BasicNeeds Wants New Mental Health Law Implemented Now

Mental health and development advocacy non-governmental organization, BasicNeeds Ghana– has expressed concern over government’s continuous delay towards implementation of the country’s new Mental Health Law (ACT 846). 

 

According to the NGO, delays by the government to print out the ACT passed into law in March last year could further worsen the mental health situation in the country, if steps were not taken to speed up the process.

 

Per standard practice, the mental health law like any other newly passed law should have been in implementation six months after receiving presidential assent, but according to BasicNeeds Ghana, the document was yet to be printed out at the Government’s Assembly Press.

 

As a result, the country’s only psychiatric hospitals including the Accra, Pantang and Ankaful– that served about 25million of the population were saddled with a lot of challenges. For instance, the infrastructures of the three institutions were currently begging for expansion, more facilities and health personnel as well as essential medicines for the treatment of persons with mental illness and epilepsy. 

 

Besides, Northern Ghana did not have a single psychiatric hospital, thus most patients in the area had to travel to any of the three aforementioned hospitals located in the country’s South for comprehensive treatment.

These came to light at a day’s capacity building workshop organized by the NGO for members of the Media for Good Governance (MeGG), a group made up of editors and senior journalists, in the Northern Region. 

 

The aim of the workshop was to bring together MeGG members on a common platform to deliberate on the way forward for mental health and development in Ghana, especially in the Northern Region, in the wake of the new mental health law.

Under the new mental health law, there would be an improvement towards the care of poor, vulnerable people with mental illness or epilepsy, protection of their human rights and promotion of their participation in restoration and recovery. 

The law, which has been hailed by the World Health Organization as one of the best legislations worldwide, also sought to ensure that adequate provision of resources has nine parts consisting of a Mental Health Board, a Service, a Review Tribunal (to review mental cases), Visiting Committee, Voluntary Treatment and Involuntary Treatment. The other parts of the law were the Rights of a Person (human right abuses and discrimination associated with mental health), Protection of the Vulnerable Group and Miscellaneous provisions, among others. 

 

mentally ill person

The Community Project Coordinator of BasicNeeds Adam Dokurugu Yahaya, said the law in the next 5 to 10 years would ensure integrated services in general hospitals across the country, all district hospitals to have 2 to 5 beds in general wards, all regional hospitals to have psychiatric wards with 10 to 20 beds and community volunteers in mental health to be a common place.

Also, he stated that a 40 to 50 bed psychiatric hospital would be built in each region, 4 drug rehab centres established nation-wide and the current 3 psychiatric hospitals in the country downsized and refurbished to state-of-the-art.

The law, according to him, further emphasises a vigorous pursuance of training and recruitment of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and other staff to render services across the country, provision of hot-line services, crisis intervention and mobile teams, getting rid of mentally ill persons in the streets and provide services without human rights abuse.

Mr. Dokurugu however, said stakeholders in the mental health sector were foreseeing the possible formation of a weak mental health board that would be non-performing, thus affecting cash flow to ensure effective implementation of the components of the law.

Nonetheless, he advocated a strong technical working group behind the scene as a pressure force, highly motivated mental health personnel, vibrant and interested media, active civil society including NGOs as well as an interested international community in order to guarantee success with regards to the implementation of the law.

 

Meanwhile, there are currently 700 psychiatric nurses and 210 community psychiatric nurses in the country when in actual fact Ghana needed 5000 and 3000 personnel for each of the two categories of health professionals, BasicNeeds-Ghana said. Additionally, Ghana currently has only fourteen psychiatrists instead of 150. These, according to Mr. Dokurugu were some of the requirements enshrined in the new law and government and its stakeholders were expected to achieve in the next ten years.