Amplifying Mental Health Awareness on Digital Space

The need to avoid stigmatising persons living with mental disorders is the force behind Africavoiceshq.com, an online media dedicated to spreading awareness on mental health. The publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Ademiluyi Anthony Adesola and his partner on the campaign project, Chibuzo Emelogu spoke with Yinka Olatunbosun on the initiative and their future plans.

Ademiluyi Anthony Adesola, a graduate of English and Literary Studies at the University of Lagos was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2005. This was a life-changing discovery as he had to deal with stigmatisation that always seemed to accompany it. Initially, it was a struggle for him in the first few years. Those are the delicate years. It has been reported that suicides are closely related to psychiatric disease, with depression, substance use disorders and psychosis.

Persons with mental illness often perceive negative attitudes among the general public and experience discrimination in their everyday life. Many who attempt suicide are those who feel stigmatised by people around them. Mental health stigma can come from family, friends, coworkers, and society at large. Sadly, stigma against a person living with a mental health condition can make his or her condition worse and make it hard to recover. A person may also be less likely to seek help if they live with stigma.

In this electronic chat, Ademiluyi revealed some of his personal struggles. “I have been stigmatised by family and friends which has made me more or less hide in my closet and engage in acts of self-pity. Things changed in February this year when I noticed a gap in mental health reportage in Nigeria. The subject is still being discussed in hush tones and it’s largely a taboo. I decided in partnership with my friend Chibuzo Emelogu to tell human interests stories around the subject in order to give a loud voice to mental health patients in Africa to speak up on the issue,’’ he said.

Although he keeps winning the personal battle with stigma, he noted that many other mental health patients still isolate themselves, due to low self-esteem, feelings of hopelessness, while dealing with discrimination.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. It could affect anyone: a family member, a friend, a colleague or a neighbour. A sudden change in one’s mental state can happen due to change in circumstances. Many who die by suicide had personal histories of mental health crisis.

“The high rate of suicide was also a motivating factor as we feel that suicide can be prevented if more love is shown to the patients and our own unique way of showing this love is by creating a platform for patients to boldly air their views and we give room for those who wish not to disclose their real identities as we understand the harsh reality of the societal backlash,’’ he continued.

In addition to social media handles, Ademiluyi and his friend have taken the mental health awareness campaign to radio stations and psychiatric homes.

“We have received support from some mental health experts both at home and abroad who write for us on mental health issues from an expert’s perspective. Some local and foreign NGOs on mental health have also reached out to us too. A couple of mental health professionals have sent supportive messages to us,’’ he added.

Although he and his friend are strengthened by the positive comments on their website, he looks forward to building a strong brand that is recognised as promoting the cause for mental health patients.

“We are not looking at becoming the next Linda Ikeji or Nairaland; our satisfaction is that our niche audience gives us feedback from time to time on some of our stories and articles. That for us is highly satisfying.”

His project partner, Chibuzo Emelogu is a dub poet who believes in poetry as a very effective tool in combating mental health challenges.

“It is akin to music which is the food for troubled and happy souls,’’ he explained. “Poetry especially when performed is a soothing balm to many mentally challenged people. Permit me to go Biblical. After the rejection of King Saul by God, an evil spirit possessed him. He only got relief when David sang to his heart’s delight in the palace.’’

Describing Ademiluyi as a ‘good friend and brother,’ Emelogu revealed that upon his friend’s diagnosis, he still excelled academically and even secured some good jobs.

Right now, the need to cultivate strategic partnership for the mental health awareness campaign is on the front burner for both of them.

“We want to strike strategic partnerships with celebrities both in Nigeria and the diaspora who have an interest in mental health, corporate bodies who back mental health initiatives and international donor agencies who support mental health initiatives,” he said.

The vision of  Africa Voices Hq  is to report human interest stories from the 54 countries of the African Continent as well as the Diaspora as it affects Africans. In future, the digital media will have bureau offices in Lagos, Abuja, Accra, Abidjan, Pretoria, Nairobi, Kampala, Cairo, London, Berlin, Paris, Washington DC, New York, California, Ottawa, Toronto, Canberra and Abu Dhabi.

“We also hope to do advocacy work by lobbying western countries and large pharmaceutical companies for the provision of free drugs to the indigent African mental health patients. HIV drugs have been free in Nigeria since 2006 as a result of the noble work done by HIV activists and we believe that the expensive antipsychotics should either be free as well or at least highly subsidised. We are concerned that many impoverished patients relapse simply because they cannot afford these drugs. We will ultimately add advocacy to our work so that we can live up to our slogan of being the voice for the mentally challenged in Africa,” he explained.

The website was launched in February this year with the aim to de-stigmatise the ailment as mental illness that is manageable.

“We get stories from mentally challenged outpatients of the different psychiatric hospitals in Nigeria and have their permission to publish them with anonymous identities. We also get well informed articles on mental health from my partner who doubles as the Editor-in-Chief and mental health experts like psychiatrists and psychologists. We also have a team of freelance journalists all across the country who file stories for us from the outpatients,” Emelogu revealed.

The non-profit website will depend on donations, grants, the sale of shirts with anti-stigmatization messages with a strategic partnership with celebrities, performance poetry concerts to amplify the message of love for the mentally challenged.

“We intend to build a full-fledged centre that will give warmth to the mentally challenged in some key cities in the country starting from Lagos. There will be regular poetry readings and we will train some of the outpatients with skills that will make them take advantage of employment opportunities in the gig economy as poverty eradication or reduction is key for the patients to effectively live with the mental health challenge.

“We also plan to influence the public policy in Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world with regards to mental health, share free food and medications to some of the indigent patients so that they can always be mentally stable and contribute towards society,” he said.

Africa Voices HQ is in the process of setting up an Editorial Advisory Board comprising many seasoned psychiatrists based at home and in the diaspora to give an editorial direction.

“Dr. John Akinbote, a Chicago based psychiatrist and academic and Prof Taiwo Sheikh of Ahmadu Bello University are on the Editorial Board and we are talking to many others as well. The board will be formally launched soon.

“We are also in serious talks with some international donor agencies and mental health startups based abroad for a partnership,” he said.