Decentralize Mental Care

The Medical Director of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Akwasi Osei, has predicted that more young people will suffer from mental illness if mental health care is not decentralised.

He has, therefore, stressed the need for government to pass the drafted Mental Health Bill, which would ensure that “all districts have well equipped mental hospitals among others.”

Dr Osei, who said this in an interview, explained that if the bill was not passed and implemented, “we stand the risk of mental health collapsing in the next five years and that, among others, will cause more youth to suffer from mental illness”.

He said, for instance, that many of the youth were abusing drugs and suffering from depression, adding that the rate at which the youth were being diagnosed with mental health cases was alarming.

According to him, the drafted Mental Health Bill which was submitted through the Ministry of Health in 2006 sought to decentralise mental health care in the country, among other measures, to protect the youth from mental illness.

Currently, there are only three psychiatric hospitals in the country located in Accra and Cape Coast. They are the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, the Ankaful Mental Hospital and the Pantang Mental Hospital.

Dr Osei said the Accra Psychiatric Hospital last year treated several mental illnesses made up of mental retardation, epilepsy and attention disorders among children and the youth, saying these were likely to rise .

According to the Records Department of the hospital, 36,834 mental health cases were recorded in 2008, out of which 25,392 were between the ages of five and 34.

He warned that 70 per cent young people who abused drugs at the age of 16 could die by age 45, while the remaining 30 per cent might find themselves in prisons or became non-functional in society.

In a related interview, the Executive Secretary of Mindfreedom Ghana, Mr Dani Taylor, said the Mental Health Bill which was drafted by the Psychiatric Hospitals, the Ghana Health Service (GHS), some civil society organisations, among others, needed to be passed and implemented to save the youth from mental ailments.

Mindfreedom Ghana is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which was established in 2004 to help in education on and research into mental health in the country.

Mr Taylor added that a research conducted by his outfit revealed that most people did not know much about mental health, a situation which had given rise to superstition about the illness.