Promoting Women’s Mental Health in Low-Income Communities
摘要
Mental healthcare in Nigeria and many other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa is inaccessible to women with low income. Community outreach is one of the strategic interventions for improving access to mental health for women in low-income communities. This chapter explores the issues relating to mental health in Nigerian women. The chapter describes a Self-Care Day event organized for women in a community in southern Nigeria, illustrating how simple inexpensive interventions can help improve mental health in women with low financial status by empowering them to take charge of their mental health while educating other members of the community to be able to support them adequately—an added benefit. The author highlights lessons that can be derived from this intervention and future implications for similar projects.