Community psychiatry care: An urgent need in nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria’s mental health policy was formulated in 1991, but it did not make adequate provision for community-based psychiatric care. Since there are only seven govern-ment-owned psychiatry facilities in Nigeria and these are always overwhelmed, there is the need to overhaul the existing policy and emphasise the urgency of a shift from inpatient psychiatric mental healthcare towards a community-based multidisciplinary psychiatric healthcare system.