Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri is the Medical Director, Pinnacle Medical Services. She is a Consultant Neuro – Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist and mental health advocate with over a decade experience and practice, pushing the mental advocacy campaign further through outreaches, radio and now movies. She speaks to Kemi Ajumobi on her decision to follow this path among other matters. Excerpts.
Why the decision to go into movie production?
Being a Physician is acceptable because people fall ill and want to see a Doctor, specializing as a Mental Health Physician (Consultant Neuro-Psychiatrist) isn’t appreciated, in fact, you are most times viewed as one of your patients. Starting my practise some years ago, I was already aware of some of the challenges of which STIGMA tops the list. What I didn’t realise that we needed the most is the urgent need for mental advocacy which isn’t available. With this in mind, we decided to change the narrative and started with campaigns, seminars, workshops, print media, radio, television, and leveraged on the various social media platforms to drive this goal. Now, we started movies last year because this has a wider reach, though more expensive. The goal is to showcase real life stories with a strong message in an entertaining way. With advocacy and awareness, the role of media is very important as major stakeholders. The way movies depict addiction, new mothers with post partum depression or any other mental health issue can be very superficial, showing only one side or playing up at the myths and stereotypes. Sometimes, they do not realise these characters that have these mental issues, they are shown as bad people with no self-control. The media can be ignorant of the possibility of a problem, let alone the problem itself. With celebrities coming forward with their history of mental illness, it is important that stories like theirs and the average Nigerian be shown. It is not a ‘rich man’s problem’, or a ‘white man’s thing’.
Previous documentaries and latest movie
In 2016, we produced a short movie on alcohol and drugs abuse called Peppersoup and last year, our focus was on domestic violence, depression, post partum depression and suicide. Like I always say, there is no vaccine to mental illnesses and no one has absolute immunity against any mental illness, so for me as a Mental health Physician and advocate, I believe I can only play my part and encourage others to do same. If we all begin to speak out about our mental status, it will make it easier for people to talk about it without the labelling, discrimination and stigmatization attached to mental illnesses. Also, help seeking behaviour will be encouraged so that people can live with fewer disabilities by unleashing their full potentials to be the best they are destined to be.
Little Drops Of Happy was released in Nigeria on the 27th of November 2017, my organisation Pinnacle Medical Services, Speakout Initiative co-produced it with Grace Edwin-Okon who also directed it. In the movie, Mano Ojo has to deal with the infidelity of her ‘actor’ husband. This leads to a series of challenges she has to confront and overcome. The challenges become too overwhelming to the extent that she loses her poise. She is misunderstood and termed mentally deranged…Nevertheless, Mano in the midst of her chaotic experience has to save, not just herself, but her estranged husband as well, from his promiscuous stance. It was our first time in the Nigeria cinemas and I will say, we didn’t do badly. It was very exciting with the great reviews and comments from all those that took time out of their very busy schedule to watch the movie. We say, a big thank you!
Dangers of depression
Depression is a common illness worldwide, with more than 300 million people affected. Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. More women are affected by depression than men. Depression is different from usual mood fluctuations and short-lived emotional responses to challenges in everyday life. Especially when long-lasting and with moderate or severe intensity, depression may become a serious health condition. It can cause the affected person to suffer greatly and function poorly at work, at school and in the family. At its worst, depression can lead to suicide. The issue of stigma which is a reoccurring decimal still tops the list why people have refused to talk about their mental health. The truth is, depression is not written on anyone’s face. It is not a physical health condition, but emotional, so recognizing the symptoms can only be determined by the behavioural manifestation of the affected person. Some of the signs and symptoms are; appetite changes, or weight gain or loss; trouble going to sleep or staying asleep, or sleeping too much; fatigue or lack of energy, feeling restless, irritable, or withdrawn, feeling worthless, hopeless, discouraged, or guilty, trouble concentrating, remembering things, doing daily tasks, or making decisions, thoughts about hurting or killing yourself, among others.
Radio program and feedback so far
We also operate the first Africa online health radio, Pinnacle Health Radio, PHR which is also geared to creating a more conscious healthy society for all. This is aligned to number 3 of the sustainable development goals, SDGs, which talks about good health and wellbeing. At PHR, we seek to deliver real time health solutions to individuals. The response so far is encouraging and we hope to make it terrestrial with time. We currently have the app on Google play store that is free for download and the website is very active with lots of information. Aside this, our mental health assessment app, HOWBODI is doing very well. We still encourage people to download it from google play store (IOS is coming up soon) to check their status as we all know, prevention is always better than cure.
Have Nigerians started appreciating the relevance of a shrink?
There is an average of one psychiatrist to 1million Nigerians; additionally, about 90% of Nigerians with mental health disorders do not go to their healthcare provider for help. It is hard to say, but we are seeing a huge difference in the way Nigerians view mental health. People are taking depression, substance abuse, anxiety and many more mental health issues more seriously; some even seeking help. We are encouraged, and this means more work which we are ready to go all nine yards with all the support needed from our various corporate organizations, religious bodies, schools, and individuals. We are all in this together, and with team work, we believe the dream will be realised
Balancing work as a consultant, a radio host and much more?
I will say it is grace. Is it an easy work-life balance (integration)? My answer is NO! What I know is that having a supporting spouse, great family , healthy support system in terms of my friends and employees has made it easy….and don’t forget, I’m a Shrink.#hahaha
What should we look forward to in the years to come?
We have quite a lot of activities lined up for the year. We are going to deal with various mental health issues, focusing on different themes each month. This month is our Drug Abuse Awareness month. You can follow what we are doing on Face book (Pinnacle Medical Services and Twitter/Instagram @pinnaclemedng. We are also running mental health first aid seminars for families with loved ones suffering from any form of mental illnesses and various other mental health classes. We are launching our books very soon….And Yes, we have more movies coming in the works. For us, there are many more exciting activities that are life changing, so, let’s flow with the story as it unfolds…
