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98.5% of government funding to mental health spent on emoluments

By Anthony Apubeo, GNA    

Bolgatanga, Aug 19, GNA – About 98.5 per
cent of government funding and resource allocation to mental health services in
2018 was spent on payment of staff emolument, a research finding has shown.

It further disclosed that the various
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies failed to include mental health
issues as part of their top priorities, and Internally Generated Funds (IGF)
was the main mode of financing non-remunerative expenditure such as logistics,
mental health services and governance among others.

The research was conducted by BasicNeeds
Ghana, an advocacy Non- Government Organization (NGO), with funding support
from STAR-Ghana on the theme, “Accessible and quality mental health for poor
and marginalised persons with mental disabilities.”

The finding, which was made known in
Bolgatanga at a forum with the media, was part of STAR-Ghana Gender, Equality
and Social Inclusion (GESI) initiative.

The research, which was conducted in 30
districts from five regions including Greater Accra, Brong-Ahafo, Northern,
Upper East and Upper West Regions, was to under study the resourcing avenues of
community-based mental health care in Ghana.

It was also to advocate increase in
budgetary allocations for mental health care services, improve quality and
access to community-based mental health care services, at the district and
community levels leading to improving the health of persons with mental illness
including epilepsy in Ghana.

Speaking at the dissemination forum, Mr Fred
Nantogmah, the Knowledge Management and Communications Officer, BasicNeeds
Ghana, said there was 97 per cent funding gap for community based health
services.

He said the attainment of all the 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) largely depended on the mental health of
the citizenry and called on government and other stakeholders to strategically
invest in community-based mental health services.

Mr Nantogmah explained that most of the
problems confronting the country were as a result of attitudes of the people,
which was a function of mental health and added that there was the need for
stakeholders to view mental health issues as collective responsibility and
invest in youth mental health services to help achieve the SDGs. 

Though government was the highest
contributor to the community-based mental health services of about GHȼ1,339,647.36
out of the total amount of GHȼ1,524,185.16, a greater part was spent on staff
emoluments and capacity building, for staff on study-leave, he said.

The research further revealed that there was
only five per cent of resource allocation to the provision of medical supplies,
zero allocation to the provision of office equipment, logistics, furniture and
fittings, mental health services and governance.

He said while the findings pointed out that
resource support from MMDAs was practically non-existent, of about 0.7 percent,
there was significant support from other, non-traditional, sources especially
in office equipment and transportation.

GNA

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