EXPERTS have called on Nigerians to shun the culture of early marriage and child bride as it leads to future psychiatric issues. The call was made at the ordinary general meeting and scientific conference of the ARD, FNPH held recently as Yaba, Lagos The theme of the event which had an interactive session with members of invited secondary schools, practitioners and guest speakers was child marriages, the psychiatric consequences, and sub-theme of the media and psychiatry, proper reporting practices for mental illnesses.
Highlighting the dangers of getting married at a very young age, Dr.Grace Ijarogbe, a specialist child and adolescent psychiatrist highlighted the psychiatric and societal problems associated with child bride and child labor. “It is very disgusting for the child, to leave home at that age, most children are just getting accustomed to their family some are still forming their bonds and ties with their siblings and other family members, and so when they have to be uprooted from this family and have to be joined to strange family, it is very disgusting to them.
A lot of child bride are afraid of their spouse, they are dominated in their new environment and they forced to do so many things that they don’t do in their family. Because the main reason why people have decided to go for the child bride is because they believe they can bend these children emotionally and psychologically against their will and they waste no time to bend these children to their will. This means that her value needs to change, her views needs to change everything needs to change to suit the new culture where she is married.
Marriage is difficult enough for an adult who have acquired enough intelligence, social skills but for a child who doesn’t know anything and all that, most often, it is done by cohesion, a slavery kind of cohesion.”
In his opening speech, Dr. Ken Uwajeh emphasized on the essence of proper psychiatric practices as a panacea for a lot of societal ills. He also emphasized on the need for doctors and other privileged members of the society to be more emphatic towards the poor and the needy in our society.
The event was chaired by Dr. Bayo Aderiye, the chairman of the Lagos state health service commission, and other members of the high table were the chief host, the acting medical director of the institution, Dr. RichardAdebayo, Dr. Oluwaniyi S.O., consultant psychiatrist, HOD forensic unit just to mention a few.
The guest lecturer, as part of integrating new media practices into psychiatry practice, Dr. Maymunah Kadiri, a consultant psychiatrist, former president of the association and CEO of the pinnacle medical services, also talked about the increasing use of new media and technology applications being deployed to ensure prompt diagnosis and an effective client-centered management.
The highlight of the day was the inauguration of the ARD foundation, which the doctors pledged to continuously contribute generously to, with aims of alleviating the sufferings of their poor and less privileged patients. Generous funding was also provided by other guests at the meeting.
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