Kaduna launches community-first model to transform mental health and justice system

‎Governor Uba Sani’s administration has launched the “Kaduna Model”, an internationally recognized, compassionate framework that redefines mental health and substance abuse care in Kaduna State.
‎
‎At a World Mental Health Day briefing, Dr. Joseph Ike, Director General of KADSAMHSA, unveiled the innovative program, stressing its integration of education, rehabilitation, and justice reforms.
‎
‎The model includes literacy and vocational centers teaching life skills, such as the Rigasa Center’s six-month program that graduated 200 children, and vocational training in urban agriculture, jewellery making, and hardware repair.
‎
‎A key feature is the overhaul of the justice system’s approach to minor, non-violent drug offenses, shifting from punishment to rehabilitation through the Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) program, developed with the UNODC. This breaks the cycle of addiction and imprisonment by mandating treatment instead of jail time.
‎
‎Kaduna also repealed Nigeria’s outdated Lunacy Act of 1954, replacing it with a Mental Health Bill that enshrines mental health as a human right.
‎
‎The state has integrated the WHO’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme, training 100 frontline health workers to manage common mental health conditions in general healthcare settings.
‎
‎The “Kaduna Model” rests on four pillars: community-first care, proactive youth prevention, justice reforms, and institutionalizing modern mental healthcare. Twenty free community-based Drop-In Centers operate within primary health care facilities, serving over 20,000 people in the first year alone. A Community-Based Treatment and Recovery Center opened in May 2024 and has rehabilitated 116 individuals, with more centers planned.
‎
‎Prevention is a priority through the Kaduna Children Amplified Prevention System (Kd-CHAMPS), delivering building programs to children under 18, including out-of-school youth.
‎
‎School programs, supported by the Ministry of Education and MTN Foundation, have trained over 200 teachers and reached more than 17,000 students with life-skills education.
‎
‎Kaduna is the first in Africa to scale UNODC’s LULU sports-based program, training 32 coaches and engaging nearly 1,000 at-risk adolescents.
‎
‎