Principal and lead coach at Emotions City, Oyinkansola Alabi popularly known as Emotions Doctor has said that the world is faced with a growing population of people suffering from undisclosed mental illnesses and distress.
This she said is no surprise that a developing country such as Nigeria; a home to about 206 million inhabitants with a mental health budget of about 3.3 per cent of the proposed healthcare budget has been ranked 15th most suicidal population.
The six seconds Network licensed Emotional Intelligence Practitioner noted that with over seven million of the entire population suffering from depression, making Nigeria the most depressed country in Africa; what this means is that we have a growing rate of depressed citizens.
“It is no surprise mental-health therapy is seen as ‘luxury’ and a service for the exposed and enlightened other than a necessity for all. Emotions City in a bid to broaden the mental health service industry to provide affordable mental healthcare service that cuts across all social strata has created a pocket-friendly initiative called the Mental Health Tribe.”
She stressed that while qualified mental-health practitioners are not readily accessible to a large population of people due to the growing rate of economic recession and financial strain, in the light of this Emotions City shares in the average Nigerians plight and is building initiatives to “sachetize” the mental-health service industry in a bid to make their services readily accessible to Nigeria and the world as a whole.
“Who says mental healthcare service cannot be relatively cheap and accessible for the average Nigerian? With just a token and an average of N1700 monthly and N20,000 yearly, the mental-health tribe is value-for-a-dime; an affordable year-long value mental health package with global practitioners with enormously generous perks where you can de-stress in a non-judge-mental zone via the monthly virtual-therapy session with live therapist and coaches where “tribers” can learn together, ask mental-health related questions from the practitioners and belong to a tribe.”
