Health
Lagos seeks collaboration to tackle psychological challenges
By Daniel Ayantoye
The Lagos State Government has called for stronger collaboration between the health and education sectors and other professionals to address the psychological, social and structural challenges confronting communities.
The call was made at the 11th International Conference of Community Psychology hosted by Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, with the theme, “Gathering in the Motherland: Celebrating Lifeways, Ways of Water and Reconnecting to the Source.”
Speaking as chairman of the occasion, the Lagos State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Tolani Sule, said psychology was relevant to virtually every sphere of life, including education, healthcare, governance and family.
Sule said people’s experiences of success and failure were often shaped by the opportunities available to them and, in some cases, opportunities denied to them.
He said, “Psychology matters in education because you cannot effectively educate someone you do not understand. It matters in healthcare because healing is not only about treating the body; it is also about understanding the person.
“It matters in governance because policies ultimately affect people. It matters in family.”
Also speaking, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, represented by Dr Leonard Okonkwo, emphasised the need for stronger collaboration among different professional sectors to address psychological and structural challenges affecting communities.
Abayomi said Africans had historically understood the importance of mobility and traditional systems in building experience and strengthening social support.
He noted that physical and mental health were interconnected, adding that developments in one area could affect families and communities.
He said, “Physical health affects mental health, mental health affects family functioning, family functioning affects community well-being.”
The commissioner called for effective collaboration among medicine, psychology, nursing, public health, education and government to address complex challenges confronting communities.
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of LASU, Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, said the conference would widen opportunities for scholarship, research collaboration, cultural engagement and meaningful interaction between the town and gown.
Speaking on the theme, Olatunji-Bello said it challenged participants to look beyond the conventional boundaries of psychology and examine the relationship between people, places, culture, memory and communities.
She said, “To me, it reminds us to look beyond conventional boundaries of psychology, and think about the implications, the relationship between people, place, culture, memory, and community.”
The vice-chancellor said reconnecting to the source was particularly important amid the pursuit of modernity, technology and individual advancement, noting that people sometimes lost touch with the communities, traditions, histories and relationships that shaped them.
She said, “Our roots matter. They influence our identity and values and our understanding of where we belong.”
Olatunji-Bello urged psychologists and researchers to move beyond merely studying communities, stressing the need to listen to communities, understand their realities and ensure that knowledge generated through research contributed to improving their lives.
The conference convener, Dr Olarenwaju Moshood, and the Alternate Chairperson of the Local Organising Committee, Prof Deborah Adewuyi, said the three-day conference was designed to provide a platform for scholars, practitioners and other stakeholders to exchange ideas, share research findings and explore practical solutions to contemporary community challenges.
They said the gathering would also promote scholarship, research collaboration and engagement among participants while strengthening understanding of the relationship between culture, environment, psychology and community wellbeing.
The conference brought together academics, psychologists, health professionals, policymakers and other stakeholders to deliberate on ways of strengthening communities and reconnecting people with their cultural, social and environmental roots.
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