Costly Mental Health Ignorance –

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Mental health continues to be ignored to the detriment of our wellbeing as a people.

The subject is largely untreated in all Ghanaian communities because it is not comprehended as an ailment like other illnesses and therefore require the intervention of specialists.

But for occasional reference to it during certain public forum, much is not heard about it even as victims suffer varying forms of non-dignifying features consistent with mental health deficiency.

Although the state and for that matter the relevant ministry has set up a department to deal with this subject there is much to be desired in this regard.

We think that there should be a deliberate and consistent awareness creation among the populace about mental health and what constitutes it.

Mental patients continue to find themselves in prayer camps and halls of so-called spiritualists who claim to have the power of casting demons responsible for the predicament of mental patients.

Depression, bipolar and extreme forms of stress are common in our communities and their fallouts beyond the comprehension of family members.

Symptoms of mental health are misunderstood or not determined at all because it is a subject beyond the ken of untrained persons.

The professionals should as part of the enlightenment programme educate us about the symptoms of mental health and when to seek help from the relevant facilities.

Such education would go a long way in helping us seek help when such is necessary and to stop stigmatizing victims of mental health.

Persons who are treated for mental challenges should be considered as persons who underwent treatment for ordinary ailments and supported to return to normality and should not be shunned.

Perhaps basic identification of mental health should even be taught at senior schools. This way, persons who suffer from this challenge would know it is time to seek help.

We have observed the rising trend of spousal murders anomaly which can be traced to mental health disorders in some instances.

When one of the partners in a marital union starts exhibiting this challenge occasioning in sometimes threats from the husbands family members would usually intervene. They would plead for the couple to continue to live together even when in fact one of the couples is suffering from mental health and needs psychiatric intervention.

Some cases as in the foregone have led to serious bodily harm or even fatalities.

Family members should when the spousal disagreements are occasioned by assaults observe one of the spouses to isolate mental health and to seek interventions forthwith.

Mental health is real and many in society the experts say are victims who require intervention but do not know, not even persons they live with.

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