Menu
Since the inception of MANI in 2016, we have consistently worked to increase awareness of mental health amongst Nigerians, particularly youthful populations. With our continued work of disseminating mental health information via our social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,LinkedIn and Tiktok, we have contributed to destigmatizing mental health over the years, particularly amongst Nigerian youths.
With a combined following across our social channels of >180k and 3 million reach on a monthly basis, we have created a trusted brand that users in Nigeria and across the world believe in to provide support for their mental health.
The extensiveness of our work on social media gained us membership with Twitter Trust and Safety Council, as well as Facebook Safety Advisory Board. This achievement has assisted us in providing more help to individuals whose social media post(s) depict that they may be at risk of suicide or self-harm. We have also lent our expertise and insight to help inform Facebook’s Suicide Prevention effort.
With our ongoing projects and planned research work, we hope to fill the gap in mental health data experienced by providers, users, students, and researchers in Nigeria.
As part of our effort to ensure that mental health education is widespread, we carry out mental health education programmes and training in schools across Nigeria.
The future and present of the country are her young people, thus our school programmes are targeted not only at students of tertiary institutions but also primary and secondary school students. Our school programmes are designed to cater for all stakeholders in the school community- students, teaching & non-teaching staff and parents. We consider it essential to create safe spaces for young people by training their teachers and parents to be receptive to the mental and emotional needs of their children/wards/students. Teachers and parents are also taught to recognise common symptoms of mental illnesses and disorders in order to ensure early detection and treatment.
With funding from Comic Relief and support from CBM Global, we are currently running a mental health school programme in four universities across three geo-political regions in Nigeria. The project which is titled “Bridging The Gap” aims to improve knowledge and general attitude in young people and also encourage help-seeking behaviours. The BTG project is also focused on providing virtual mental health counselling services.
With almost a third of our lives spent at work, it is a no-brainer that organisations play a pivotal role in eliminating mental health stigma. Over one trillion dollars is lost annually across the world as a result of neglect on mental health.Declining productivity and engagement are usually a huge cost to companies and the onus lies on the management of every establishment to develop a working model that puts at the forefront, the mental health of their employees.
We continue to strengthen mental health capacity through our work with partners to improve mental health legislation, decriminalise suicide, and to create a world that promotes good mental health for all.
Our policy approach involves working with partners across Nigeria in advocating for the repeal of Section 327 of the Criminal Code Act, Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in lobbying for the passing of a new mental health legislation to replace the outdated Lunacy Act, which violates the human rights of mentally ill individuals and promotes the stigmatisation of these individuals.
We currently have a joint action petition (with other mental health advocates in Nigeria) to pass the new mental health bill into law.
The power of the media in turning the tide of sociocultural perspectives cannot be overemphasized.
In order to empower media professionals with the right knowledge for reporting mental health conditions and suicide, we designed a toolkit on media reporting This toolkit aids training media personnel on the safest language to use in reporting on mental health related issues.
In May 2021, we partnered with BellaNaija– Nigeria’s most popular lifestyle platform to host a series of Twitter Spaces focused on the country’s mental health legislation, the movie industry and mental health, the music business and mental health among other topics.
We have also worked with a number of other media outlets to propagate mental health awareness.
Just N5,000 could help pay for a call to our advice and information line, supporting someone living with mental illness who may be feeling in distress during this time.
Join our community of over 5000 subscribers who enjoy positive notes from us on weekdays.
“Ruminations@5 from @MentallyAwareNG keeps me going…”
-Henry