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Title The Status of Mental Health Care in Ghana, West Africa and Signs of Progress in the Greater Accra Region
Full text http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/0gp004t3
Date 2011
Author(s) Fournier, Olivia A
Abstract Mental health care is becoming a critical international concern, but developing countries are still straining to attend to the mental health needs of their suffering and stigmatized citizens. This study assessed the situation of mental health care in Ghana,an Anglophone democratic republic in West Africa. For four months, interviews andsecondary data were conducted and collected in the Greater Accra Region to gaininformation on the available mental health services, the condition of psychiatric hospitals, the most common diagnoses, the challenges the mental health system faces,the changes that need to occur, and the progress made thus far. Currently, the fewpsychiatric hospitals in Ghana are severely congested, the number of mental healthprofessionals is staggeringly low, community and rehabilitative care is non-existent,and the law on mental health has not changed in over thirty years. This is all dueto inadequate funding, a longstanding stigma, the low fatality of mental illness, andthe government's ambivalence towards mental health. Mental health personnel andNGOs have been involved in increasing the awareness of mental illness and improvingthe delivery of mental health care, but there are still many changes that need to takeplace in order to secure the rights of the vulnerable, and provide equal access to mentalhealth treatment for all Ghanaians.
Subject(s) public health; Ghana; Mental Health; Accra; Psychiatry; African Studies; Bioethics and Medical Ethics; Health and Medical Administrative Services; International Public Health; Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions; Mental Disorders; Psychiatric and Mental Health; Psychololgy; Public Health Education and Promotion
Language english
Publisher eScholarship, University of California
Type of publication article
Format application/pdf
Source Fournier, Olivia A. (2011). The Status of Mental Health Care in Ghana, West Africa and Signs of Progress in the Greater Accra Region. Berkeley Undergraduate Journal, 24(3). Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/0gp004t3
Rights public
Identifier qt0gp004t3
Repository Berkeley - University of California
Added to C-A: 2014-04-09;09:45:04