There’s a huge gap in the provision of mental health care and psychosocial support to victims of insurgency in the North East and the Federal neuropsychiatric hospitals in the region require adequate investments to provide these services.
The Presidential Committee for the North East Initiative (PCNI) made the disclosure during its second monthly coordination forum in Abuja.
The forum brings together selected partners and stakeholders across the humanitarian, developmental, governmental and non-governmental sectors to deliberate on priority issues affecting interventions in the North East.
High priority areas
The forum found that the high priority areas in need of urgent action cut across various sectors especially health and nutrition, education, protection and food security, shelter and camp management.
“Among the issues flagged are gaps in mental healthcare and psychosocial support and the need to support the federal neuropsychiatric hospitals in the North East,” a statement by the committee read.
The forum also called for investments in schools of nursing and midwifery to address the huge manpower gaps in the region’s health sector, and the need for human capital to deliver effective education.
“The high incidence of traumatized minors in need of psychosocial assistance, remained a huge challenge the forum noted but added that there was the need for PCNI to collaborate with the Customs Service to accelerate the release of badly needed aid currently held up due to port congestion.
Other issues needing extra intervention and effort by state and federal governments include; “restoration of civil authority to newly liberated areas to enable the safe resettlement of returnees, and the need for interphase with the state governments to provide security of land tenure for IDPs that have intention of returning to their original places of abode; and the facilitation of their smooth integration into their new communities.”
Solutions
The committee said stakeholders at the forum agreed to escalate certain prioritised solutions to a “strategic conclave of principals that will drive high-level mobilization of institutional resources and facilitate critical linkages and partnerships required to enable rapid deployment of solutions.”
“As the solutions are deployed, PCNI will continue to conduct data mining and surveillance, and deliver status reports.”
“These feedbacks would be consolidated and fed into the next cycle of coordination priorities and will form part of the agenda of the next forum,” it said.
