Road Rage, Deplorable Roads and Traffic Stress

Road rage is a collection of aggressive behaviours by the driver of a vehicle, which is beyond the perceived offence committed. These behaviours range from shouting, screaming, yelling, and using objects such as belts, ‘koboko’, which could hurt the victim and/or damage their vehicle. They are behaviours that occur in response to a perceived unfair provocation while driving. These behaviours could be habitual such as reckless driving (tail gaiting, snail/speed driving) or situational such as encountering potholes and detours with no warning, 

The hinterlands, where most activities of Gede Foundation Calabar take place, is miles away from the metropolis and each trip on this route is a story of its own. I have experienced road rage from motorists, “area boys” (group of young men) that extort money from commercial drivers under the disguise of helping to control traffic and even passengers who are also stressed travellers such as myself. 

One of the roads to the hinterlands

Very often, the road safety enforcement agencies report on accidents due to deplorable roads and careless driving with no recognition given to underlining mental impact of the bad road, long lines of vehicles, traffic jams and extortions on the driver and passengers. There is a need to consider mental health awareness on the impact of stress caused by bad roads, extortions and detours, tailgating another vehicle on drivers especially commercial and long distance drivers.

While anyone can feel rage, some people have been known to get violent while driving. There is a story of a young pregnant woman who got out of her car and shot someone with a stun gun. The amount of anger one is feeling to do such a thing must be intense. A person’s emotions can be triggered by what they think or feel another driver is doing and they may take offence. Could it be that this ignored stressor is actually the main cause of the displaced aggression during driving? According to WebMD, with road rage, you are under the influence of impaired emotions and this can affect your work and relationships as well as your driving. It is therefore an important aspect of mental health that needs addressing. 

Ekaette  Udoekong

Gede Foundation Holds First Mental Health Camp

A very smart young man with a good job has a severe addiction to what he calls “certain drugs”. Even as I am talking to him, he tells me he does not have the willpower to desist from it. He tells me when he is tense, he believes that is the only way he can relax and be able to feel confident. He’s been doing this for over 5 years but he knows it is not good for him and he is ready to stop. He tells me he needs a ladder to help him out of the ditch he is in. His addiction, he says, has strained his relationships with his family, school as well as the community. They look at him as one of the bad guys in the community.

This was only one of the stories we heard yesterday at the Mental Health Camp (MHC) that Gede Foundation conducted at Chief Allahyayi Gambo’s palace in Mararaba. A considerable number of people came to the palace to get diagnosed by our psychiatrist, Dr. Omoyemi Osuhor. There were cases of psychosis, epilepsy as well as substance abuse. Most of the users (and carers for those that cannot take care of themselves) claimed that they do not have access to any medical intervention. They instead saw either traditional healers or faith healers. A few of the participants claimed to have become a little better after treatment but more often than not, they relapsed. The MHC was an eye opener not only to the number of sufferers in communities, but also to the types of treatment they have access to and how they respond to side effects. For instance, a lady aged 23 had a psychotic break in 2013. Her parents took her to the hospital where she received treatment and started getting better. However, she did not finish her medication as she claimed the medicine made her gain weight. Shortly after that, she fell sick again and sadly, was taken advantage of by some men. Up to now, she prefers sticking to traditional medication as this does not make her “fat”. Another lady narrated her son’s story. Her son was born 18 years ago and apart from minor complications at birth, everything else was OK. Her son progressed as well as any other child would; he crawled, teethed and walked on time. The parents became concerned when he was 3 and could not talk. They took him to the hospital and they found nothing wrong. Therefore, for over 12 years the young man has only seen traditional and faith healers. According to his mother, the young man cannot reason or speak well. He is usually on his own, mumbling to himself. The MHC was the first time he has seen a psychiatrist.

The Foundation is very grateful to the Chief of Mararaba for being kind enough to allow the Mental Health Camp to hold at his palace. The Chief was happy that Gede Foundation kept to its promise of actually doing something in his community. This is very promising as partnerships such as this one are an advantage in the community and they help in not only reaching more people but cementing faith NGO’s. 

This is the first in the series of MHC’s the Foundation will hold. The next one will be on Saturday, 30th July 2016 in Mpape at the Primary Health Centre (PHC). The opportunity to work with and help those living with mental illnesses and epilepsy is a passionate one for Gede as it is our goal to not only ensure they have access to the right treatment, but that they get back on their feet and are able to positively contribute to their communities. Furthermore, this opportunity allows for others who can help to assist the Foundation to reach more people.

Mental Health Camp!!!

Gede held its first ever Mental Health Camp yesterday at the chief's palace in Mararaba!!! 

Below are a few pictures of the event. 

Please check back later for more details. 

The Gede – Lafarge Africa Plc (UniCem) Tertiary Scholarship Programme

Three years ago, Gede Foundation’s Calabar Office was contracted by Lafarge Africa Plc (UniCem - United Cement) to manage its scholarship programme. The contract entailed paying yearly bursaries (which are provided by UniCem) to selected tertiary students from communities where UniCem operates. Over these three years, Gede was charged with mobilizing, mentoring, assessing academic performances of all awardees (both in secondary and tertiary institutions) and feeding back to both awardees’ communities and UniCem. In the first two years, over 20 tertiary and 130 secondary students were awarded bursaries (including books and fees/levies). 

The scholarship programme also included Community Health Outreach(CHO)  which is a special communityprogramme designed by Gede Foundation to involve the tertiary beneficiaries to reach out to young children within their communities with information on drugs and substance abuse, sanitation and life basic skills. One of the pioneer tertiary beneficiaries who has graduated and is currently engaged by STRINGS LTD to work with Lafagre Africa Plc (UniCem) shares his success story- 

Believe Francis

“My name is Believe Francis. I hail from Abiati village, one of the ten communities where Lafarge Africa Plc operates from in Akampa Local Government Area. I am a graduate of Economics from the University of Calabar, Calabar. The scholarship award was a big assistance and financial relief to me and my family as we had faced a number of challenges. I was very focused on my education but there were financial burdens. Therefore, the scholarship programme really relieved the burden that was upon my family.

Interestingly, the scholarship programme is teaching me me how to “give back” and this has been made easy through the community health outreaches and the mentorship from Gede Foundation. I am learning life skills, responsibility and time management. I am also learning how to be an innovative thinker and this has helped me in my current work with the company, I am very grateful to UniCem and Gede Foundation for their support” 

The number of Scholarship recipients for 2015/2016 is 20 and they will be involved in community health outreach. 

Scholarship recipients

Watch out as events unfold with the new set of awardees.

Gede Research Assistants & Catholic Relief Services/SMILE Team Trained

As our regular readers will already know, Gede Foundation signed a 6 month research contract with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Nigeria/ Sustainable Mechanisms for Improved Livelihoods and Household Empowerment (SMILE) project in May 2016. The contract is focused on delivering an approach to community based detection, treatment and referral services for vulnerable children with mental health and psychosocial problems and their caregivers. Pending the beginning of the research, Gede Foundation and CRS held a 7-day training which ran from the 15th to the 23rd of June 2016.

The training was conducted by the Principal Investigator to the project, Dr. Bonnie Kaiser who is a post-doctoral fellow at Duke University. She has vast experience in research and conducts global mental health research with a focus on cultural aspects of measurement, communication and intervention design. The training participants included four research assistants and two members from CRS/SMILE. 

The training was both highly technical and extremely interactive. Topics covered include Research Basis, Introduction to Mental health and Resilience, Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Research, Ethics, Interviewing Practice, Focus Group Discussions and Survey Data Collection. After each topic, the participants had practice questions or interviewed some volunteers from Gede Foundation. 

To test their overall readiness, participants were introduced to Focus Group Discussions with children from Mpape, one of the SMILE communities in the Federal Capital Territory. The FGDs went well and gave the participants a feel of what lies ahead of them. 

The research will commence in 2 weeks and will run for 6 months. It is our belief that this project is groundbreaking in the area of mental health among children and that it will help scores of children and caregivers to be more open and resilient, as well as helping the children to grow into mentally sound adults.