By
Linda Naa Deide Aryeetey, GNA
Accra, Feb. 26, GNA –
The Government has increased funding for mental healthcare from six million Ghana
Cedis to 15 million cedis.
The funds are
expected to be released by March and distributed among the Mental Health
Authority (MHA) and the three psychiatric hospitals to run their operations.
Dr Akwasi Osei,
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the MHA, said the amount to be received
constituted about half of the Government’s allocation to the Ministry of Health
for Goods and Services.
The situation, Dr
Osei said, indicated that the Government had become more sensitive and aware to
the complications of mental illness to society.
He was speaking at
the launch of a research report on: “Exploring the Role of Traditional Mental
Health centres and their Impact on Promoting Quality Mental Healthcare and
Human Rights in Ghana’ in Accra, on Wednesday.
The research
conducted by the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC) and Mind Freedom Ghana
sought to understand the impact of mental healthcare and services provided by
Traditional Mental Health Centres (TMHC) and Traditional Health Providers
(THP).
Dr Osei said Ghana
was gradually extending mental health services nationwide as a lot of steps had
been taken to decentralise and make mental healthcare community oriented.
“Ghana now has about
40 psychiatrics in the public health sector,
therefore, the Mental Health Authority, together with the Ghana Health
Service would work together to ensure that every region has one psychiatrist,”
he said.
The Authority, he
said, would use the TMHC as frontline informal community mental health workers
to enable them to provide better services and bridge the gap between the
informal and formal care.
Dr Osei said, this
year, a National Mental Health Review Tribunal would be established in Accra
with representatives from all over the country to address concerns of persons
who were wrongly admitted in mental health hospitals.
He expressed the
hope that the mental health levy would soon be established to enable the
Authority to function effectively.
The research report
indicated the traditional mental health centres and practitioners played a
significant role in the provision of mental health services.
Traditional centres
addressed the spiritual, physical and the socio-cultural needs of clients as
well as provided a holistic way of addressing ailments in a culturally appropriate
manner, he said.
The report said the
traditional care providers were highly accessible in rural areas and their
modalities for healing and dealing with difficult sicknesses were more
preferred than the bio-medical health facilities.
Ms Cynthia Nimo
Ampredu, CEO of Human Rights Advocacy Centre, urged the MHA to identify clear
areas of collaboration between the orthodox and traditional mental health care
providers.
She said there was
an urgent need for mental health service providers to develop specialised and
preventive treatment services bearing in mind the factors that heightened
vulnerability to mental illness.
Ms Ampredu also
encouraged traditional mental health care providers to build their capacities
to enable them to provide the right standard of care and support to their
patients.
GNA