Two of government’s 88 district hospital projects will solely be mental health facilities, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority (MHA), Dr Akwasi Osei has disclosed.
According to him, the facilities will cater for patients in the middle and northern zone of the country as part of efforts to decentralise and expand access to mental healthcare in the country.
Additionally, he said plans were underway to rebuild Ghana’s premier psychiatric facility, the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, as well as revamp other public mental health units across the country to improve quality care.
Dr Osei was contributing to a workshop held in Accra yesterday on the theme; “Greater Investment in Mental Healthcare and Services: Involving Corporate Entities in Ghana.”
Organised by MindFreedom Ghana, a non-governmental mental health advocacy organisation with funding from OSIWA, the workshop was the first in series of activities under a two-year project aimed at “Institutional strengthening and awareness raising to fight COVID-19 and its impact on people with lived experiences in Ghana.”
In his eighth address to the nation on measures taken to mitigate spread of COVID-19, President Akufo-Addo announced plans to construct 88 new district hospitals and six regional hospitals to boost the country’s healthcare infrastructure.
Expected to be completed within a year, the facilities he said, will be “a quality, standard-design, one hundred bed hospital, with accommodation for doctors, nurses, and other health workers.”
Admitting that the mental health sector had received some ‘recognition’ in recent times, Dr Osei said it was still inadequate considering the many challenges confronting it.
He cited insufficient and uneven human resource to promote quality care across the country, logistical and infrastructural constraints among others that hamper mental healthcare delivery.
“Per Ghana’s population, we need not less than 100 psychiatrist but we currently have 40 with 29 in training. For clinical psychologists, we have about 20 – it is a lot more than what we had years ago, occupational therapists, we have six now which is better than four years ago, so, there is some improvement but nowhere near what we need,” he stated.
Dr Osei called for private sector involvement in boosting the sector particularly in improving access, treatment and reintegration processes of mentally challenged persons.
“In the absence of safe and comprehensive mental health care, we give field day to unorthodox practices to fill in the gap and that leads to infringement on rights of patients and erodes gains made in giving right treatment,” he noted.
“We need to give priority attention to mental health the same way we give to other conditions because the bottom line is that there is no health without mental health and the mind and brain defines our being alive,” Dr Osei added.
Dr Frank Baning, Medical Director of Pantang Hospital in a presentation pegged the prevalence of mental disorders among the population at about 4 million with depression and anxiety accounting for half of mental health cases in the country.
He mentioned financing as the major setback to quality mental healthcare in the country, appealing for the inclusion of mental health unto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
While calling for allocation of funds into the Mental Health Fund to adequately cater for the needs of patients, Dr Baning urged that synergies are built among all key players in the sector to have a coordinated approach in addressing mental health issues.
Director of MindFreedom Ghana, Mrs Janet Amegatcher pointed out the correlation between mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic, “which is why we hope that by the end of the two year project we would have built awareness among the public through the development of well thought through and innovative programmes to reduce morbidity and mortality due to the pandemic.”
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
