In a bid to improve mental healthcare in Osun State, Sage and Enamel Foundation (SANDEF) has donated ten mattresses, pillows, and bedsheets to the mental health department of the Osun State Hospital, Asubiaro, Osogbo.
The initiative is part of the foundation’s ongoing efforts to support people battling mental illnesses and to strengthen healthcare facilities in the state.
Presenting the items on Friday, SANDEF’s Executive Director, Oluwafikayomi Benson, emphasized the importance of adequate healthcare infrastructure for mental patients.
He explained that the donation was aimed at increasing the hospital’s capacity to admit and treat more patients.
“Everybody has one mental illness or the other that they are trying to work through,” Benson stated, highlighting the need for better mental health support. He added that the foundation took it upon itself “to support efforts of the state government in providing accessible medical services to mental patients in the state.”
Benson acknowledged the Governor Ademola Adeleke-led administration for permitting the initiative, stating that without the government’s approval, the foundation would not have been able to execute the project.
“The current administration in Osun State is trying its best because if they had not given us the approval to use the State Hospital, Asubiaro, Osogbo, we would not be able to do what we are doing today,” he said.
He described SANDEF’s mental health intervention as a three-phase initiative focused on providing consistent support for psychiatric patients.
“Basically, we have three phases of what we do. Today is just one of our initiatives, the Smiling Soul Initiative, which consists of three phases,” Benson explained.
According to him, “Phase one is just coming every week to subsidize the hospital bill of people living with mental illness.”
For the second phase, SANDEF “adopts a subject and takes care of all their medical bills.”
Explaining the third phase, Benson said, “What we are doing in phase three is to pick people with mental illness off the streets, check them into the mental health hospital, pay for their medical bills, get them well, and reintegrate them back into society.”
Receiving the donated items, Dr. Dare Folasade, the Chief Psychiatrist Consultant of the hospital, commended SANDEF for its unwavering support over the past year.
“I am highly excited that apart from the fact that he’s been giving us support in terms of medication, long-term patients in the ward will benefit from SANDEF,” Dr. Folasade said.
She added, “As from today, they will have very comfortable beds to use, and this particular donation can serve a lot of people for many years. It is not just a gift but one that we will receive with the whole of our heart.”
She further explained that the donation would significantly enhance patient comfort, especially for those undergoing long-term treatment.
Speaking on the causes of mental illness, Dr. Folasade noted that the condition could result from a combination of genetic, social, and economic factors.
“Some people can have the inherited gene of mental illness and never break down because the social environment is good,” she explained.
However, she warned that a toxic environment and financial instability could increase the risk of mental health disorders.
“If you have a situation where the environment is not good and toxic, where the financial status is upside down, where businesses are not thriving, invariably, it is most likely going to increase therate of mental illness,” she added.
