By
Christabel Addo, GNA
Accra, Oct. 8, GNA – Dr Owen Laws Kaluwa, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, has called on the
Government to develop and strengthen evidence-based programmes to address the
mental health needs of young people.
He urged the Government to put in place
deliberate interventions, with the support of national policy-makers and
programme managers, to prioritise and advocate for funding to finance the
mental needs of the country, with special emphasis on adolescents and young people.
Dr Kaluwa made the call on Monday at a press
launch of the 2018 Mental Health Week, which was organised by the Mental Health
Authority (MHA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and WHO, in Accra.
The weeklong event, on the theme: “Young
People and Mental Health in a Changing World,” seeks to draw attention to the
importance of mental health, with particular focus on adolescent and young
people, and create the platform for education, awareness and advocacy.
Dr Kaluwa described mental health as a complex
social issue that could not be addressed by government alone or any single
institution, as it went beyond health, to include sectors such as education and
local government.
He said it was also fundamental to the overall
health and for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health
Coverage.
Dr Kaluwa said statistics show that half of
all mental health globally began by the age 14, but most cases go undetected
and untreated, and in the African Region, it was estimated that five per cent
of the population, aged 15 years, suffered from a mental disorder.
Depression was the third leading cause of
ill-health among adolescents, with suicide being the second leading cause of
death among those aged 15 to 29 years, he said.
He said the harmful use of alcohol and illicit
drugs among adolescents contributed to risky behaviours such as violence,
unsafe sex and dangerous driving.
Also, children and adolescents with mental
health disorders often faced stigma and limited access to healthcare and
education, in violation of their human rights, he said.
Dr Kaluwa said the WHO had developed tools to
support parents, caregivers and teachers to build life skills of children and
adolescents, to help them cope with everyday challenges.
He recommended continuous training for primary
healthcare workers to enable them to detect and manage common mental health
problems in community settings.
He called for strengthened collaborations among
stakeholders to build mental health resilience from an early age to help
prevent the mental distress and illnesses among adolescents and young adults
and to manage recovery.
Dr Pinaman Appau, the Executive Secretary of
the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, said although the Mental Health fraternity in
Ghana had worked hard to create awareness, increase advocacy and educate the
public, it failed to prioritise mental health or investment in young people.
The MHA has, however, developed and embarked on
a medium to long term development plan and was poised to bring on board all
resources required for the effective and efficient implementation of projects
designed in the strategy and called for the Mental Health Fund to be made
functional.
“We need to get the Mental Health Fund up and
running and conclude the conversation of having the NHIS cover mental
healthcare in the nation,” Dr Appau said.
She said the unavailability of such in the
NHIS had kept greater proportion of the youth who required mental healthcare
from accessing such care, making them to suffer in silence, leading to
complications in their otherwise mild conditions, which could have easily been
treated and managed.
The lack of the necessary Legislative
Instrument (LI) to back the Mental Health Law since its passage in 2012 had
affected its smooth implementation to help navigate the problems that had
plagued patients’ care.
Dr Appau said the MHA was addressing the issue
of stigmatisation and discrimination against psychiatric patients by placing
emphasis on community care rather than institutional care, and ensuring that
mental health care was seen as any other illness for which patients could walk
into health facilities for care.
She said the programmes outlined for the
celebrations include public lecture, appearances on various media platforms, a
health walk, outreach screening programmes, and Open Day at all Mental Health
facilities for public interactions.
Dr Appau appealed to the media to intensify advocacy,
public education and awareness to help eliminate the stigma and discrimination
against persons with mental health challenges.
She said it was society’s responsibility to
educate the youth on how to cope with the stresses of life and deal with
everyday issues such as peer influence, alcoholism and substance abuse.
She said they must be guided and mentored as
they grow up to understand themselves and the world around them.
GNA