Mr James Gariba, the Ahafo Regional Mental Health Coordinator
Mr James Gariba, the Ahafo Regional Mental Health Coordinator has implored Ghanaians to make efforts to patronise Mental Health Centres (MHCs) to identify their mental health status.
According to him, most people have mental health challenges but did visit the Centres for solutions due to the fear of being stigmatized, saying though those who were bold to report to the Centres received the necessary assistance.
He, however, stated people were now noticing “what mental illness is about” because of the continuous education on radio, television, and online platforms.
Mr Gariba made the appeal when he was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) about the public’s assessment and patronage of mental health services at Hwidiem in the Asutifi South District of the Ahafo Region.
He said more than 1,000 clients sought mental healthcare services from mental health Centres across the region, adding 2000 clients were visited in their homes by the mental health officers annually.
''Conditions in the region are many, but epilepsy is the most, then schizophrenia and psycho-active being the abuse of substances causing mental disorder, followed by depression, dementia, and delirium,'' Mr Gariba said.
He explained mental illnesses occurred in different forms, saying “there is one that develops gradually and the other that comes suddenly. So the moment an unusual behaviour is noticed about someone, relatives must ignore stigmatization by the society and immediately report to any mental health Centre to seek early treatment before the situation escalates”.
Mr Gariba mentioned, the major challenge confronting most mental health Centres in the region was the lack of medication and inadequate logistics, especially motorbikes to be used by officers to move to the hinterlands to educate the people.
He said clients with issues of alcoholism and psycho-active use were given education to reduce the consumption, enabling them to promote their health.
In determining who a mentally ill person is, Mr Gariba said clients who visited the Centres were taken through the Mental Status Examination Scale using questionnaire to test them in addition to the client’s appearance and assessment of speech, orientation, hallucination, and dilution.
He said most people could speak well and be neatly dressed, but without taking them through the test systematically it could not be established that they had mental health challenges.
''We just do not look at a person and conclude he/she is mentally ill, but we follow a certain protocol to ensure if he/she is within the required number of assessments that are done to give a conclusion on the person'', Mr Gariba said.
He however, said there were other alternatives that could be used such as a glance of the person could show the person have a problem, especially incoherent speech and physical appearance could be determinants as well as exhibition of extreme aggression.
Mr Gariba said to promote quicker and easier access of mental health care services, the Ghana Health Service and the Mental Health Authority has ensured the integration of mental health into the primary health care system for every health care facility to provide mental health services.
He said because of that Policy many health practitioners were being trained to be able to administer effective mental health services.
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