Refer mental patients to hospitals first - Faith-based healers advised

Ho, May 6, GNA - Mr Joseph Boakye Danquah, President of Ghana Association of Faith Healers and Traditional Birth Attendants (GAFH-TBA), on Wednesday advised members to refer all violent mental patients to psychiatric hospitals to be sobered before attempting to heal them.

That way, he said, it would avoid having them to be chained which infringed on their human and dignity rights. Mr Boakye Danquah gave the advice at a day's sensitization seminar in Ho for its members in the Volta Region. He asked members to uphold their professional code of ethics in order not to infringe on the rights of their clients, which tended to undermine the professionalism and respectability. "We have a very significant role to play in the health sector but we must first obey the rights of our patients and command the respect that we deserve," he said.

Mr Boakye Danquah spoke against overcrowding of patients at healing camps, unhygienic environments and other inhumane acts and often associated with their practice. He said the Association aims at collaborating with the Ministry of Health in bringing spiritual and physical healing to people as part of medical practice in the country. Participants were taken through the code and ethics of the profession as well as its aims, objectives and benefits. 6 May 09