By Erica Apeatua Addo
Mehuntem (W/R), Oct 26 GNA – Adingelah Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of children in rural communities, has joined the world to celebrate the Mental Health Day with residents of Mehuntem, a community in the Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality.
The annual event held globally on October 10, is to raise awareness about mental health issues, reduce stigma and promote mental well-being.
It was held on the theme “Break the Silence: Promoting Mental Health Awareness”.
The foundation, in addition, offered free health screening for the community, where a team of doctors, nurses and pharmacists screened children and adults for various diseases.
They were given medication and those who needed follow-up care, were referred to the appropriate health facilities to enable them to undergo further treatment.
Mrs Benedicta Adingelah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Foundation said, “This is one of many projects we are building, and the project title is ‘Healthy Futures’. “We believe that when a community is healthy people can progress in life. So, we pick the month of October for mental health awareness day.
“We have come to realize that within the community people are ignorant of this particular issue. So, we decided to bring on board professionals to come and educate them on mental health,” she added.
Mrs Adingelah said: “l am impressed as this community have been cooperative. We pray that when we come back next time, we will be able to achieve a greater target and see that people have recovered from such situations.”
She stated that the objective of the foundation was to enroll many children in school to eradicate poverty in the communities they have adopted, and they would work tirelessly to achieve it.
So far, the foundation has enrolled seven students from Ntiakokrom, Mehuntem, Damang, Nyamebekye, Old Kyekyewere Kwabenaho and Koduakrom in school, and they would be taking care of their education from the basic to the university level.
Dr Sylvester Newton, Senior Medical Officer, Gold Fields Damang Mine, who was part of the medical team, after the screening, explained to the Ghana News Agency that majority of the patrons had rashes on their skin, while for the children there were few cases of malaria.
“There were lot of hypertension cases, and I think there should be more education on that. We should encourage people to check their blood pressure. There were also few HIV cases and all those who tested positive were in the elderly age bracket.”
He advised the public to go for regular medical checks-ups to know their health status because early detection was the safest way to address any complicated health issue.
In educating the community on mental health, Miss Judith Oppongwah, Psychiatric Nurse, Huni-Valley health centre, said “Most mental health illnesses are things we experience in our daily lives, and we should seek help once it affects our daily interactions with others and the way we feel and think.”
She mentioned depression, bipolar, schizophrenia and postpartum depression as some common form of mental health conditions in their community.
Miss Oppongwah called for more education on mental health from the government, cooperate institutions and individuals, adding that the public should normalize talking about mental health, so that those in need could seek the required aid.
Mr Stephen Edumadize, an elder in Mehuntem, thanked the Adingelah Foundation for selecting their community for the all-important programme, saying, they have been empowered to promote good mental health for all.
He appealed to the foundation to provide reading and writing materials for all the seven communities they have adopted to enable the children read fluently.
GNA