COVID-19 and mental health in Nigeria: Three proposals for integration mental health services into COVID-19 response

Abstract

The COVID-19 disease is a global pandemic which in its over twelve months of known existence has affected over 89 million people worldwide leading to psychological and social sequelae in the affected individuals, their caregivers, health workers and the general public. Nigeria seems to have at best, a skeletal and non-structured integration of mental health professionals into her COVID-19 response team, both at the state and the federal levels. This article proposes three (3) models for integrating a multidisciplinary mental health team into the management of infected individuals, their caregivers as well as health care workers, while taking into consideration, the human and material resources available for mental health in the country as well as the already existing pressure on the available resources.  These models include a mental health team participatory model, a multi-level training model and a multi-sectoral collaboration model. It is hoped that a careful and strategic integrating of these three models will help to create a sustainable framework for tackling the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic` in a developing country like Nigeria.