from Bampoe Daniel – Koforidua
The Minister of Health, Hon Sherry Ayittey has today launched the World Mental Day Celebration in the Eastern Regional capital Koforidua on theme; Mental Health and Older Adults?, with the aim of having the significant impact on the progress towards several Millennium Development Goals regarding to reduce mental health illness in Ghana.
Hon Sherry Ayittey in her open address said People with mental health problems often are unable to work because of their symptoms, due to the stigmatization and discrimination others are denied from working which drive them into poverty, also studies indicates that even when an economy is buoyant, those with severe mental illness have the highest unemployment rate of any disability group unemployment rates up to 90% are not uncommon among people with mental and psychosocial disabilities.
She said, women are twice as likely to develop common mental disorders compared to men, and lifetime prevalence rate of violence against women ranges from 16% to 50% in 5 women who suffer rape attempt in their life time which can leads them into common mental disorder in women to associates factors such as poverty, hunger, malnutrition, overwork and sexual abuse.
According to her, the government considers mental health as a crucial issue for the national development agenda and implications to deal with mental health should includes by protecting human rights as well as for social ? economic development, by creating community awareness through campaigning the treatment and preventable spreading of the mental disorders, by organizing events to address the public on issues relating to mental health disorder and how effectiveness it can affect the conditions of mankind.
She further express that the Government is currently looking at the increasing of the feeding grant for the patients at the psychiatric hospitals in the country, which the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has a responsibility to complement the Ministry of Health to seek the interest of the mentally ill as they also fall under the socially marginalized needing social protection.
She finally stated that the Government is going to build a 40 ? bed psychiatric hospital in the every region, where by all District hospitals will also have a few dedicated beds in the general wards, and the Ministry will train and engage more mental health personnel like clinical psychologists, community mental health officers, clinical psychiatric officers, community psychiatric nurses and other cadres who will help to reduce the mental health disorders illness in the country.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Hon Helen Adjoa Ntoso, who was the Guest of honor, said Eastern Region has one of the highest prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS in the country which is associated with mental illness, also the region has the highest rates of mental patients which has recent been announce in the media.
Hon Helen Ntoso acknowledged the World Mental Health Organizers for hosting the event for the first time in the Eastern Region and appeal to the Ministry to Health to urgently Post a substantive Clinical Psychiatric Officer and more Psychiatric nurse to work in order to help reducing the mental illness in the region.
