Ankaful(C/R), Jan 01, GNA –The Trust Jesus foundation has donated food items to inmates of Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital to as part of its yearly exercise and commitment to mental health.
The items were presented at the Ankaful Hospital by Madam Mary Wormenor, the President of the foundation.
She said, “As an organization all that we seek to achieve is to put smiles on the faces of the in-patients so they can also feel the sense of belonging.”
Madam Quaicoe indicated that such gestures were necessary because the patients, most of whom had been rejected by family and friends, needed to be assured that some one cares and was willing and able to assist them in any way possible.
She appealed to other benevolent organizations to help mental patients since their conditions needed regular assistance and attention.
Madam Quaicoe also called for the inclusion of mental treatment on the National Health Insurance Scheme.
According to her, this will take away undue pressure from relatives of mental health patients, since the cost of treatment was very high.
“If nothing is done about this, the chances of people with mental illness roaming the streets will be high,” she stressed.
Receiving the items, the Deputy Director of Nursing Services at Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, Madam Grace Korkor Tettey, was happy for the gesture of Trust Jesus Foundation.
Madam Tettey said it would make the patients happy and reassure them that they had not been forgotten by the larger society and that there was hope for them beyond the walls of the hospital.
She lamented how people brought their relatives to the hospital and abandoned them to their faith.
“These patients need food, soap, and dresses, so when people come to donate items, we are grateful,” she indicated.
Madam Tettey therefore appealed to relatives to visit their patients since it contributes to the healing process.
She also called on government to pay more attention to the neglected mental health sector.
In all, about 200 meals were distributed to the patients as well as staff on duty.
Before the outreach, Trust Jesus Foundation organized a Bible and Mental Health quiz at the Pantang Hospital as part of activities to mark the year.
The essence of the quiz was to inculcate the habit of reading the Bible and creating mental health awareness among people.
Trust Jesus foundation is a mental health organization that seeks to provide relief to people with mental illness through benevolence.
Since its establishment in 2019, it has visited all the psychiatric institutions in the country with the message of hope.
GNA