Youth Health, Mental and Psychosocial Affairs

The Youth Health, Mental & Psychosocial Affairs Department spearheads policy formulation, interventions, and multi-sectoral advocacy focused on the physical, mental, emotional, and reproductive health and wellness of Nigerian youth.

Mandate

• Design and implement comprehensive youth health awareness, psychological well-being, and psychosocial support programmes.
• Coordinate awareness campaigns and sensitization workshops to reduce teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
• Integrate gender equality principles across youth health interventions and conduct sensitization addressing harmful traditional practices and sexual violence.
• Lead youth-focused campaigns and sensitization on the dangers of substance abuse, narcotics, tobacco, and alcohol.
• Collaborate with line MDAs and stakeholders to expand youth access to adolescent-friendly health services and HIV prevention.
• Establish standards for quality assurance of services on youth health, mental, and psychosocial affairs in Youth Development Centres across the six geopolitical zones.
• Design, develop, and coordinate the policy framework and monitoring of programmes on youth health, mental, and psychosocial affairs.
• Collaborate with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the creation of a comprehensive data bank on youth health practitioners.

Functions

• Organize mental health workshops for ministerial personnel and capacity building for Youth Health Officers.
• Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to support nutrition programmes addressing under-nutrition, anaemia, and obesity among young people.
• Convene Technical Working Group (TWG) meetings and zonal consultative meetings on youth health and wellness.
• Strengthen inter-sectoral partnerships with line MDAs, CSOs, and donor partners on communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Structure

• Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Division
• Adolescent and Sexual Reproductive Health Division
• Substance Abuse Prevention and Rehabilitation Division
• Quality Assurance and Data Bank Unit