The foremost mental health care services provider in Nigeria

Raising awareness of mental health and its surrounding issues was the primary reason this column was created four years ago. Since its inception I have felt humbled and privileged in the knowledge that there are many people of both genders who read this column weekly. The numbers of e-mails received over the years have steadily increased which attest to the appetite for the topics raised in this column; and the stories readers have told of their own personal struggles with mental health problems suggest your ownership of the column.

Millions of children across America are being hospitalized for issues related to mental illness, according to a new study, accounting for roughly one-tenth of the country’s youth population.

In medical practice generally, and, specifically for psychiatry, issues of culture are of central importance. It is difficult for a psychiatrist to have an impactful career without particular interest in culture. This may explain why the bulk of our quantitative research evidence has not exhaustively communicated the burden of mental illness in Africa and proffer effective intervention programmes.