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Health News Saturday, July 20, 2019
Source: Graphic.com.gh
2019-07-20
Dr. Akwasi Osei
Forty-one percent of Ghanaians suffer from a form of mental disorder, especially psychological distress, said the director general of the Mental Health Authority, Dr. Akwasi Osei.
Citing research conducted by a group of Yale University academics in the United States and the University of Ghana, Legon, he stated that the loss of productivity resulting from the problem accounted for 7% gross domestic product (GDP).
Dr. Osei was speaking at an interview with the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of an international conference on precision in psychiatric medicine held in Accra.
Conference
The conference, which was attended by psychiatrists and other mental health staff from the West African sub-region, was to discuss how to launch research to determine genetic component of mental health.
Currently, in developed countries, research on how to determine a person's level of mental illness by means of blood and saliva samples is well advanced.
The research also focuses on the extent to which mental illness is linked to genetic makeup.
The conference therefore seeks to determine how Africans can begin their own research in these areas.
Mental health in Ghana
Dr. Osei said that the 2013 academic research report showed that mental health problems should be taken seriously in the country.
He added that, apart from the loss of GDP, mental health problems threatened security, in that people suffering from such problems sometimes became violent and attacked others.
Dr. Osei said that mental health problems were on the rise in Ghana due to the abuse of cannabis and alcohol.
He refuted the notion that cannabis use would have no effect on mental health, and said studies over the years had shown a strong and indisputable correlation between the two.
"Cannabis impairs the ability of the brain to develop properly and prevents reasoning or judging properly," he said, adding that many cannabis users had dropped out of school because of their inability to cope with academic work.
Ghana's mental health capacity
Highlighting the capacity of the country's health services to cope with growing mental health problems in the country, Dr. Osei said the situation has improved.
"We now have 32 psychiatrists, we have doubled the number of psychiatric nurses and the number of clinical psychologists we have had also doubled, but that is still not enough," he said. declared.
He added that efforts were being made to improve the situation.
With regard to funding for the sector, Dr. Osei said that it was still sorely lacking.
He expressed the hope, however, that with the coming into force of the Mental Health Act and a legislative instrument to support it, a mental health levy would be required from the United States. Ghanaians to finance the sector.
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