If mental health advocates and activists are to win the war against the stigmatization of the African mentally challenged, a useful ally will be the corporate bodies as they have a gargantuan role to play in its noble fight.

It is no news that many employees who have mental health challenges keep their employers in the dark because they fear losing their jobs which only worsens their mental health as many relapse and become unproductive as a result of the silence. Many mentally challenged employees don’t disclose their condition to the Human Resources Department and as a result are denied mental health insurance coverage. It is a well-known fact that the unproductivity of these set of employees affects the business’s overall performance as there is a sturdy nexus between loss of man hours by mentally challenged employees and the business meeting its obligation to its stakeholders.

I was happy when telecommunications giants 9mobile recently held the fifth edition of its health talk series with this year’s theme as Mental Health – The Myth, The Challenge and Recovery.

It featured one of Africa’s leading mental health advocate and life coaches – Dr. Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri who debunked the myth of it as a spiritual affliction – a view generally and widely held by most Africans which leads to the dehumanization of the mentally ill in the continent. She said that the illness is like any other non-communicable disease and that it can be properly managed. She went on to say that there are triggers to it like a family history, grief, domestic violence, poverty as a result of the socio-economic hardship etc.

I am very pleased that 9mobile championed the open discussion of this hitherto taboo as it will go a long way to lead to a better deal for the mentally challenged in the corporate world and also to the de-stigmatization of the sufferers in the wider society as corporate bodies play a pivotal role in the nation’s economy.

In the West, some activist organizations have devised a means of tracking how corporate bodies there attend to the needs of the mentally challenged and the reports are always published on a regular basis to challenge them to do more. That culture should be imported here by mental health advocates as a way of keeping the companies on their toes and extracting commitments from them to do more for the mentally challenged especially their employees.

9 Mobile, a caring brand indeed – that has evolved from the pristine stage of just making profits has greatly won my admiration as they have opened the Pandora’s Box for critical discourse revolving around mental health and its ability for the sufferers to effectively manage it and still live useful lives.

I would want the HR Department of 9mobile to go a step further to fighting for mental health insurance coverage for its employee sufferers, hiring the services of a therapist as even non mental health challenged people still need therapy as a result of work pressures and having more regular mental health awareness discourse which can lead the sufferers in its employment to open up to the HR Department or their managers without any fear of victimization.

The age-long Chinese cliché says ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.’ I am glad that 9mobile has at least taken that bold step which we hope will be emulated by the other corporate bodies.

A sturdy and gargantuan thumbs up to 9 Mobile for proudly identifying with the mental health challenged community!

SOURCE: https://africavoiceshq.com/2022/04/03/thumbs-up-to-9mobiles-backing-for-mental-health-by-tony-ademiluyi/