By Samuel Agbewode, Dambai
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has at the end of the 2023 midyear recorded 40,716 new cases of mental health, which includes neurological and substance use disorder, says the Director General, Dr Kumah Aboagye.
Out of the number, 51.4 per cent of the new mental health cases are females.
Dr Aboagye disclosed these figures in a speech read for him at the national World Mental Health Day celebration at the Oti Regional capital here in Dambai on Tuesday.
It was held on the theme: “Mental Health is a Universal Human Right”, and attended by Municipal and District Chief Executives (MDCEs), Municipal and District Health Directors (MDHD), mental health professionals and civil society organisations.
The Director General of the GHS expressed concern about the high number of mental health cases being recorded in the country, and stressed that his outfit was committed to providing quality and safe mental health services to the citizenry.
Dr Aboagye said mental health was a universal human right that cut across colour, gender, age, geographical location, language, religious, socioeconomic status, and added that mental health knew no boundaries because it was a state of well-being in which an individual realised his or her own abilities, and could cope with the normal stresses of life, among others.
He said the GHS was committed to progressive improvement on provision of quality mental health service that was safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, people-centred, right-based and integrated, which had better outcomes for all individuals, families and communities.
According to Dr Aboagye, his outfit would continue to sensitize both health and non-health professionals in the Quality Right Programme (QRP), which would build the capacity of human rights into other in-service care providers to identify and manage mental, neurological, and substance use disorders.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority (CEO), Dr Pinaman Apau, explained that the national celebration was held in the Oti Region to create awareness on mental health, causes, and treatment because it was discovered that many of the residents in the region associated mental health with evil spirits.
