A non-profit organisation which focuses on mental health awareness, Rights Support Foundation has called on government to prioritise face-lifting mental health facilities dotted across the country.
According to the Foundation, it is prudent for government to invest more into facilities to help address mental health issues.
Speaking to Citi News after a mental health awareness programme at ICGC Military Assembly at Teshie, Co-founder of Rights Support Foundation Ghana, Yvonne Kakari stressed on the need for government to pay attention to mental health issues.
“First of all our facilities are not the best, I don’t know if there is a school that is mainly for mental health care. Having visited the Accra psychiatric hospital in February 2020, I saw where the in-patients sleep. They sleep outside where there’s no shelter. They sleep outside on metal beds so looking at how the conditions under which they live, I don’t think it is the best. So I think that we should pay more attention to that. We at Right Support Foundation intend to work with the public sector. We intend to work with the private sector, the academia, development partners, religious bodies, anyone that have a role to play in our objectives, so we’re looking forward to having a whole comprehensive movement to ensure that we address matters of mental health”.
A lead facilitator of the Foundation and Public Relations Officer of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Emmanuel Aboagye Appiah indicated that due to the misconceptions and stigmatisation that characterise mental health challenges, most people with mental health experiences refuse to seek help.
The situation, he said, leads to the deterioration of a challenge that could have been treated or dealt with.
He also added that, unlike many physical ailments, mental health issues tend to remain hidden.
“Symptoms such as headaches, feeling down, insomnia, fatigue, or trouble with concentration could easily be misdiagnosed as other illnesses other than mental health. Mental health affects the total well-being of a person, mental health could be the biggest health issue facing our generation and there was the need to create a conducive environment for people to talk about it and seek help, be it a lived experience, a family member, friend or co-worker, someone who we know is dealing with mental health issues”.