By Naa Shormei Odonkor
Koforidua, March 27, GNA – The Ghana National Association of Community Mental Health Officers has called on the Mental Health Authority (MHA) to inaugurate all 261 District Mental Health Sub-committees, to foster mental health care.
Mr David Naboare, the National President of the Ghana Association of Mental Health Officers, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the lack of a district mental health sub-committees had resulted in the neglect of this important area of practice care by Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
He said the World Health Organisation had estimated that approximately 2.4 million Ghanaians, were living with mental various forms of illnesses.
Consequently, the inauguration of the District Mental Health Sub-Committee would serve as an advisory board to guarantee the efficient enforcement of mental health policies.
He said the Mental Health Authority and its associated agencies had failed to establish the District Mental Health Sub-committee in accordance with the law, twelve years after the passage of the Mental Health Act 2012, (Act 846).
He said the passage of the Act brought a lot of hope to mental health professionals, service users, and the general population, but there was a fundamental function that the sub-committees were expected to play when inaugurated.
Mr Daboare said Article 21 of the Mental Health Act 2012, Act 846, showed that seven members shall be appointed to serve in the sub-committee established in every district in the country.
These members, he noted, included a chairperson, a district mental health coordinator, a representative each from the district health directorate, the district assembly, and the social welfare committee, and two other persons, one of whom should be a female.
Mr Daboare said it was high time mental health care was given the needed attention by prioritising the inauguration of the sub-committees as a matter of urgency.
He suggested that the Mental Health Authority collaborate with the MMDAs to seek funding from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development’s disability fund which would be used to facilitate the establishment of the sub-committee.
GNA