Mental Health: Your Pinnacle Global Initiative Moves To Establish Counselling Call Centers

An encounter with heart of gold woman with passion for nurturing younger ones for better future through counselling education. A Cheif Executive Officer, (CEO) of Your Pinnacle Global Initiative, NGO’s with uncommon services.

Who is Maria Edunsin and what is your organization out to achieve?

Maria Temitope Edunsin, originally from Esie, kwara state but I was born and raised in Surulere, Lagos. I left for the UK about 30 years ago and I have been in the UK since. Your Pinnacle, is a representation of my passion about humanity, our mental health and psychological wellbeing. It is a manifestation of what I have acquired over my life’s journey through environmental structure and my experiences, which I want to share with everyone to enable them to start the journey to their pinnacle.

Counseling people, most especially young generation by NGOs like yours, seems to be uncommon in our society, why did you pick that path?

I have been opportune to work with children, youths and adults in various mental health and educational sectors. I have also amassed a great deal of knowledge as the children’s coordinator in my church and I have seen and learned that the earlier children get counselling the less likely they are to need it as adults. Also I feel like it is necessary to educate the younger generation about counselling, make them understand what it is about and this will in turn eradicate the stigma associated with mental health issues.

How do you intend to go about it, since you are not based in Nigeria?

Thankfully my parents made sure they embedded our culture and heritage in my siblings and I, they ensured we knew where we came from and what that meant. Also my husband and I are doing everything we can to educate our children about our culture and heritage and sometimes this means doing research on things I am not familiar with and that in itself is educating for me.

The idea behind YPGI is to first and foremost raise awareness about mental health, providing a safe haven for everyone by supporting them in their journey to reach psychological and mental well being.

We are planning to do this by telephone, video and face-to-face counselling; we also hope to have mental health and counselling check-in facilities. Within these facilities, there will be therapy rooms and phone counselling call centers to enable phone counselling across the country.

Compare to your country of resident, do you think Nigerian Government is doing enough in area of career counselling for students?

In all honesty I do not think enough can ever be done as there is always room for improvement but I think that career counseling should be introduced to students right from junior secondary school (JSS1), to give them orientation and counseling on career choices. More so, there is no specific subject that gives indepth details about each career including the occupational hazards, benefits, requirements and institution offering such career choices). As this will prevent many students from being misled or pressured into careers by peers, parents and teachers.

Is there any lesson you think Nigeria government or Schools can learn from how counselling is shaping life of people for good in abroad, most especially where you schooled and based (UK)?

Like I said earlier there’s always room for improvement and you know nobody is the custodian of knowledge, I do feel like a couple ideals could be adapted. First and foremost, it is important for the Nigerian government to eradicate the stigma attached to mental health by educating and clarifying to people the disadvantages of mental health and counselling stigma. Furthermore, giving this knowledge to the general public will enable them develop and benefit from a free mind set towards certain issues and on an individual level this will allows services like ours to operate for the benefit of the people.

With schools, it is advisable to employ at least 2 professional counsellors across all educational levels primary and secondary and even tertiary and make room for periods of counselling at least once in a week. Finally, most students in abroad pass through school counsellor before gaining admission into the school, it would be good if we could adopt that in Nigeria as well.

With universities, the incorporation of therapeutic practical training, university placement opportunities, work experiences and volunteering.

Nigeria is a big country, 36 states, do you think your organisation can cover all the states and achieve desire result?

We aim to cover all states and we know this is no small task, so like I said before we plan to invest heavily in telephone and video counselling. Likewise, our mental health clinics will provide therapeutic rooms for face-to-face session for local and regional access to our services.

Reaching other state in Nigeria will hopefully be easy for the NGO as it is registered as a charity with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and I am a member of Counselling Association of Nigeria (CASSON) which gives me the privilege of raising awareness (online, seminar, workshop, collaborating with other NGOs and schools).

Your Pinnacle Global Initiative will also endeavor to employ professional staff who can travel to each state and assist in creating awareness, giving face to face counseling, group counseling, talks, presentation and others.

We also hope to partner with the education system to enable training for current student counsellors by providing them an environment where they can practice with real life situations and honest clients. This way we will support them in becoming an experienced counsellor for a better career prospects

Is there anyone or organisations bankrolling you for this project, considering financial implication?

At the moment, the charity is funded by donations from family, friends, the board of trustees and myself. In the long run we hope to collaborate with the Nigerian government and other willing NGOs and organisations to make and sustain an effective and long lasting positive effect on the mental health of people in our community and country at large.

Many people believe that poverty is Nigeria’s major problem, is your organisation doing anything in alleviating suffering on vulnerable Nigerians, apart from counselling people?

I am of the opinion that it is better to equip people with all they need to succeed like the saying goes give a man a fish, and he will be hungry again tomorrow; teach him to catch a fish, and he will be richer all his life. However, in the time when the man is still learning how to catch fish, there might be days when he will catch fish and days he won’t. In those days, we would to the best of our ability support them with fish to sustain them or as necessary.

What is the long term objectives of your organisation?

The long-term objective is quite straightforward; the final goal is to support each and every individual on their journey to be the best versions of themselves to enable them reach their pinnacle by providing all the necessary mental and psychological support.