UK-based expert blames government for rising suicide cases

United Kingdom (UK)-based leadership and positive psychology expert, Dr. Jummy Okoya, has blamed the increasing cases of suicides in the country on government’s failure to provide necessary support for citizens.

While describing the situation as awful, she reiterated the need for individuals to become responsible, for their own mental wellbeing.

Okoya, who visited The Guardian corporate office yesterday, charged organisations to take employee engagement as well as the positive psychology of staff members more seriously to improve productivity.

“The Nigerian society is such that people keep secret and don’t want to share with others when things are going wrong with them. This is because they are scared of being stigmatised.

“The first thing to do now to avert such situations, to look into how we, as a society, can destigmatise mental health, such that people can come out openly to talk about how they are dealing with it privately or if it is something they have experienced. This will in turn send a signal to others that it’s okay to talk about it,” she said.

According to her, leaders of organisations need to pay critical attention to the positive psychology of staff, which in turn increases engagement that ensures performance, productivity and profitability.

The expert further hinted that individual positive psychological state of development has four pillars: Hope, Efficacy, Resilience and Optimism (HERO).