Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, and mental health rehabilitation units, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders, such as major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialize only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients. Others may specialize in the temporary or permanent care of residents who, as a result of a psychological disorder, require routine assistance, treatment, or a specialized and controlled environment.
Patients are often admitted on a voluntary basis, but people whom psychiatrists believe may pose a significant danger to themselves or others may be subject to involuntary commitment. Psychiatric hospitals may also be referred to as psychiatric wards or units (or “psych” wards/units) when they are a subunit of a regular hospital.
History of Mental Illness In Nigeria
The first early eighteenth-century public and private hospitals in the West recognized that one important mission would be the care and treatment of those with severe symptoms of mental illnesses. Like most physically sick men and women, such individuals remained with their families and received treatment in their homes. Their communities showed significant tolerance for what they saw as strange thoughts and behaviors. But some such individuals seemed too violent or disruptive to remain at home or in their communities. In East Coast cities, both public almshouses and private hospitals set aside separate wards for the mentally ill. Private hospitals, in fact, depended on the money paid by wealthier families to care for their mentally ill husbands, wives, sons, and daughters to support their main charitable mission of caring for the physically sick poor.
In Nigeria, the history of mental hospitals started just over a century ago, when the Calabar Lunatic Asylum was established and on 31 Oct 1907, the first batch of fourteen patients was admitted to the Yaba Lunatic Asylum in Lagos, the Yaba Mental Hospital (renamed the Yaba Psychiatric Centre in 1977).
Mental illness did exist in Nigeria as elsewhere, already before the first contact with the West. Nigerian languages have exact terms for different forms of mental disorders. Traditional healers specialized for the treatment of mental disorders have a long tradition, especially in the Southern parts of Nigeria. Traditional pharmacies can be seen at many marketplaces. Lunatics are placed in charge of native doctors, kept by their parents, or placed in the care of the keeper of the prison.
Every king or chief or head of a village or compound is supposed to have his own place or restraint, with chains, shackles, manacles, and staples to match. Lepers and lunatics are never buried in the house. The Oba of Benin is reported to have said. Lunatics were not allowed to roam about but were chained at home. The first reference to mental illness goes back only to 1849 (Lagos Town Council, 1961) when a British Army doctor, William Daniel, wrote that he did not think that mental cases were killed but that “insanity was rare in the coastal belt. Considering the limited diagnostic experience of medical practitioners of this time, it is not amazing he has seen but few mental cases. Most probably, he neither had much time to spend with individual patients.
List Of Psychiatric Hospitals In Nigeria
Here are top 20 psychiatric hospitals in Nigeria:
- Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos: This is a federal government-owned psychiatric hospital in Lagos, established in 1954. It offers psychiatric care, research, training, and consultancy services.
- Aro Psychiatric Hospital, Abeokuta, Ogun State: This is one of the oldest and largest psychiatric hospitals in Nigeria, established in 1954. It offers psychiatric care, research, and training services.
- Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State: This is a federal government-owned psychiatric hospital in Calabar, established in 1975. It offers psychiatric care, research, and training services.
- Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Enugu, Enugu State: This is a federal government-owned psychiatric hospital in Enugu, established in 1955. It offers psychiatric care, research, and training services.
- Uselu Psychiatric Hospital, Benin City, Edo State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Benin City, established in 1973. It offers psychiatric care, training, and research services.
- Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, Ogun State: This is a federal government-owned psychiatric hospital in Abeokuta, established in 1954. It offers psychiatric care, research, and training services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu, Benin City, Edo State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Benin City, established in 1973. It offers psychiatric care, training, and research services.
- Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno State: This is a federal government-owned psychiatric hospital in Maiduguri, established in 1994. It offers psychiatric care, research, and training services.
- Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Kware, Sokoto State: This is a federal government-owned psychiatric hospital in Kware, established in 2001. It offers psychiatric care, research, and training services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Calabar, established in 1957. It offers psychiatric care, training, and research services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Yenagoa, established in 2013. It offers psychiatric care services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Rumuigbo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Port Harcourt, established in 2006. It offers psychiatric care services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Kware, Sokoto State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Kware, established in 1991. It offers psychiatric care services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Maiduguri, established in 1996. It offers psychiatric care services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Oshodi, Lagos State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Oshodi, established in 1983. It offers psychiatric care services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Abeokuta, Ogun State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Abeokuta, established in 1954. It offers psychiatric care services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Kaduna, Kaduna State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Kaduna, established in 1955. It offers psychiatric care services.
- Psychiatric Hospital, Sokoto, Sokoto State: This is a state government-owned psychiatric hospital in Sokoto, established in 1997. It offers psychiatric care services.
- Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State: This is a federal government-owned medical center in Owo that has a psychiatric unit. The psychiatric unit offers psychiatric care services.
- Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos State (psychiatric unit): This is a federal government-owned teaching hospital in Lagos that has a psychiatric unit. The psychiatric unit offers psychiatric care services.
Private Psychiatric Hospitals
- Tranquil and Quest: Tranquil and Quest is a private psychiatric hospital and drug addiction rehabilitation center in the heart of Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria. This hospital pride itself as a mental health facility in providing premium and innovative behavioral health services to individuals, families, and organizations. They offer psychiatric evaluations, medication protocols, substance abuse treatments, individual therapy, family therapy, and group therapy.
- Synapse Services: Synapse Services has provided well over Eight years of high-quality specialist mental health care services in Nigeria. It is the largest provider of private mental health care services in West Africa with a combined bed of over 110 bed spaces.
All these hospitals provide a range of psychiatric services including assessment, diagnosis, medication management, counseling, therapy, and rehabilitation services. They also offer training and research services to improve the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses in Nigeria.
It’s important to note that mental health care in Nigeria still faces significant challenges including stigma, lack of funding, and inadequate resources. As a result, these hospitals may not always have the capacity to meet the growing demand for mental health services in the country.
READ: List Federal, State and Private Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria
