40 Ghanaians Go Mad Daily

Accra, Nov. 28 (The Point) -- The acting Director of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Akwasi Osei says people in the lower socio-economic stratum of society are worst affected when it comes to mental ill-health. He has however warned that mental ill health should be a bother to all irrespective of one’s socio-economic circumstances.

Speaking after the launch of a Mental Health and Poverty Project in Accra, Dr Osei revealed that, 40 new cases of mental illness are recorded everyday in Accra.

According to him 10 of the cases are extremely bad and estimated that overall about 300 mental patients visit the hospital everyday for treatment. He identified drug abuse, stress, marital problems and abuse of alcohol as some of the major causes of mental illness in the country.

In his remark at the launch, Dr Osei disclosed that mental ill health impedes people’s ability to learn and to engage productively in their economies emphasizing that poverty in turn increases the risk of developing mental disorders and reduces people’s ability to gain access to the much needed maintenance, preventive, curative and rehabilitative mental health interventions.

According to him, the Mental Health and Poverty Project sought to break the cycle of mental ill health and poverty. This he said could be done through policies that adopt a comprehensive multi-sectoral approach to the problem.

“The Mental Health and Poverty project is a response to this problem trying to break the cycle of poverty and mental ill health. It seeks to develop, implement and evaluate mental health policy in poor countries in order to provide new knowledge regarding comprehensive multi- sectoral approaches to breaking the cycle,” he indicated.

The Project has a seven member international advisory board which advises the consortium on the direction of the project so as to keep the implementation body focused.

The Project which is also based in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa is sponsored by DFIID. The research consortium is based in Cape Town, South Africa. It is a longitudinal project lasting five years. It began in 2005 and it is expected to end in 2010.

Membership of the local advisory board is made of Dr Kofi Ahmed, Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health, Dr J.B Asare, a retired Chief Psychiatrist, Prince Boni of the Human Resource Division at the Health Ministry, Mrs. Estelle Appiah , Director of Legal Drafting Unit of the Attorney General’s Department, Rev Prof. Father Appiah-Poku, Head of the Department of Behavioral Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Dr Mrs. Angela Ofori Atta, a Clinical Psychologist.