NGO Engages Stakeholders On Mental Health In Kwara State

The Women’s Friendly Initiative, an NGO, has engaged the University of Ilorin (Unilorin) community, Kwara State, ahead of the flag-off of its Collaborative Action for Mental Health Promotion Utilising Students (CAMPUS) programme in the institution.

The engagement meeting, which took place in the Board Room of the Faculty of Education, featured an expansive exposition on the subject of mental health concerns that arise among students and solutions to such issues.

The programme tagged CAMPUS, which is an 18-month pilot project, is focused on improving the mental health and well-being of university students.

This will be done using various integrated systems to provide timely non-medical mental health services to the students of Unilorin.

Speaking on the pilot project, the Chief Executive Officer, of WFI, Dr Francis Eremutha, stressed the need for collaboration with the university management and all stakeholders at all levels.

He said, “This was to achieve the goals of providing a mentally-stable educational climate for all students of the institution.”

Eremutha stated that the urgency of the project stemmed from the need to curtail the increasing rate of suicide and mental health issues being recorded across educational institutions in the country.

Acknowledging the relevance of the institution, the WFI boss explained that “the project is the first-of-its-kind and Unilorin is the first university to herald the launch of the ‘CAMPUS’ programme.”

The Lead Investigator for the ‘CAMPUS’ project, WFI, Dr Salem Iyorwuese, stated that “the age group targeted for the programme are students within the age bracket of 15 to 24 years.”

Iyorwuese said that the WFI would establish a Mind and Body Clinic, which would be the office of the initiative for handling all mental health issues related to students.

“The project would also handle training for individuals involved in its “peer-to-peer” systems,” he explained.

In the course of the programme, 480 clients would have access to its peer-to-peer systems, with over 450 new mental e-course users certified and recorded.

“Also, the WFI will roll out toll-free lines with an average of at least 80 callers being attended to per interval.

”The programme is set to run for 18 months, after which its full operations would be handed over to the Students’ Union on Nov. 1, 2024,” Iyorwuese added.

NAN/ Mercy Chukwudiebere