Socioeconomic barriers to patronage of federal neuropsychiatric hospitals and its implications for social work practice in Nigeria

Social work interventions are widely used to mitigate mental health and psycho-social challenges among patients, but its applicability to the increasingly poor patronage of federal Neuropsychiatric hospitals in Nigeria has not been explored. Study adopts mixed-methods, utilizing descriptive and FGDs for data analysis. Findings reveal negative belief systems, high cost of hospital bills and stigma to have contributed to this poor patronage. However, social workers engagement in counseling, advocacy, referral, sensitization and awareness creation services helped to enhance effective utilization of these facilities. The study underscores social workers’ skills and competencies to scale up utilization of federal neuropsychiatrics hospitals