According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 2.4 million Ghanaians may be dealing with mental illness in varying degrees.
The organization thinks that in order to reform Ghana’s shaky mental healthcare system, there has to be greater cooperation in the areas of infrastructure and technical support.
The severely underfunded situation of Ghana’s mental healthcare system has been mentioned negatively by the Mental Health Authority of Ghana on numerous occasions.
According to the authority, this doesn’t do much to meet Ghanaians’ psychological demands, especially when combined with the severe deterioration of pre-existing infrastructure.
Professor Francis Kasalo, the representative of the World Health Organization in Ghana, voiced concern about the trend in an interview with Blessed Sogah on Foreign Affairs on JoyNews.
He said; “It is in Ghana for example out of the population of almost thirty million plus it is estimated that almost 2.4 million have a form of mental illness. That’s not a small number and if you are looking at that number why are we not investing in ensuring that those people receive appropriate care? So the numbers are huge.”
The WHO country representative claims that the general public’s attitude toward the illness, which is most likely to be seen as a humorous problem, is a significant element hindering the delivery of mental healthcare in Ghana.
He also criticized the practice of labelling people with these conditions as either intrinsically tough or having anger and, in the worst cases, spiritual issues.
In light of these developments, Professor Kasolo disclosed that his organization, WHO, Ghana, is establishing a thorough framework of partnership with the Ghanaian government with the goal of correcting shortcomings in the field of mental healthcare.
“People should understand that we can build capacities for people who we assume are difficult people to be able to access these services to understand why is it that they’re behaving like that?”
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