
“They faced a lot of stigma, discrimination and social exclusion. The measures to protect this group of people in society are legislative measures.
“This is to ensure that we have an enabling legal and regulatory framework that complies with international human rights standards and practices,” he said.
Njenga warned that instead of trying to discriminate against these people, the government should instead build the OPPD’s capacity and guide their status to ensure that they participate meaningfully in government processes.
He added that the government must also ensure their full and effective participation and inclusion in societies. The regional advisor also called for an increase in the budget allocation in the health sector, in order to have an impact in the area of mental health and resources to train technical experts and workers, to handle problems related to people with psychosocial disabilities.
Also speaking was Philip Ode, CBM Program Officer, who said that CBM’s role was focused on strengthening the capacity of OPPD in Nigeria.
Ode said that the group had d as one that was underrepresented among disability organization groups in Nigeria. .
“This program will involve developing and testing new models of community-based rehabilitation for people with psychosis, using the principle of working closely with people with disabilities. living the experience of psychosis at participating field sites in West and South-East Africa,” he said.
According to Ode, the workshop serves as an opportunity to start looking at how people who have been at the forefront of calling such groups, to get their voices out. listened, so that they too could have a voice in society.
In her comment, Ms. Zunzika Thole, a participant, who described the workshop as comprehensive, said that the adoption of a law and an initiative to protect this group of people in Nigeria go a long way to addressing mental health challenges. in the country.
“This program has helped us develop more comprehensive care for OPPD in other countries.
“I am already working in g with a non-governmental organization that deals with mental health, so this is a step forward in building that capacity in Nigeria, to further help people with psychosocial disabilities,” she said.
