FIC Report (Kaduna State) – As the world marks the 2025 World Mental Health Day, the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr. Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, delivered the keynote address at a public lecture jointly organized by the Kaduna State Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (KADSEMHSA) and the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Barnawa, Kaduna.
The event, held at the conference hall of Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Kaduna, highlighted Kaduna State’s steady progress in mental health reform and featured the certification of 100 health workers, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, trained under the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) to provide mental health services across the state.
In her address, Dr. Balarabe reaffirmed the government’s commitment under Governor Uba Sani to ensure that every citizen enjoys both physical and mental well-being. She commended the Chief Medical Director of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Aisha Yusha’u Armaya’u, for her leadership and partnership in improving mental health care in Kaduna State.
The Deputy Governor noted that with the signing of the Kaduna State Mental Health Law 2025, which replaces the outdated 1958 Lunacy Act, the state has recognized mental health as a basic human right. She also announced the transformation of the former Kaduna State Bureau for Substance Abuse (KADBUSA) into the Kaduna State Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (KADSEMHSA), a unified body managing mental, neurological, and substance use disorders.
Hadiza said these reforms mark a shift from isolation to integration, from exclusion to inclusion, bringing mental health care closer to communities through trained mhGAP personnel and expanded primary health services.
Dr. Balarabe reaffirmed the administration’s plan to extend mental health services to all 30 General Hospitals and Primary Health Centres while collaborating with the Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority (KADCHMA) to make treatment affordable under the state’s insurance scheme.
She called for sustained national investment and collaboration in mental health, emphasizing that no one should suffer in silence and every mind deserves care.
Signed:
Muhammad Gwani
CIO FIRC Kaduna.
10th October, 2025.
