Musa Affos (Rhapsodi)

The Taraba state specialist hospital has on  Tuesday organise a workshop to sensitize workers in regards to the world Mental Health Day.

The team for this year's mental health day is "Mental health for all greater investment-Greater access”.

The workshop which was held at the conference Hall of the hospital in Jalingo is aimed at creating awareness, consciousness about  mental health and the need to have a healthy mental society was attended by the Chief Medical Director of the specialist hospital, Dr Alex J. Maiangwa, Head Of  the Mental department & C-MAC, Dr. Dashe Dasogot, Doctors, Nurses, psychologists and other state actors in the medical field.



While giving his speech, the chief medical director of the specialist hospital, Dr Alex J. Maiangwa said Mental illness are curable and there's a need to create more awareness about the ailment and that's is why he made it a point of duty to celebrate world Mental Health day annually so as to sensitise the health workers and also general public.

Dr. Maiangwa frowned at how mentally ill people are stigmatized and treated badly. According to him, they are also humans with a few issues that can be solved amicably. He also revealed that a rehabilitation center is under construction in the hospital as part of measures to contain the menace of the illness.

Counting the success recorded so far, Dr. Dashe Dasogot, Head Of  the Mental health department & also the C-MAC of the Hospital said several cases have been successfully treated in the hospital and people do come from other states for treatment.

Dr. Dasogot said the rise in mental illness is alarming but with relatively poor awareness, and also thanked the CMD for allowing the sensitization to be held yearly to create more awareness about it. He encouraged the use of media and other means to create awareness.


While presenting a lecture Mr Alfa kaseem, a nurse with the hospital, spoke about Mental health for all greater investment-Greater access.


He also outlined some early signs of mental disorders such as frequent sadness, persistent violation of constituted authorities and lots more he also emphasised the need to talk to someone close to you once you start noticing the aforementioned signs and lots more. Mr. Kaseem also revealed that mental illness is like any other disease as many world leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln were once victims of mental illness.

Earlier, while giving her introduction, Miss Kucheli Hope Kobiba, a Clinical psychologist, stressed the fact that Mental health is an integral part of our lives, which also affects our families, society and the world at large, yet we pay no heed to it.


She further stated that Mental health disorders like any other illness is not a respecter of our age, socioeconomic status or race, so it will continue to affect us if we keep treating it like a friendly foe, we need to fight it like the enemy it is, and to do that we have to be intentional about our mental health, understand it, and attack it accordingly. Because we can not fight what we do not understand.

She reveals that about 450 million people live with mental disorders that are among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide (WHO’s World Health Report, 2001). One person in every four will be affected by a mental disorder at some stage of their lives while mental, neurological and substance use disorders exact a high toll on health outcomes, accounting for 13% of the total global burden of disease (WHO, 2012). 




Accorhding to her research, the World Health Organization (2018) states that every 40 seconds someone dies by suicide. Annually, this represents over 800 000 people that die by suicide, which is more than people dying by war and homicide put together.




The theme for the year and the lecture topic by alpha is "Mental health for all greater investment-Greater access