Total of 20,365 cases of Neurological/Neurodevelopmental Disorders were recorded by the Ghana Mental Health Authority (GMHA) for 2022, as against 21,442 in the previous year.
The cases, it said declined by 1,077 representing 5.15 per cent.
Neurological/Neurodevelopmental disorders are conditions that affect how your brain functions and ranges from mild impairments, allowing those affected to live fairly normal lives, to severe disorders that require lifelong care.
The disorders include Speech and language disorders, Tourette syndrome, Schizophrenia, Fragile X syndrome and Autism.
The Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GMHA, Dr Carolyn Amissah made this revelation in a speech read on her behalf by the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the GMHA, Mr Evans Danso at the commissioning of a neurodiagnostic centre in Accra on Tuesday.
According to her, in the year 2022, Epilepsy recorded the highest cases with 18,506, Mental retardation recorded 739, Conduct/Behavioural disorders-mh recorded 388, Autism also recorded 381 cases whilst ADHA-mh recorded the least with 351 cases.
She expressed worry over the high number of epileptic cases in the country saying that at the regional level, Ashanti region recorded the highest with 2,670 which represents 14.43 per cent of the national figure of 18,506 in 2022.
On the breakdown for the remaining regions, she noted that Central Region recorded 2,151 cases representing 11.62 per cent, North East region recorded 1,982 cases which represents 10.71 of the national figures.
Also, she said the Bono East region recorded 1,897 cases which represents 10.25 per cent whilst the Greater Accra region recorded the least number of cases which was 1,562 representing 8.44 per cent.
Dr Amissah revealed that the total number of cases for 2022 as reported in the DHIMS2 may not be the total number of cases in the country as it may be under reported.
“These figures may be under reported because these are persons that have been reported to the hospital whose data have been captured,” she explained.
Dr Amissah urged all educational and corporate institutions to pay close attention to the mental health of their students and workers particularly with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis in the country.
She further called on all religious and social groups to seek the services of professional counsellors and psychologists and also develop the will to refer the members showing signs of mental health diseases to the mental health institutions early enough to receive complementary attention and care.
Dr Amissah urged all persons to take advantage of the MHAs toll free number “0800678678” to receive urgent mental health attention and guidance whenever they were experiencing a mental health crisis.
BY JESSEL LARTEY THERSON-COFIE
