AN APPRAISAL OF SOME FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF MENTALLY-ILL PERSONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Mental health issues are usually demographic free and not subject to any geographical boundaries. From East to West as well as North and South, both in developed and developing nations, cases of mental and behavioural disorders abound. There is need to analyse some fundamental rights of the mentally ill in Nigeria. The paper highlighted some of these rights to include, employment, leading to mental health services, equality, and standard treatment, privacy and dignity, confidentiality, legal representative, right to refuse or accept treatment, consent to treatment, among others. Against this background, the author argued the inherent rights contained in both the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the extant National Mental Act, 2023, actually providing for and could be utilised and applied to accommodate the perceived rights of the mentally-ill. The author therefore maintained on the need for consent to treatment. The paper therefore concluded that an aspect of these rights that has not gained adequate attention in Nigeria is rehabilitation of the mentally-ill after treatment. The paper therefore recommends that government at all levels in Nigeria should make adequate arrangements for rehabilitation after treatment as it obtains in developed societies the world over.