Today is World Mental Health Day, celebrated across the globe to reflect and assess the downs and progress of mental health care.

This year’s theme is Mental Health for all, greater investment-Greater access. Everyone. Everywhere.

The mental health care sector has been chronically suffocated with under-investment in the areas of mental health promotion, prevention and care.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mental health is one of the most neglected areas of public health and close to 1 billion people are living with a mental disorder, 3 million people die every year from the harmful use of alcohol and one person dies every 40 seconds by suicide.

In low- and middle-income countries, more than 75% of people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders receive no treatment for their condition at all.

The situation in Ghana has brought untold hardship to mental health care givers, families of patients and the public.

Mental patients are seen across the length and breadth of our major cities. Families of such patients are either helpless or are uninformed of how to handle the situation.

It is disheartening for care givers to see patients on the street. More worrying it is if they have taken care of such patients before. It is demoralising and the psychological trauma upon seeing them is really troubling.

In the public space, more often than not, we hear people committing suicide, we see patients competing for space in our markets, a whole family poisoning themselves to death, boy friends and husbands butchering their love ones to death, people setting houses ablaze and what have you.

These people were not naked before committing this acts, neither were they on the streets. It tells us one thing; there are lots of people with mental disorders neatly dressed in suits, in our offices, churches, mosques and every corner of human endeavor.

Stigma, discrimination, inequality, outmoded legislation and human rights abuses against the mentally ill are still rife in Ghana to further deepen the woes in the mental health sector.

Government and policy makers who ought to play a key role in ameliorating the sector from its predicaments seem to be widening the gap of discrimination and stigma. It is sad to note that the medicine Amitriptyline which is used to treat both migraine and depression is covered under the NHIS for treating migraine but payable for treating depression.

The Ghana Health Service, an agency of the ministry of health, just like the Mental Health Authority is doing little for mental health under its facilities in both the regional and districts level. Mental health nurses working at these facilities are left with no choice than to go the extra mile to care for mental patients, putting themselves on the thin line of medicolegal issues but are not recognised and appreciated for same. Question is, will they have the backing by virtue of their location when the law rises against them?

The theme for this year couldn’t have been better; “Mental health for all, greater investment, greater access”. The theme is earnestly calling on government to invest more resources in the mental health sector for mental health care to reach all. There will be greater accessibility for mental health care if the sector is well resourced. Resourced in both capital and human resource.

The Mental health sector needs greater investment to be able to monitor and supervise the activities of prayer camps where human right abuses of patients are rampant.

The community mental health nurses will deliver mental health care to every patient within their catchment areas when the sector is well resourced.

The patients on the streets have the right to decent and humane treatment but this can barely be achieved when little attention is paid to the sector.

While we await this ‘greater investment’ day to come, hopefully soonest in the future, we are still working in poor condition, low pay and stigma.

Nonetheless I am proud as a mental health nurse.

I know you are proud too!

Happy Mental Health Day!

#MentalHealthDayCelebration2020

Malcolm Ali
chibaronet@gmail.com

Disclaimer; the content was produced by Malcom Ali but the heading was couched by the administrator of this blog. Thanks.