Accra, Aug. 11, GNA – The Mental Health Alliance, a network of organisations involved in mental health advocacy, has called on the government to ensure a well-resourced mental health sector to help reintegrate persons with mental health conditions into society.
A well resource mental health sector will ensure professional evaluation, treatment, rehabilitation, and reintegration of persons with mental health conditions in the street back to their families and communities.
A statement from Basic Needs – Ghana, a mental health advocacy organization, in reaction to an incidence that occurred on the 1st of August, 2022 where a mentally challenged woman allegedly stoned a man to death at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, urged the government to speedily establish the Mental Health Fund
It called on the Ministry of Finance to prioritise the release of approved budgetary allocations to the Mental Health Authority and Psychiatric/specialized Hospitals to enable them to provide the needed mental health care to the good people of Ghana, to prevent the occurrence of such incidence in the future
The statement said “the unfortunate and avoidable incident could have been prevented had the state and the relevant institutions prioritized mental health and given it the needed attention it deserves.”
The Mental Health Alliance is of the view that the unfortunate incident that happened on Monday, 1st August 2022 could have been avoided had the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance committed financial resources to the Mental Health Fund for the provision of essential support and care for persons with mental conditions, it said and urged government to establish the Mental Health Review Tribunal and the Visiting Committees
The Alliance says since the passage of the Mental Health Act in 2012, there has not been funding committed to the Mental Health Fund to ensure efficient and effective mental health service delivery in Ghana.
The committees that were supposed to provide critical mental health support services at the district, regional, and national levels have still not been formed which has made mental health service delivery in the country difficult
In 2012, the Government of Ghana enacted the mental health law – Mental Health Act 2012, Act 846, to address the numerous challenges affecting the quality of mental health service delivery in Ghana.
The Mental Health Act 2012, Act 846 provided for the establishment of the Mental Health Authority with the responsibility of proposing mental health policies and ensuring their implementation; implement mental health policies; promote mental health and provide humane care; and promote a culturally appropriate, affordable, accessible, and equitably distributed, mental health care.
The Alliance for Mental Health and Development (Mental Health Alliance) is a national network of over three hundred CSOs, NGOs, and CBOs engaged in mental health advocacy in Ghana. It has eight regional chapters in the Upper East, Upper West, Northern (Northern, Savannah and North-East), Brong Ahafo (Bono, Bono East and Ahafo), Ashanti, Greater Accra, Volta, Central, and Eastern Region
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