Unity Bank partners Foundation to host seminar on mental health

Unity Bank has charged organizations and Government to pay greater attention to Employee Assistance Programmes to minimize depression, anxiety, excessive stress, worry and addictions in the workspace in order to impact positively on job performance, mental and physical health and emotional wellbeing of their workforce.
Writing on its recent partnership of Chosen Vessels Empowerment Foundation (CVEF), the bank states “the need to increase mental health awareness through a platform that is able to engender greater societal engagement and reach to relevant stakeholders in both public and private sectors informed the Bank’s commitment to promote seminar on Mental Health as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility”.
The statement from Unity Bank further explained that mental health consultants at the seminar focused discussions on pre-emptive actions that can be adopted to stem the rising cases of mental disorder.
One of the facilitators, Chief Consultant Psychiatrist with Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Lagos, Dr. Olufumilayo Akinola, identified the ‘main common mental disorders’ as ‘depression, anxiety and substance abuse’.
“There are effective and affordable treatments for most emotional disorders. Appropriate treatment can help improve the quality of life for most people experiencing mental disorders and their families”, she advised.
Gaining early improvement from mental ailment, according to Dr. Akinola, would depend on identifying the symptoms, reporting to appropriate healthcare provider and offering needed support to both patients and their families.
Unity Bank said it will continue to promote greater health seeking behaviour, greater inclusion as against social isolation and stigmatization of people experiencing mental disorders; stating that “if the society steps up empathy, counselling and other form of assistance to reach out to people suffering from depression, it would go a long way in minimizing cases of suicide that the country is witnessing”.
Chosen Vessels, a faith-based organization which has Mrs. Adebola Atoyebi as President is at the forefront of providing support for individuals and organizations though mentoring, teaching, coaching, modelling and empowerment.