‘Treat mental patients with dignity’

The Acting Medical Director of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Pinanam Apau, has underscored the need for mental patients to be treated with dignity.

She said there were only three mental health facilities in Accra, Pantang and Ankaful near Cape Coast that catered for 750 mental patients.

Dr Apau made the call at the launch of this year’s mental health week in Accra, launched by the Mental Health Authority (MHA), on the theme: “Dignity in Mental Health.”

The medical director said it was important to shift emphasis of mental health from institutional care to community care.

Background

Mental Health Day, which falls on October 10 every year, was first celebrated in 1992 as a day for global mental health education, awareness creation and advocacy. It is an initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global mental health organisation with members and contacts in over 150 countries.

The day was later adopted by the United Nations (UN) to be observed annually, and is marked by all UN member states.

Strategies

Dr Apau also said the MHA was embarking on ‘Operation Clear the Street,’ a programme aimed at getting rid of the mentally ill on the streets.

According to her, the training of more mental health nurses was another key move that would bring sanity to mental health delivery in the country.

For his part, a psychiatrist at the Pantang Hospital, Dr Frank Baning, said in treating mental patients with the dignity they deserved, they must be given opportunities to work like any other human being after recovery.

He said mental health patients still have the right to know and choose which medication to take.

Meanwhile, the Greater Accra Regional Mental Health Coordinator, Mr David Maccauley, has stated that even though the Mental Health Law states that the patients must be treated freely, there is not enough budgetary allocation to cater for them, and patients have to bear the cost of treatment.