Parliament urged to pass the Mental Health Bill

Cape Coast, Feb. 24, GNA - Dr Akwasi Osei, Chief

Psychiatrist, on Thursday called for the immediate passage of

the Mental Health Bill into law to help ensure adequate funding

for mental health care delivery. According to him the three psychiatric hospitals currently

owe various organizations about 4.5 million Ghana cedis while

the Accra Psychiatric Hospital alone spends about 7,000

Ghana cedis a day on patients. Dr Osei, who made the call at the close of the Annual

Mental Health Performance Review Meeting in Cape Coast,

stressed that the passing of the bill would facilitate the holistic

overhaul of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) as it will

decentralize mental health to guarantee a cost effective care for

all. The two-day meeting was to assess the success chalked

and evolve measures to deal with the challenges facing mental

health care delivery. Dr Osei explained that a mental health law would not only

help protect and ensure the rights of the mentally ill but also be

incorporated into the general health care delivery of the

country. He enumerated some of the challenges facing the mental

health care service and said inadequate human resource had

been the bane of quality delivery. The Chief Psychiatrist said Ghana had 12 psychiatrists,

three clinical psychologists and about 600 psychiatric nurses

with no occupational therapist. He gave the ratio of one psychiatrist to two million people

adding that suicide cases were on the ascendency and since 90

percent of suicide cases were mental health issues, there was

the need to address problems facing that sector with dispatch. Dr Osei said only half of the annual budget allocated to that

sector is paid while all three psychiatric hospitals were located

in the southern part of the country and appealed for the

construction of a mental health institution in northern part. Chief Cokar Asaam, Deputy Director of Pharmacy of

Psychiatric Medicines, in his annual report, stressed the need

for the introduction of new psychiatric medicines to save

patients from 93unpleasant side effects" like diabetes and

impotency associated with the old drugs. He revealed that patients also got addicted to the

medication after treatment hence the issue of having to deal

with addiction after patients were cured was necessary.