Story: Fauziatu Adam
The Chief Psychiatrist of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Akwesi Osei, has made another strong appeal for the passage of the Mental Health Bill (MHB) by the first quarter of next year to help ease the suffering of mental patients in the country.
He said some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and sympathisers of psychiatric hospitals in the country had threatened to demonstrate if the bill was not passed at the given time.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at the annual end-of-year celebration, Dr Osei said the MHB had been in existence for over four years but it had been sidelined by governments.
He indicated that most mental health institutions in the country, especially the Accra Psychiatric Hospital would collapse if the bill was not passed and implemented soon.
He explained that the bill entailed the decentralisation of the mental hospitals and a system where there would be more mental clinics across the country and easy access to mental treatment across the country.
“Mental treatment would also be moved from hospital care to community care for patients to feel a part of the community than to be caged in hospitals”, he added.
He mentioned that currently, the Accra Psychiatric Hospital had about 1,200 patients, about 600 of which were fit to go home, but half of that number had been abandoned by their relatives for more than 30 years.
Dr Osei said the psychiatric hospital lacked resources in terms of human, financial, drugs, among others, making it difficult for the hospital to attend to patients promptly.
He added that for close to seven years, the hospital had been owing its food, drugs, uniforms and suppliers of other resources due to lack of funds.
He said if the bill was passed and implemented, it would reduce, if not remove entirely, the challenges facing psychiatric hospitals in the country.
He observed that there was still stigmatisation and lack of understanding of mental illnesses in the country which made the treatment of mental cases very difficult.
He, therefore, appealed to the general public to do away with their perception of mental illness and urge authorities to pass the bill soon.
The celebration was also meant to relieve staff of their hectic duties after attending to mental patients under very demanding conditions, fete mental patients and award 30 retirees of the hospital who had served tirelessly and retired honourably over the years. They were given 21-inch coloured televisions.
