Former Chief Medical Director, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) and consultant surgeon Prof. Roland Ndoma Egba, has advocated holistic and multidisciplinary approach to stress management.
The medical expert made the advocacy at the University of Calabar during the maiden celebration of 2024 International Men’s Day by the institution’s Centre for Gender Development yesterday.
The former chief medical director stated that a standard process for diagnosis of stress should be instituted stressing that approaches to diagnosis must be holistic and multidisciplinary.
In his paper presentation titled “The 21st Century Man: Approaches to Stress Management”, the consultant surgeon averred that stress itself does not harm, but how a patient reacts to it is what kills a man.
“Stress is an infectious disease and one of the misfortunes of life is to work under one with stress.
“Stress is there wherever you are and in whatever you do and is triggered among others by unclear expectation, poor leadership, poor economy, increase in financial obligation, among others.
“Everyone with a chronic illness is permanently under stress, and anyone who loves someone under stress is equally stressed,” Ndoma-egba stated.
He identified stress as being the most common cause of infertility for men and anxiety for women.
In her remarks, Winifred Oyo-Ita, former Head of Service of the Federation, stated that nothing much has been done for men after years of toil and investment in their families.
Oyo-Ita advocated for the conversion of the Ministry of Women Affairs to the Ministry of Gender Affairs so that men could also be included in the scheme of things.
In her earlier remarks, executive director Centre for Gender Studies University of Calabar, Dr. Brenda Akpan, stated that the event was organised to celebrate men and highlight the challenges they face.
