HEALTH INFORMATION RIGHTS AWARENESS, PERCEIVED STIGMATIZATION, PERSONAL FACTORS AND WILLINGNESS TO USE MENTAL HEALTHCARE SERVICES AMONG LIBRARIANS IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Information is data that is collected and organized for users in specific contexts. Information empowers people to make reasonable decisions; hence, it is an important resource for health professionals who make decisions that have implications on the physical and mental well-being of others. Health facilities such as hospitals, healthcare centers, medical nursing homes, medical laboratories, pharmacies and drug stores require information to manage patients’ health and provide them with the best possible treatments (Friedman, 2011). Health information can be described as any information collected in relation to health, disability or health service received by a patient. It includes patients’ genetic information, notes of symptoms or diagnosis and treatment, specialist’s reports and test results, appointment and billing details, prescriptions, pharmaceutical purchases and other information relating to patient’s race, sexuality or religion (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner [OAIC], 2015).
Enlightening people with health information rights in hospital is much more problematic than preventing associated risk such as hackers, identity theft and unauthorized access. Although health information may be useful to assess patient’s state of health, it also has the potential to appraise performance of health services. For instance, overreliance on the security of health information can lead to grievous errors if a patient information contains false information.Making health information rights understood to remote people necessarily makes them more reachable and available to amend their information. People need to be educated and be aware, just like healthcare professionals,of health information rights in any preferable format for efficient and effective health information use. Both patients and guardians need health information to adhere to treatment that will make healthcare service more productive. Similarly, health insurers, government health agencies, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and other agencies need to be aware of health information rights in order to properly process claims and pay for healthcare.
Personal health information is not utilized to its full potential to support effective and efficient care due to low level of health information rights awareness among people. A lot of factors in the society underscore the need for intervention addressing low health information rights awareness. We are a mobile population requiring access to vital personal health information in different locations. Personal health information is of sensitive nature and must be managed with care. However, this information often has to be shared among healthcare providers or disclosed to others outside health services for the patient’s benefit. For example, many Nigerians receive treatment in very different locations seasonally, and increasingly prevalent mental health challenges, like schizophrenia, personality disorder, depression, stress disorder, can only be managed by mental healthcare services. Many obvious patient safety and quality issues arise in the handover of patients among providers that fail to share necessary information. Natural disasters displace individuals to locales with unfamiliar providers and can destroy or render inaccessible existing health information repositories. Securing patients’ health information and protecting their rights to privacy and confidentiality thus becomes a major challenge for healthcare providers especially as medical information is increasingly accessible in electronic form. The loss, misuse, modification or unauthorized access to sensitive health information can adversely affect the welfare of an individual and this is particularly true of health information related to a person’s mental health status.
Today, people are plagued by anxiety, depression and crippling self-admiration. With this on the rise is an enormous proportion of Nigerians likely to fit the criteria for a mental disorder at some point during their lifetimes. But the questions are, is the state of mental health in Nigeria truly worse, or are we simply diagnosing disorders that were once unknown or is the millennial generation actually more depressed than the generations that lived through two world wars? The answers aren’t exactly simple.One problem with quantifying the change in the incidence of mental health problems or challenges over time comes from simply defining mental health. Mental health is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, but a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities to cope with the normal stresses of life (WHO, 2014). Mental health and well-being are fundamental to our collective and individual ability as humans to think, emote, interact with each other, earn a living and enjoy life. The level of mental health of a person at any point in time can be determined by multiple social, psychological and biological factors. For example in academic setting, persistent socio-economic pressures of greater job insecurity, constant demand for results and an increasingly marketised higher education system are recognized risks to mental health challenges. University counselling staff and workplace health experts have seen a steady increase in numbers seeking help for mental health problems over the past decade, with research indicating nearly half of academics show symptoms of psychological distress in UK (Shaw & Ward, 2014). In addition to psychological distress is personality factors and prolonged stress. Stressors can be in the form of heavy workload, speed of work, working conditions, poorly designed environment, interpersonal discord with supervisors, colleagues, and discrimination based on age, sex and frustration related to the social organization of the workplace (Aldwin, 2007). Excessive job demands can result in excessive stress. Also, the interference of the home front with work place demands sometimes constitutes stress for employees especially where the staff concerned is not able to manage both effectively.
Mental health challenge is not confined to certain geo-polities or social strata.It is an issue that has the potential to affect anyone, male or female, young or old, rich or poor (Steel, Marnane, Iranpour, Chey, Jackson, Patel & Silove, 2014). It is indeed everyone’s business. This fact validates mental health challenge as a complex, yet current and important issue for people and the workplace in its entirety. This is because universities do not exist in a vacuum, workers are not recruited from outer space, but from the environment within which institution exist. Hence, the indices of mental health pertaining to Nigeria, should be of concern to Nigerian workplaces. Beyond this, the workplace itself is an environment that poses significant impact on mental health (World Health Organization and International Labour Organization, 2012). Furthermore, it is becoming clear through research that most mental health challenges, including depression, stress disorders, social phobia, schizophrenia, eating disorders, personality disorders and addictive behaviours are caused by a combination of biological, psychological and environmental factors (Neil, 2010). Environmental stressors, such as death of loved ones, divorce, a dysfunctional family life, feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, anxiety, anger, loneliness, changing jobs or schools, midlife job crisis, work-related stress, technology, socio-cultural expectations and substance abuse can trigger mental health challenges. In most cases, symptoms can be managed with a combination of medications and counseling otherwise known as psychotherapy (Jack-Ide, Uys & Middleton, 2012).
