How Twitter therapists are helping bring mental health care to Nigeria

DM for Care In northeastern Nigeria—“Boko Haram’s den”—at least 3 in 10 people suffer from untreated mental illness. Despite high suicide rates and risks of radicalization, care is reserved for treating substance use or disorders like schizophrenia. Nonprofits like NEEM Foundation and Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative are working to provide mental health first aid via Twitter and Whatsapp. NEEM also helps reintegrate former Boko Haram fighters, and MANI runs a suicide hotline and advocates for decriminalizing suicide attempts. “Our counselors are volunteer psychiatrists and medical officers that are, a lot of times, the thin line between life and death,” says MANI’s Rasheedat Olarinoye.