By Peter Akwetey, GNA
Tema, Oct 19,
GNA – The Community Development Unit of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly has
organized an outreach programme to educate the youth on how to detect mental
health challenges and avoid them.
Organized in
cooperation with All African University Television (AAUTV), to commemoration
World Mental Health Day, the programme focused on how to handle suicide
thoughts as well as detecting such tendencies among their peers.
In an address,
the Pubic Relation Officer (PRO), Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Mr. Emmanuel
Aboagye, said it was the society which defined who a mental patient was.
Mr. Aboagye
said anything one did that did not conform to the norms and values of the
society could be termed as metal illness.
Mr. Aboagye
explained that mental illness could come about as a result of aging when memory
loss sets adding, “It can also be caused by malaria, typhoid fever, stress,
epilepsy, drug abuse, and HIV/AIDS.”
A clinical
psychologist and Lecturer at the University of Health and Allied Sciences
(UHAS), Dr. Emmanuel Dziwornu, addressing the challenges with suicide within the Ghanaian society, said, “We have demonized suicide and mental
health patients, so we fear to assist them with their situation because people
think the victims are demon possessed.
Dr. Dziwornu
informed that mental ailments could be treated and therefore society should
desist from stigmatizing those with such conditions because that would then be
adding to their stress and worsening their plight.
“You don’t need
suicide to escape challenges; you should rather seek the help of a professional
counselor who could help them unravel the challenges they may be encountering,
“he said.
The medical
practitioner urged them to focus on their studies instead of getting into
relationships which could disturb them and lead to conditions of mental health
if they got out of hand.
The outreach
programme was held for over 500 students within the Tema Metropolis.
Some of the
schools present were OLAMS Senior High School, Chemu Senior High School, Datus
Senior High School, Tema Methodist Day Senior High School, Manheam Senior High
School, Tema Technical School, and Tema Presbyterian Senior High School.
GNA
