By Chioma Obinna

Respite came the way of millions of people including Nigerians with common,but untreated, mental, neurological and substance use disorders last week, as they can now benefit from new simplified diagnosis and treatment guidelines released by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Already, the WHO in collaboration with partners is set to provide technical support to Nigeria, Ethiopia, Jordan, Panama, Sierra Leone and Solomon Island to implement the guidelines and scale up care.

The guidelines are designed to facilitate the management of depression, alcohol use disorders, epilepsy and other common mental disorders in the primary health-care setting.

It extends competence in diagnosis and management to non-mental health specialists including doctors, nurses and other health providers. These evidence-based guidelines are presented as flow charts to simplify the process of providing care in the primary health-care setting.

According to WHO’s Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance

Abuse, Dr Shekhar Saxena, “The programme will lead to nurses in Ethiopia recognizing people suffering with depression in their day to day work and providing psychosocial assistance. Similarly, doctors in Jordan and medical assistants in Nigeria will be able to treat children with epilepsy”

Saxena regretted noted that these conditions are commonly encountered in primary care, but neither identified nor treated due to lack of knowledge and skills of the health care provider.

WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan, said the Guide transforms a world of expertise and clinical experience, contributed by hundreds of experts, into less than 100 pages of clinical wisdom and succinct practical advice.

She added that placing the ability to diagnose and treat them into the primary health care system will significantly increase the number of people who can access care.

Also commenting on the guidelines, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, Dr Ala, said what is required is increasing the capacity of the primary health care system for delivery of an integrated package of care”

He stated that resources available are insufficient, inequitably distributed and inefficiently used. “In the majority of countries, less than 2 per cent of health funds are spent on mental health. As a result, a large majority of people with these disorders receive no care at all.”

He opined that the Guide will help scale up care for mental, neurological and substance use disorders – which is the aim of WHO mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP).

The Intervention Guide extends competence in diagnosis and management to non-mental health specialists including doctors, nurses and other health providers. These evidence-based guidelines are presented as flow charts to simplify the process of providing care in the primary health-care setting.