Psychiatrist raises alarm over rise in child mental illness

A psychiatrist at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Dr. Oluwayemi Ogun has raised alarm over the rise in child mental illness. She raised the alarm during a workshop on  child and adolescent psychiatry in Lagos. Ogun  who is also the co-ordinator of the Child Mental Health Service Centre at the hospital said child mental […]

A psychiatrist at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Dr. Oluwayemi Ogun has raised alarm over the rise in child mental illness.
She raised the alarm during a workshop on  child and adolescent psychiatry in Lagos.
Ogun  who is also the co-ordinator of the Child Mental Health Service Centre at the hospital said child mental illness has been growing exponentially noting that focus should be early treatment of the illness before it becomes chronic, a situation she said, could pose great medical challenges to the country soon.
 According to her, between November 2015 and February 2016, the centre recorded 189 patients. She listed causes of the illness in children as: Neglect of children by their parents, children from separated homes, a child from unwanted pregnancy, speech defect, those that are performing poorly in school, bullied children, abused children and particularly , children whose parents used to fight each other regularly.
She called on the federal government to pay attention to the country’s primary healthcare programme in order to reduce the level of illness among children and  youth, adding “People should know that 50% of adult illness used to start at age 14 or less. So, childhood period should be focus of the government”
The psychiatrist said children who are inmates  of Internally Displaced Person’s  camps in the northern part of the country, could end up becoming a problem for the country , if government fails to treat their trauma.
She advised pregnant women to avoid drinking concoction or engaging in self medication to avoid ailments that could lead to mental illness in their children when they grow up.