<\/p>\n
Alexander Nyarko Yeboah<\/p>\n
Accra, Dec. 29, GNA \u2014 The Trust Jesus Foundation has called for the coverage of mental health cases on the\u00a0\u00a0National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to improve mental health delivery care in Ghana.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat will happen to someone who cannot afford to pay the required amount? The high cost of treatment is one of the factors contributing to the high number of mental patients roaming the streets.\u201d Madam Mary Wormenor, President, Trust Jesus Foundation, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Madam Wormenor made the call during a visit to the Pantang Mental Hospital, near Accra, to fete the inmates as part of their annual end of year assistance to mental homes in Ghana.<\/p>\n
She also requested for the establishment of a Mental Health Levy which would go a long to solve some of the problems associated with the mental health sector.
Aside capturing mental health on the NHIS, she also asked the Government to consider making mental health care affordable and accessible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is high time Ghana took mental health issues more seriously, considering how millions are gradually falling through the net.\u201d Madam Wormenor appealed.<\/p>\n
She advised that the economic challenges facing the country should not only be looked at in terms of the economic survival of the Ghanaian, but also how he dealt with the mental challenges like anxiety and despair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Madam Wormenor explained that, \u201cThere\u2019s a clear relationship between mental illness and poverty. Mental illness can push you into poverty and poverty can also push you to mental illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
She informed that poverty could\u00a0\u00a0make one stress himself through over thinking and that could\u00a0\u00a0push on into depression, leading to issues of mental health, suicide, among others.<\/p>\n
She asked Ghanaians to live by hope and manage to survive, trusting that tomorrow would be better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a coping mechanism which would help us not to be affected mentally whilst Ghana strived to recover from the economic challenges facing us,\u201d she indicated.<\/p>\n
Madam Mary Rhondi Asiaw, Senior Nursing Officer at the Pantang Psychiatric Hospital, receiving the items, observed that the gesture was timely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Madam Asiaw indicated that there was a thin line between sanity and insanity \u201cand until it happens to you, you won\u2019t know the reality of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trust Jesus Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization which focuses on mental health and other health issues in Ghana.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As part of their activities, they fete mental patients at the end of every year in order to put smiles on their faces which go a long way to help them in their recovery process.<\/p>\n
They have visited Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Ankaful Mental Hospital in addition to other health outreach programs in and outside Accra.<\/p>\n
The foundation distributed over 300 packs of Jollof Rice with chicken, soft drinks (malt) and bottled water to the inmates and staff of the Pantang Mental Hospital at a cost of 20,000 Ghana Cedis.<\/p>\n
GNA<\/p>\n