Nigeria: My Passion for Mental Health Started in the University - Nzube Ekpunobi

Nzube Ekpunobi is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Mental Health Initiative, CarMHI, based in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, a small island nation in the Caribbeans. In this chat with Vanguard, Nzube speaks on his passion for mental health, why he founded CarMHI and the challenges. Excerpts:

Early days

Although he was born in Lagos, Nigeria, Nzube has lived in various parts of the world. As an Igbo adage says; A well-travelled child exceeds a gray-haired person in knowledge, Nzube believes that living in different parts of the world has helped to give him a unique perspective on life generally.

"Life has placed me in very different environments around the world since I was a toddler. I've lived in England, Canada, the US, the Caribbean, and of course Nigeria. I think it has armed me with a wealth of experience and a unique perspective on globalism, international relations and issues that plague different communities and cultures.

Education

"My secondary schooling was between boarding school in Abuja and public school in Toronto, Canada. I spent most of that time living away from family, which instilled in me a sense of independence and resourcefulness from an early age. My most transformative years followed shortly after, when I was accepted to the prestigious University of Toronto (U of T) to pursue an Honours Bachelor of Science in Health and Disease," he said.

Discovering his passion

Unlike so many students, Nzube did not just pass through the university, he allowed the university to pass through him. He thus emerged a better person with a clearer vision.

"My Specialist program explored human health from not just a physical and biological perspective, but from an emotional, psychological, societal and legal perspective. It was a very well rounded education, albeit incredibly demanding. It really helped turn me into the person I am today! It was there I saw my passion for mental health! I began working for the University of Toronto Students' Union as Associate President, and was thrown into the world of advocacy, policy and justice."

Marginalised groups

"I worked intimately with marginalised groups to craft policy, critique systems and, within the mental health board there, draft recommendations that would later prove immensely helpful for not only the university but the Toronto community for years to come.

"Shortly after graduating from the university, I spoke to my mother, Tessy, about my best options moving forward. I knew I wanted to practice medicine, but I also wanted to remain involved in advocacy, especially in the area of community and mental health.

Since she works closely with the government of St. Kitts and Nevis as their Honorary Consul-General, she highly recommended I consider a school down there named the University of Medicine and Health Sciences, St. Kitts (UMHS). She visited the campus and was blown away by the state-of-the-art facilities, and insisted that on St. Kitts I could reach an underserved demographic.

Moving to St Kitts

"I was excited at the opportunity and applied to study medicine there. It ended up being the only school I applied for, and I was excited to receive my letter of acceptance into their accelerated MD program. Now, I'm half way done and I'm in the US for the remainder of my schooling, doing clinical rotations and clinical skills training. I hope to pursue a Master's degree in Business or Public Policy after I graduate from medical school, so I can explore that side of academia a little bit further, and learn to improve upon my areas of expertise."

Why I founded CarMHI

"As mentioned earlier, I really took a liking to mental health and advocacy while doing my undergraduate degree. Living in Downtown Toronto also had its benefits, in that it exposed me to a vast array of cultures and communities in a very short time. There were homeless shelters, women's shelters and mental health research centers within walking distance of my apartment that I would regularly try to keep in touch with and work with, and that was huge for me.

"One thing I noted was a significant stigma regarding mental health in the black community - even if their own family members have clear need for accessing such services. The issue is global, but very pronounced within our communities, whether it be in Black America, the Caribbean, and even Nigeria. It really boiled down to education and attitudes surrounding holistic health, and while physical health is something taken seriously, mental health is a lot less tangible and therefore a lot harder to promote.

Equipped with the knowledge and resources I had access to, I took it upon myself to at least try to make a difference. That's when I began thinking about starting up an organisation dedicated to just that, and that's what motivated me further to study in the Caribbean: killing two birds with one stone.

"Once I got to St. Kitts, I made a few friends and discussed my ideas with them. I was blessed to have colleagues that shared the same passion and zeal to help bring it to life, thus CarMHI was born. We launched it at UMHS a couple months later, and it has been growing strong ever since!

So far, we've launched an effective poster campaign, targeting mental health in men, raised a ton of money supporting mental health resources on St. Kitts as well as supporting Children's Home for troubled and disabled youth that we sponsor on the island. We've also organised art therapy sessions, educational seminars, charity runs, awareness campaigns and more! We're currently in the works of expanding further.

Target group

We are dedicated to fighting local and professional mental health stigma through effective knowledge media design strategies; improving the quality and accessibility of mental health services in the Caribbean; organising educative seminars and workshops; supporting mental health research, and founding a trans-Caribbean mental health network.

Our target group is primarily the Caribbean community both local and abroad, but includes the global community as a stretch goal. While we focus on impacting community health, we ultimately wish to impact global health: reducing stigma and improving access on an international scale."

Challenges

"We're all fairly young folks at CarMHI, in our 20s and early 30s. This makes it difficult to be taken seriously in some circles. It is sometimes a challenge when pitching our ideas, but once we show clear and solid plans, our growth, and some of the victories we've achieved, we tend to sway some people our way. The ideas, after all, are independent of age. Being based out of St.

Kitts is also a little bit of an issue since shipping policies and geographical considerations limit the ease of access to goods and services on the island. However, we are blessed to have contacts on the island, the US and in Puerto Rico who often help us out with such issues, and get supplies to us if we need them.

"Lastly, being in the US presents a challenge when trying to help with organisation at CarMHI, since there's only so much you can do when you're not on-ground. However, I have a very dedicated team on St. Kitts that are doing an awesome job putting together workshops, events and activities in my absence, as well as progressing with some of our more stretch-goals like posturing campaigns, expansion into neighbouring islands and more.

Mohit Mahalan, Jareliz Caldas-Diaz, Samantha Johnson, Micah Mathai, Mark Illes, James Riddle, Christine Sheeler, Darron Lewis, Sana Aman, Gina Allen and Dinorah Gomez are just some of the names of the dedicated staff and medical students that have continued to work hard to make sure that CarMHI is making a difference, and I couldn't be more blessed to have such an exceptional group of people.

Since leaving St. Kitts several months ago, I continue to correspond with them often over instant messenger services or Skype, just for direction and policy advice. Everything else, however, they pretty much have under control. There certainly are a lot more challenges we face, like any start-up organisation, but I'm confident that we're equal to the task!"

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