By Lucky Isibor
The Edo State Commissioner for Youth and Humanitarian Affairs Hon. Zubairu Dada Abubakar has appealed to the Inosezilo Family Foundation (IFF) to collaborate with more Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in its advocacy for the formulation of mental health policy for Edo State.
The Inosezilo Family Foundation has been leading a group of CSOs and the Centre for Gender Studies, University of Benin in a collaborative effort to advocate for the formulation of a mental health policy for Edo State. The IFF in its commitment to the realisation of this goal commisioned a research, “Mental Health Survey” in Edo State, sent out questionnaires to complete the survey and released a report on its findings and made recommendations to government.
The Commissioner thanked the IFF-led coalition for the efforts they put into the research. While acknowledging the impact of the team’s collaborative efforts, Hon. Abubakar urged the team to collaborate with more CSOs and other stakeholders in the mental health subsector. He assured the IFF led team that the ministry will study the report and feed them back.
Presenting the report to the Commissioner, the Executive Director of IFF, Abraham Obode thanked the Honorable Commissioner for his continued support and for granting the team access to the Youth Council Platform to administer the survey.
Obode informed the Commissioner and his team in the ministry that the report has been finalised, with a link generated for public access which will allow people to read, comment, and download the document. He also pointed out that the research facilitated the drafting of a mental health policy to address existing gaps in mental health services within the state.
Obode also emphased the imperatives of incorporating mental health components into all state intervention programmes such as Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Child Early Forced Marriage (CEFM), reintegration of returned migrants, and support for individuals living with mental health challenges.
Obode urged members of the public and other stakeholders to make use of the link-
https://bit.ly/EdoStateMentalHealthResearch – to access the report on the research findings.