The World Health Organization has launched a free training course in mental health for 50,000 Ghanaians who are interested in ending discrimination, abuse in mental health and its related services.
The program, known as the QualityRights in Mental Health e-training, will be online-based and accessible to persons living in Ghana.
The QualityRights in Mental Health was launched in February 2019 by the Mental Health Authority and its partners with support from the WHO.
The program has seen some Ghanaians already receiving certificates for the World Health Organization for successfully completing the course.
The e-training will be supplemented by face-to-face capacity building within the limits of available resources, targeting some groups across the country.
The WHO and its partners are hoping to increase knowledge in mental health as well as promote the delivery of mental health services in the country through the program.
As part of the program, participants will be taken through a 16-hour course is topics including understanding human rights, promoting human rights in mental health, realizing recovery and the right to health in mental health and related services and protecting the right to legal capacity in mental health and related services.
The course is recognized by the Mental Health Authority under the Ministry of Health in Ghana. It also serves as an opportunity for professional nurses, doctors, psychiatrists, social welfare workers, teachers, security personnel who may require it as a Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
The course also targets persons with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities, families, care partners and other supporters.
The managers of the project say human rights violations and poor quality of care and support for people with mental health conditions, psychosocial and intellectual disabilities have been well documented in recent UN, Human Rights Watch and other reports.
These violations, they say are occurring in mental health services, in faith-based settings (including prayer camps) as well as in the community more generally.
“There is a momentum in Ghana to improve this situation, with the introduction of a new Mental Health Act (2012), the creation of a Mental Health Authority aimed at promoting good quality and humane care through policy and integrated services, as well as activities being carried out by civil society partners to promote and protect the rights of persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities and mental health conditions,” they said in a statement.
Application is online via: http://bit.ly/qretraining
