ADB holds thanksgiving service

Story: Fauziatu Adam
The Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) has organised its first end-of-year thanksgiving service to thank God for the lives of the staff and customers of the bank and pray for God's guidance and protection.
The Presiding Priest in charge of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Abelenkpe, Rev Father Richard Aziati, who delivered the sermon, urged workers of the bank to create a positive image among their colleagues, so that "when you leave one day you will be remembered positively".
"Immediately you are given your appointment letter, the clock begins to tick and your countdown begins. Be conscious of the fact that the clock begins to tick and create a positive image among your colleagues," he said.
He advised the workers to love everybody and not discriminate against anybody.
He also asked them to forgive those who offended them and ask for forgiveness from those whom they offended.
Rev Father Aziati encouraged the staff to work and make profit, citing the Bible quotation, "Multiply, be fruitful and subdue the earth".
"As members of ADB, you should follow the rules and regulations of the company and not to go anywhere the company forbids you to go," he added.
He reminded them that money was the root of all evil and tasked them to pray for God's guidance to fight the temptation of embezzling the funds of the company.
He asked them to take care of their souls and not to sell them for the love of money, since their souls would move on even if they died.
"The body will rot, but the soul continues to move on and it will be judged on the day of reckoning," Rev Father Aziati noted.
The thanksgiving service ended with prayers for the lives of Ghanaians and the world at large.

Let’s contribute to minimise mental illness

Article: Fauziatu Adam
IT is widely believed that mental illnesses are caused by supernatural or evil forces that could be best cured by traditional medicine or spiritual prayers. It is common for a patient to be removed from a hospital by a relative and taken to a traditional or spiritual healer.
This psychiatric practice has existed for more than a century in Ghana. In some situations it is not known if the patient’s recovery could be attributed to medication or the intervention of the traditional healer or both.
In the ninetieth century, patients suffering form mental illness in the then Gold Coast were kept in prisons. Before this period, mental patients were left to fend for themselves or sent to traditional healers to be cured.
The colonial government in 1888 under Sir Edward Griffiths passed a legislative instrument (The Lunatic Asylum Ordinance), to establish an asylum in a vacated High Court building in Accra.
 It was not until 1904 that the Accra Psychiatric Hospital was built and officially commissioned in 1906, which was to accommodate 200 patients. During that period psychiatric treatment was primarily in the form of custodial care.
 The Accra Psychiatric Hospital has undergone major expansion in the past 105 years and currently houses about 1200 inmates; Half of them are cured but still living in the hospital because their relatives have abandoned them, and some others have no home to go to.
There were extensive changes to the hospital buildings, and staff training and recruitment were expanded. Other reforms introduced were the removal of chains from the legs of patients, refraining from punishing patients and discouraging isolation.
Currently, the hospital lacks resources in terms of staff, finances, drugs, among others, making it difficult for the few medical team there to attend to patients promptly.
Accessibility to psychiatric care
With a population of 24 million, and three psychiatric hospitals with 1200 beds, the ratio of one bed to 20,000 persons is glaringly insufficient. There is the uneven accessibilty of mental hospitals in the country since all three mental hospitals are located in the southern part of the country. It is no wonder then that some patients or their relatives would rather seek help from traditional sources, not only because of their cultural or religious beliefs in the cause of psychiatric illness, but because of easy or inexpensive access to traditional healers who live in their community.
When I visited the Accra Psychiatric hospital, Dr Osei took me to three wards. Two special wards -one for male patients and the other one for the female patients and the normal ward for only male patients. Before we went to the wards, the doctor asked me if I could stand what I was about to see.
Sincerely, that question alone got me frightened. We went to the special ward for the male which was also called the forensic ward, there were four staff attending to the needs of 232 male patients. There were two male nurses and two health assistants. The other male ward called the acute ward had 126 patients with only 49 beds and four nurses attending to them at the time of the visit. The largest female ward also had 112 patients taken care of by five nurses.
The food alone could send signals that the patients were treated like criminals. Most of them were fighting over the food I would not give to my pet. Moreover, the place was congested and I was told that most of them slept outside and when it rains the situation really gets worse.
According to Dr Osei, the World Health Organisation (WHO), requires that mental healthcare should start from self care through informal community care, primary healthcare, community health service, regional and finally to long stay facilities. He, however, noted that the reversed situation prevailed in Ghana.
"This situation if not corrected would spell doom for the country," he cautioned.
The pending Mental Health Bill, which he said had been hailed by the WHO as one of the best legislation worldwide, seeks to ensure that adequate provision of resources has nine parts, consisting of a mental health board, a Service, a Review Tribunal (to review mental cases), Visiting Committee, Voluntary Treatment and involuntary treatment.
The other parts of the Bill are the Rights of a Person (to take a look at human right abuses and discrimination associated with mental health), Protection of the Vulnerable Group and miscellaneous provisions. The Bill would also de-emphasise institutional care and help place mental care on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
He charged the media to put the government through the Ministry of Health on it toes to ensure the passage of the Bill, adding that the poor state of mental rights, protection of mental patients were justification for its passage.

Solutions:
With the pending bill which is likely to be passed soon, government should make sure that the contents of the bill are implemented. It is not only the passage of the bill that can enforce the implementation.
There is the need for the provision of adequate infrastructure and logistics for the training of community psychiatric nurses to encourage community healthcare with the view of bringing patients closer to their families for them to feel a part of society.
It is only through such realistic steps that the nation can avoid the danger we would all be exposed to if cured mental patients make the psychiatric hospitals their eternal home.
The government should help in the decentralisation of treatment of mental patients, and also establish mental health departments in all the general and community hospitals across the country to help provide easy access for mental health treatment in the country.
Furthermore, families tend to neglect their relatives who happen to find themselves in such situations because of the stigmatisation of mental patients.
Indeed, stigmatisation, as well as the lack of understanding of mental illness in the country, is one major problem that worsens the mental illnesses. There is, therefore, the need for more education on mental health to enhance the public’s understanding of the issue to erase the perception of the public on mental illness.
Stigmatisation is natural in every human being but it can be controlled.
According to Dr Osei, "if we are able to embark on a massive public education against stigmatisation, then it would be reduced”.
Community care is critical in mental treatment, since, according to health experts, it makes patients feel a part of the community, instead of being chained in hospitals. But this demands the training of more staff to perform the enormous task.
The media goes a long way in influencing the lives of people. The media is there to basically educate, inform and entertain the public. It should also liaise with mental institutions in the country to inform people and the various institutions about mental illnesses and what it comes with.

CANCER SCARE. 1200 Children get it every year

 FRONT PAGE STORY (DAILY GRAPHIC)
Story: Fauziatu Adam
IT is estimated that 1,200 children aged between 0-15 years are infected with cancer in Ghana every year.
According to the President of the Robert Mitchell Memorial Cancer Foundation, Mrs Emma Mitchell, the situation was aggravated by the ignorance of some parents to take their children to the nearest hospital when symptoms of the illness were detected in their children.
What was even alarming, she said, was the fact that the survival rate in the country was 20 per cent, compared to 70-80 per cent in developed countries.
According to her, health experts had maintained that childhood cancers could be cured, provided prompt and essential treatment was accessible.
Mrs Mitchell, a former minister of state and now a Member of the Council of State, therefore, advised parents to immediately report to health specialists for early detection and cure when they detected signs such as prolonged fever, loss of weight and appetite, fatigue, easy bruising or bleeding in their children.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic after a float had been organised by the foundation along selected streets of Accra to create awareness of childhood cancer, Mrs Mitchell explained that lack of knowledge and inadequate medical facilities were some of the contributory factors responsible for the alarming rate of the disease in the country.
Cancer is a class of diseases characterised by out-of-control cell growth. There are over 100 different types of cancer and each is classified by the type of cell that is initially affected.
Cancer harms the body when damaged cells divide uncontrollably to form lumps or masses of tissue called tumours (except in the case of leukaemia in which cancer prohibits normal blood function by abnormal cell division in the blood stream).
Tumours can grow and interfere with the digestive, nervous and circulatory systems and they can release hormones that alter body function.
Tumours that stay in one spot and demonstrate limited growth are generally considered to be benign.
Dr Juliana Mitchell of the Child Health Department at the  Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital advised against the use of pesticides at close range to children because pesticides were associated with acute myeloid leukaemia.
Dr Mitchell, a daughter of Mrs Mitchell, said pollution of the environment, continuous infection of malaria, hepatitis and other diseases such as HIV/AIDS could precipitate cancer diseases.

Accra Psychiatry Hospital repatriates more cured inmates

Story: Fauziatu Adam
THE Accra Psychiatric Hospital has so far repatriated 112 cured inmates as part of the ongoing decongesting exercise by the hospital authorities.
The third batch of cured mental patients, comprising 10 patients from the Greater Accra Region and 15 from the Eastern Region, would be sent to their homes.
Two of the cured patients who were sent home under the decongesting exercise have been returned to the hospital. One of the two was said to have resorted to the use of cannabis (wee) after he had been released to his relatives.
In interviews with some of the cured patients, Abraham Borketey said he had been on admission at the hospital for six weeks now.
“I was fighting with my relatives over a piece of land and they brought me here, thinking I was mad because I became very violent over that land. The sad thing is that they never visited me. I am happy I am going home today and promise never to fight again,” he said.
Another patient, Noel Tetteh, has been at the hospital for one month.
“I do not know why I was even brought here. I come from Kpone around Tema. My family members brought me because of something I could not even explain. But I am happy I am going home. Unfortunately, my family members do not know that I am coming home,” he said.
For Aku, a cured patient, she was reluctant to go home. She refused to enter the bus and but for a little persuasion and promises from the authorities that they would come for her some time later, she would not have entered the bus.
So far, 70 patients have been transported by the hospital to their respective homes, while relatives of 42 patients have come for them.
The Chief Psychiatrist of the hospital, Dr Akwasi Osei, said the exercise would continue for the next two weeks, noting that it would help the patients reintegrate into society.
  “The longer they remain in the hospital, the more difficult it becomes for them to reunite with society,”  he said.

Mental Institution to collaborate with sister instiution

The Accra Psychiatric Hospital is to collaborate with the Kaduna Neuro Psychiatric Hospital in Nigeria to expose the staff of the former hospital to new techniques of providing proper mental health care.
The relationship, which is to start by June this year, will kick-start with five staff of the hospital.
The Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Akwasi Osei, told the Daily Graphic that the relationship would enable the beneficiaries to share knowledge and experience to enrich their expertise in the administration of mental health at the hospital.
He added that the second batch of cured inmates of the hospital were sent home on Wednesday as part of the exercise to decongest the hospital.
Dr Osei said the second batch, numbering 30, was made up of 25 males and five females.
 He said the Kaduna Neuro Psychiatric Hospital had a doctor-patient ratio of 20:80 and described the state of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital as “an apology of a mental health institution” because of its low staff strength and serious congestion.
When the Daily Graphic visited the Male Special Ward which treats forensic cases, it realised that there were 232 patients and only four members of staff attending to them.
Their living conditions could be compared to those of slaves at the Elmina or the Cape Coast Castle before their shipment abroad.
Dr Osei, however, said the last operation had been a success, adding that 21 patients had been sent back to their families, two inmates could not recognise their houses as a result of the vast development in their areas, while seven others were taken by their family members at the hospital.
The two patients who could not recognise their houses would be taken to the Department of Social Welfare to locate their family members, he noted.
He said community nurses in the respective communities had been tasked to regularly check on the patients.
Dr Osei said the exercise would help the patients to reintegrate into society, saying, “The longer they remain in the hospital, the more difficult it becomes for them to reintegrate into society.”
He said similar exercises the hospital had embarked on in the past involving 90 cured inmates had been successful except for three patients, one of whom could not trace his family.
“Not all patients will be accepted by their relatives because of stigmatisation but at least a chunk of them will be sent home to their relatives and this will decongest the hospital,” he stated.

Nima to get clean water

Story: Fauziatu Adam
THE sod has been cut for work to begin on a community water supply system for Nima.
The project, which is being financed by the Co-operative Housing Foundation (CHF) International and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), forms part of a three-year programme to provide five communities with potable water.
The project is expected to be completed by next year.
The $4.5-million project consists of the construction and mechanisation of a borehole, the construction of a pump house, the installation of two overhead storage tanks with two standpipes and multi taps and the construction of one Aqualite treatment plant.
The project is expected to be constructed by Olivatus Company Limited, a private construction company, and it is to provide potable water for the people of Nima, Avenor and Newtown in Accra.
 A similar project is to be undertaken in the Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis to supply water to Kojokrom and New Takoradi.
The Member of Parliament for East Ayawaso, Dr Mustapha Ahmed, who did the sod-cutting, underscored the importance of water to economic growth, development and, indeed, life.
He said the project could be seen as a very major step in fulfilling the dream of providing the beneficiary communities with adequate water.
He noted that in view of the reliance on streams, rivers and other unsafe sources of water, with the attendant adverse effects on health, the government increased support for the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to ensure safer water in rural areas and efficiency in urban water supply.
He said as a demonstration of that commitment, the CWSA received its highest budgetary allocation last year, while the five per cent various communities contributed to the total capital cost was abolished.
However, he said the regularity and quality of water supply was not guaranteed, especially in urban areas, due to frequent shortage and storage in unhygienic containers.
He, therefore, emphasised the need to set up a system to collect adequate data on water supply on a regular basis.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred  Vanderpuije, urged residents of Nima to seek assistance from CHF International for their toilet facilities, since the CHF was willing to assist to construct toilets for the community.
The Country Director of the CHF International, Mr Sandrine Capelle-Manuel, said the foundation initiated the WASH-UP programme to improve water supply and sanitation infrastructure and governance through innovative and sustainable development.
“USAID recognises that although urbanisation increasingly concentrates poverty, it also provides possibilities for escaping it,” he noted.
He added that urban communities continued to grow in Ghana and that had brought about the challenge of providing adequate water supply and basic sanitation services.

5,000 To benefit from maths, science scholarship scheme

FIVE thousand students from various second-cycle institutions will this academic year benefit from the Mathematics, Science and Technology Scholarship Scheme (MSTSS) initiated by the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology.
The scheme is aimed at increasing the enrolment of students studying Mathematics, Science and Technology in various institutions across the country.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, announced this at the official launch of a website for the Ghana Mathematics Society (GMS) in Accra yesterday.
She added that the ministry had established the Ghana Space Science and Technology Centre and the Implementation of African Square Kilometre Array Programme to encourage universities in the country to introduce Bachelor of Science programmes in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
She attributed the lack of interest in Mathematics among the youth to the notion that it was a difficult subject and the wrong methodologies that had turned many students away from Mathematics at a very tender age.
She called for a change of attitude towards Mathematics among the youth and urged teachers to adopt methodologies that would encourage and motivate students to like to study the subject.
"The subject can be made attractive to students when greater emphasis is laid on its applications through practical and analytical thinking," she added.
Mrs Ayittey assured the GMS of the ministry's support to promote Mathematics education in the country and Africa as a whole.
"As a ministry responsible for Environment, Science and Technology, we do recognise the importance of Mathematics in contributing towards the achievement of the better Ghana agenda, hence the need to encourage institutions such as the GMS to promote Mathematics in the country," she added.
The President of the GMS, Prof Sitsofe E. Anku, said the reason many students shied away from Mathematics was the way it was taught and not the subject itself.
"Mathematics is doable, can be fun and loveable. That is why we at the GMS are on a mission to revamp Mathematics education in Ghana by rekindling interest in the subject to the extent that students show a natural love for Mathematics," he said.

SAD CASE OF CURED MENTAL PATIENTS.

FRONT PAGE STORY (DAILY GRAPHIC)
 Story: Fauziatu Adam
SIX hundred inmates of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital who have been cured of their mental illnesses are to face forced ejection from the hospital next week.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Akwasi Osei, said the 600 inmates had all been declared fully recovered and discharged from the hospital but they had refused to leave and make way for other patients.
Consequently, the hospital has declared a special exercise, dubbed ‘Operation 600 Patients Home’, under which patients who have long recovered but refused to go home will be forcibly sent to their families.
The Accra Psychiatric Hospital was built in 1906. It has capacity for 800 patients but currently houses 1,200 inmates, including the 600 who have been declared cured.
The chief psychiatrist was emphatic that the exercise would be sustained over the next six months to create space for the hundreds of patients, some wandering the streets of the city, who were unable to conveniently access mental health care at the facility as a result of the current congestion there.
“Those patients who have been fully cured of their ailments and are eating and living on our premises will be sent home, wherever they come from,” he stressed.
Dr Osei told the Daily Graphic that the exercise would pave way for an in-house patient system, adding that the hospital would consequently encourage community health care that would enable patients to be closer to their families and feel a part of society.
“The stigmatisation of mental patients is one problem that the public must try to avoid, since it does not help the patients to recover and, as happened in Tema recently, this can cause the death of patients,” he stressed.
On the passage of the Mental Health Bill, Dr Osei said the Ministry of Health would meet the Parliamentary Committee on Health to discuss issues concerning the bill.
He called on the government to put in the needed logistics and resources to enable the staff of psychiatric hospitals in the country to work efficiently, adding that if that was done, the youth in particular would find interest in applying to study at their training schools and subsequently work with them.
On Thursday, April 1, 2010, President John Evans Atta Mills paid a surprise visit to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital and assured the medical staff and the patients there that the government would improve upon the procurement of medicines and other facilities for better care of mental patients.