Kaduna’s new chapter: Integrating mental health care, one hospital at a time

The health and prosperity of any society remain incomplete if the well-being of the mind is ignored. For decades, Nigeria has treated mental health as an afterthought—centralised in distant facilities, buried under stigma, and largely inaccessible to the average citizen. Families suffer in silence, patients go untreated, and communities carry invisible burdens.

In Kaduna State, we have chosen a different path.

The signing of the Kaduna State Mental Health Bill by His Excellency, Governor Uba Sani, was more than just a legislative milestone; it was a bold declaration that mental health is not a luxury, but a right—fundamental to our collective progress and human capital development. To give this vision institutional strength, the Kaduna State Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (KADBUSA) was created as the engine to drive reform.

Now, we are moving beyond words and laws. We are turning policy into action, and action into impact.

How We’re Bringing Mental Health to the People
This week, commencing October 6th, Kaduna State will embark on a landmark initiative: integrating mental health services directly into our General Hospitals. For the first time, frontline clinicians—doctors, nurses, and pharmacists—are being intensively trained under the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme (MhGAP).

Why is this significant? Because MhGAP empowers non-specialist health workers to diagnose, manage, and treat priority mental, neurological, and substance use conditions. It shifts care away from being the preserve of specialist psychiatric hospitals and places it where people actually live and seek help—our community hospitals and primary healthcare centres.

Our goal is ambitious but achievable: to ensure all 30 general hospitals, 23 PHC Centres of Excellence, and at least one PHC per ward can deliver quality mental health services. With this step, we are declaring that mental health care should no longer be distant, stigmatised, or unattainable. It must be accessible, dignified, and woven into everyday healthcare.

Marking World Mental Health Day with Action

The timing is deliberate. This inaugural training will conclude on October 10th—World Mental Health Day. On that day, we will not only celebrate the certification of our first cohort of trained clinicians but also launch community mental health outreaches and a formal ceremony. Symbolically, Kaduna State will be telling the world that awareness must be matched with measurable action. We do not just talk about mental health—we invest in it.

The transformation of Kawo General Hospital illustrates this new vision. Only a few months ago, during the second anniversary of Governor Uba Sani’s administration, Kawo’s renovated facility was commissioned as a promise fulfilled. But beautiful infrastructure alone is not enough. By integrating mental health care through MhGAP training, Kawo is evolving into a centre of comprehensive, patient-centred healthcare. It is proof that bricks and mortar must be matched with services that truly heal people’s lives.

Partnerships and the Road Ahead

This journey is not without challenges. Stigma remains, resources are finite, and demand will be high. But the foundation is solid. The political will exists. The institutional framework—KADBUSA—is active. Our technical partners, including WHO, the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Barnawa, and the Society for Family Health through the A360 programme, are by our side. Together, we are building not just a system of care, but a culture of compassion and understanding.

A Call to Citizens
We call on the people of Kaduna State to embrace this new era. Let us shed the silence and stigma around mental illness. Let families know that help is now closer than ever. Let patients walk into their local hospitals with dignity and leave with hope. And let our healthcare workers, who are stepping into this role with courage and dedication, be recognised as the vanguard of this quiet revolution.

Kaduna is proving that mental health care can be decentralised, de-stigmatised, and delivered. We are not only laying bricks of policy; we are building bridges of healing.

This week, the work begins. And with it, a new chapter in the health story of Kaduna State.

Kaltume-Ahmed is the Honourable Commissioner of Health for Kaduna State.