Assault On Doctors, A Disturbing Trend That Must Stop.

I am thinking of work again in the morning! I didn't go to work yesterday.

Truly I have been so taken up by some other projects that I am involved in that I have not been updating this blog regularly. You only have so much of 24hours in a day, so my recent project that involve seminar and workshop organizations and delivery as well as public/motivational speaking in the area of Personal development and Peak performance including Stress management have taken much of that. I am also involved in some wealth creation and e-business. Remember I am still Resident doctor as it were. Click here to see more of that.
However as the saying goes 'a river can never forget its source, otherwise it will dry'. I love medical practice itself , most especially psychiatry/mental health. It is a passion and a driving force. Once I start talking to a patient, I am taken up. I love the Psychiatric history because it fits my love for people and the natural desire to know people and help themas regards the mind. Where else do become vulnerable and therefore become trusting if not when they tell you intimate things about themselves most especially when you have won their confidence.

So why didn't I go to work yesterday. The Association Resident Doctors(ARD), JUTH Chapter called a warning strike which was to be on for every Tuesday until three weeks when it should be full blown if the demands are not met.

Do I hear you say not again?Before you jump into conclusions let me intimate you with what happened.

Thirteen days ago, a doctor was assaulted while on duty at the Casualty section of the hospital, doing his work as a servant of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The assailant also threatened to to get the doctor sacked brandishing the name of the Chief Medical Director, and even threatened to have him dealt with anywhere within Jos. As it turned out to be, he is a son-in-law to the former deputy governor of Plateau State, Chief Michael Botman and he set at intimidating everybody with that. He was alleged to have brought the corpse of his brother-in-law (Botman's son) who slumped at home and died on the way to the hospital.His accusation was that the particular doctor was discussing with a colleague of his and smiling when he is bereaved. As a matter of fact he assaulted another doctor whom he mistook for the assaulted doctor after depositing the corpse in the morgue.

Although the case was reported to the Hospital authorities who then reported to the Police, the assailant was not arrested until the strike declared as the family claimed they needed time to mourn their loss before releasing him for arrest! That in itself called for worry.However, the dead was buried on Friday and yet the assailant was not arrested until the warning strike!

ARD therefore had no option than to take action as it seemed things were being dragged and the right of doctors being trampled upon.As they say, an injustice to one is an injustice to all. It also seems that people are now in the habit of intimidating doctors at their duty post, not with the recent similar episode in Umuahia where a government official also assaulted a doctor.

The Association therefore demanded the following;
-An appropriate apology from the assailant.
-Immediate arrest and prosecution of the assailant.
-An undertaken by the assailant to guarantee the security of the assaulted doctor whom he threatened.
-The hospital management should also beef up security in the hospital.

As it were I received a text message for the president of the association saying that these demands have been met. There is therefore going to be a meeting by 8 am in the morning to these and review the decision of industrial action.

With the above, I hope people will know that they cannot just start assaulting doctors who go through a lot of sacrifice and pain to render service to humanity.

Children's Day; Ensuring a better nation through development of our children.

In Nigeria,Chilren's day is usually celebrated today 27th May annually.This started in the year 1979 which was the International year of the child as proclaimed by the United Nations.Although we know that the International Children's Day originated in Turkey(April 23,1920)and later in the World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva,Switzerland in 1925.It is usually celebrated on June 1 in Turkey and many communist countries,but many countries have their own different days of celebration.

About 19 years ago,I was in the hospital on this day when my colleagues were on the field marching and engaged in inter-school 100m dash and relay competitions.It was in commomeration of the annual Children's day as we call the International Day of the Child locally.Of course,we always look forward to this day with excitement as it affords us an holiday and funfare of the celebration at the Township stadium(in which each school strive to outperform the other).We seem to believe in those days that all there is to the Children's day was the March past and the athletic competition!

Today I am an adult.I don't have an holiday today as I used to in those days.However,the concern that I have these days whenever today comes annually is not in any way a reflection of celebration.It seems to me that the world is getting worse and with increasing hostilities and disregard for the welfare and dignity of children.

First and foremost,there is the menace of child trafficking that has become so rampant in our society to the point that it no longer evoke the right emotion of disgust and concern that it should.It is fast becoming a normal phenomenom in our national psyche.It has come to a point that parents more or less beg the perpetrators of these act to take their own children.This of course is a reflection of the spate of poverty in the land.One cannot imagine the effect of this vice on the overall mental psychic of the child.What with the issue of parental separation and deprivation with all the attendant effects.It is modern day slavery!

Closely related to child trafficking is the issue of child labour and prostitution.Of course,the main purpose of trafficking is to provide cheap labour and services.Many of these children are used as sex slaves in foreign lands which have damaging effect of their self esteem,social relations and mental health.There is an alarming increase in the number of children street trading which exposes them to the risk of accidents, rape, illicit drugs and their attendant sequele.
There is an increase in the number of orphans and vulnerable children in our society.What with the issue of HIV/AIDS that have created a lot of orphans in its wake.The security situation is also getting worse; we now hear of children who are kidnapped for ritual purposes and also for ramsome as it is becoming common in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria.

With all the above,what kind of adults and future leaders do we intend to make out of our children in this generation and the next? What kind of followership do our leaders also expect ot get?It is high time that we demanded better living conditions and conducive environment for our children.Many of the vices that I have talked about above result directly and indirectly from poverty in the land.We should stop paying lip service to development but take the bull by the horn and muster the political will to improve our economy.

There have been many lofty and ambitious policies in the past which have not met the purpose for which they were conceived because there is no political will and politicians just believe in business as usual.

I believe in a better Nigeria.I believe that we are going to have emotionally stable children who are going to turn into self confident adult that will take this country out of the woods.I believe in Nigerian Children.

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!

A vacation too eventful and simply too long.

About six weeks ago,I was so stressed up both physically but more of emotionally, that I had to take my annual leave.But as it is now,I will give anything to make sure that I resume work,but that is not something that I have control over right now.

I had applied for four weeks out of the possible six weeks annual leave,for which I proceeded on the 7th,April 2007.Before then,I was so stressed up emotionally that I could not do anything meaningful in terms of academics.In fact,it was as if reading and studying was anathema to me.By that I do not mean just academic books but also magazines,newspapers,motivational books etc.I guess it was not unconnected with the so called CONTISS salary structure and the inability of the management of my hospital to impliment it despite the fact that all other Federal Tertiary institutions have implimented same.I found it rather disturbing that in a civilized society,things like these could go on without being able to do anything abou it despite going as far as the National Assemble!Talk of losing faith in the system.Morever,I had moved from the Psychiatric Hospital Uselu after spending about 10 months without taking the annual leave for the year 2007.I was fargued out as it were.

Using the Holmes and Rahi life event scale,I had accumulated some good amount of points to qualify for a break down.I needed to just rest and take a break.

However,the leave period turned out to be rather very eventful.First,I got a call from an unexpected caller asking me to speak on Stress Management and HIV in the work place.This was at a workshop organized by a Management consulting outfit in conjunction with Nigeria Medical Association(N.M.A).It was an exciting time for me in the sense that I had the opportunity to talk on the relationship between stress and health and dwelt on the role of stress in mental illness most especially.

Moreover,I was able to give my wife a three-day holiday in Calabar while I was there for a speaking engagement!It was such a wonderful coincidence that I was invited to speak in Calabar when I had earlier promised to take her there on a visit.Of course,I gave her a treat and somebody else paid for the transportation and accommodation.

Have I mentioned that I was also in Benin to tie up issues on that end?Ranging from unpaid arrears at Psychiatric hospital Uselu(Though that have not been paid!),to accommodation issues,and other minor issues.

Just as I got back to Jos and rearing to go at full steam,I was plagued by that terrible accident that I mentioned in the last post.As a consequence of that accident,I presently have my right ankle in cast and as such I cannot resume back to work as I thought.Although I later found out that I was granted the full six weeks annual leave as against the four weeks that I applied for,yet even that have elapsed and I still cannot get back to work because of the sprain in the ankle.As it were,I am not even sure if the calceneous is not fractured as I have this pain whenever I step on it.At any rate I will have repeat x-ray before removing the cast next Wednesday.I sincerely hope that the repeat x-ray does not show a fracture as I cannot bear to continue to stay at home for so long a time because I am really fed up with being redundant!

Well I guess that I can say that this my leave is one that have been too eventful and extended.It is one leave too long.i am pray that it will end lest it becomes a source of stress to me too.

A Great Deliverance!

By a great deliverance was my wife and I delivered from death when we hit a concrete structure for electric poles in the middle of the road and the car somersaulted.

We were coming from communion service that fateful Sunday night 10 days ago.It has just stopped raining and the driving was made worse by the full headlights of vehicles from the opposite side of the road.Moreover the road is such that at certain points,the central divide enlarges into the road such that you have to bend awy from your straight drive to avoid crashing into the concrete structures made for street lights that are not there.As we were coming home that fateful day,I couldn't see this point on time and drove straight on and crashed into the concrete structure and the car did some somersault.

Thank God that we were both wearing seat belts,we would probably have been six feet below the ground by now.People were there to help and we were lucky to have known faces who took good care of us and took us to the hospital.I sustained a sprain in my right ankle that is in a cast and my wife sustained some bruises on the right arm.

The pictures tell the story!

.............AND NOT MERELY THE ABSENCE OF DISEASE OR INFIRMITY.

Hmm,
I have been away from this blog for so long that I really don't know where to start again.It is not as if I don't have things to say,but I guess I have been so disappointed in the happenings around me that I lost interest in writing on this blog.So what do we call that?Loss of interest in previous pleasurable activities?Talk about being depressed!
Really if one thinks of it,there are a thousand and one thing that can make one depressed in this country called Nigeria.From the things one reads on the pages of the newspapers and the interplay of such in ones personal life.Take for example,the recent resignation of the elsewhile minister of Health,Prof Adenike Grange who until her appointment as the minister of health was an erudite professor of Peadiatrics at the University of Lagos with many awards both local and international to her credit.However,she was swallowed up in the murky waters of the public life and the whimps and caprises of the ministry officials who are used to doing in a particular way called 'business as usual'.She was accused of not returning unused money in the last budgetary year in her ministry.Such was said to have been shared by top ministry officials.
So how does all these concern me or better still,what is the relevance to a blog like this.The answer is simple though it may not be obvious.
The recent events that led to a strike action by the Association of Resident Doctors,JUTH chapter can be traced back to the lackaidaisical attitude of public officials both in the Federal ministry of Health and the Budget office.It is no more news that the Federal Government approved of a new salary scale called Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Scale(CONTISS) brought out in January 2007.This generated a lot of protests and led to an addendum in March of the same year.However,upon the actual implimentation,the March addendum which was more favourable was ignored,an error which the Budget Office owed up to.However,one wonders what was the involvement of the Federal ministry of Health with the recent revelation of their corrupt practices.Moreover,if one even assumes that the mistake was geniuine without any maliciuos intent,it still speaks volume of the people at the helms of affairs who are supposed to have the welfare of the citizenry as their official duties and who are directly responsible for the implimentations of the welfare packages of government to her citizens.What is even more disturbing is the difficulty in getting appropriate authorities to listen to this injustice and getting such redressed!
With all the above,one is gradually losing faith in this society in which young professionals are not valued and are left frustrated by the insensitivities of the leadership.Let me say that a greater majority of medical doctors in Nigeria if given a second chance would not read medicine.They feel unappreciated,disrespected and violated.The medical doctor is assumed to be respested but has become the object of scorn given the lack of adequate renumeration!
Morales are at an all time low,most especially in my centre JUTH.Despite the fact that revelations of where the problem came was discovered,and promises were made to address the situation,we are still waiting for such as the problem is no more local but at the centre.i.e the Budget Office in Abuja!
Being a psychiatrist in training and knowing fully well that health is not just the absence of disease,but a state of complete physical,social and mental well being,one can comfortably say that we are not in a state of health.We are not socially and mentally well as it were!How then can one give his best in service delivery?How can a doctor who is not mentally well help others who are not physicallt well?It is high time our policy makers and leaders see thing wholistically rather than parocially.This will help them to improve the quality of life of the people and ensure whole health.
Being that as it may,the onous lies on every body to ensure his own well being in the face of adversities.On must ensure that his cognitive process is always on the positive note,otherwise one may lose his mind and fail to attain to his God-given potentials.

Happy New Year?

Happy new year? You will ask.Well it is better late than never!
It is a new year,a new beginning and a time for new possibilities.
For the fact that my internet connection had been having problem for some time,and coupled with the festivity period,my birthday and Ist wedding anniversary in January,short pay in the implimentation of a new salary structure(CONTISS)which led to a drastic drop in my morale generally;I was not able to publish any post since Dec 4th,2007.
However,it is a new year,a new dawn and a time to shake away all lethargy,lukewarmness and break out like a new day.
There are a couple of activities that are likely to take place this year,both on a personal level for me and at the level of the stakeholders in the management of Mental health generally in Nigeria.As much as possible I will not relent in my effort to educate on mental health and advocate for mental health on this blog.One only hope that the efforts made by few individuals towards improving mental health awareness and to improve that overall level of mental health care can receive a boost by the appropriate authorities who should ochestrate a concerted effort to advance the cause.
Further more,one hopes that the mental health bill will be passed into law by the national assembly so that some of the old unpracticable laws will be changed into something more practicable and humane for the benefit of the mentally ill.