…advocate friendly workplace
By Rauf Oyewole
Psychologists have expressed concerns over the increasing factors that are contributing to mental health problems at the workplace.
Speaking at a virtual meeting Thursday, organised by the North East Regional Coordinator of the Young African Leaders Initiative RLC Alumni Association, Nigeria, Dr. Peter Ajanson in commemoration of this year's World Mental Health, a Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Yetunde Awobode urged employers to pay attention to the mental health of their employees.
According to her, many employees are being exposed to mental health problems at the workplace due to different factors like; job insecurity, workloads, underpayment, incessant job swaps, lack of training to carry out assignments and bullying from superiors.
“We need to pay more attention to mental health issues in our workplace because a health employee is a productive staff. We need to make our workplace more friendly for people to work. A workplace shouldn't be a place of anxiety. We have seen many people coming down with different cases of mental health problems and mostly these are being recorded at the workplace,” she said.
Also, Dr. Tunde Masseyferguson Ojo, National Coordinator, National Mental Health Programme, Department of Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, spoke on the National Mental Health Act and the rights to quality and accessible treatment of mental health issues.
Ojo said that although unfavourable government policies may trigger mental health conditions of Nigerians and when this persists, could exacerbate the health conditions of the citizens. According to him, “We cannot shy away from the role of government economic policies –particularly those that are not too favourable to the masses. People have expectations and when this is not being achieved, they tend to be developing mental problems.
“Although, we have to acknowledge the resilience of Nigerians but we must be careful of what we do and put our minds. We should know that our mental health matters,” he said.
Ojo said that mental health is one of the most stigmatised in the health sector. He added that the people’s failure to monitor their mental health has fueled the rate of suicide globally.
He said that 18 states of Nigeria have created mental health desks while others were being encouraged to do so as stated in the National Mental Health Act.
In his remarks, Peter Ajanson, a medical doctor, encouraged workers to use their working hours judiciously, saying that the most productive hours of the day are spent in the workplace.
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