According to the United States National Institute of Health (NIH), evidence exists to show that there’s a bidirectional relationship between mental health and HIV. Mental Health issues can reduce an individual’s risk perception and negatively impact access to HIV prevention, ART and treatment adherence.

As part of our efforts to create awareness about mental health issues, our Plateau, Benue and Ondo State teams took this years’ mental health awareness campaign our target groups, Key Populations, Adolescent and Young Persons Hub to clarify common misconceptions about mental health, increase demand for mental health screening and provide support and counselling services to them. The Theme for this year’s commemoration is “Movement: Moving More for Our Mental Health”

Groups such as Key populations, adolescents and young persons, and persons living with HIV are more susceptible to mental health issues given the peculiarities they are faced with.

The teams used the opportunity to talk about mental health issues, common signs associated with mental health, impacts and ways to maintain good mental health. This provided a platform to spark up critical discussions on mental health among Key Population.