The third inter-medical school public speaking competition to promote psychiatry as a career option for Ghanaian medical students have been held in Kumasi, Ghana.

The event was sponsored by St Patrick’s University Hospital and St John of God Development Company both in Dublin, and was organized by Dr Vincent Agyapong, Founder of the Association of Ghanaian Professionals in Ireland (AGPI) and an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta, Canada, in collaboration with Faculty of the Department of Behavioral Sciences of the School of Medical Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Dr Rita Reindolf, a Consultant ENT Surgeon at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.

The very well attended event was chaired by the Provost of the College of Health Sciences, Professor Tsiri Agbenyega. In attendance were the Chief Psychiatrist of the Ghana Health Services, Dr Akwasi Osei, the Chairman of the board of the newly established Ghana Mental Health Authority, Professor J. B Asare, and the Founder and U.K Lead of the Kintampo Project, Dr Mark Roberts.

The topic for this year’s competition was "Discuss the strengths and weakness of the current mental health care system in Ghana-Propose an improvement or a new model if the current system is not good enough”.

Two representatives each from all four medical schools in Ghana took part in the competition which took place on the 25th of November 2013 at the main auditorium of the College of Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi. Students from medical schools in Accra, Tamale, Cape Coast and Kumasi were in the audience to support their contestants.

Each of the contestants had ten minutes to make their presentation and the presentations were followed by a question and answer session. After an exciting competition, the contestants from the University of Cape Coast Medical School namely, Miss Abigail Naa Ayeley Harding and Miss Araba Fordjour were declared winners. This means the University of Cape Coast get to retain the trophy for yet another year.

The two contestants also get to participate in a fully sponsored four week elective placement in psychiatry at St Patrick’s University Hospital in Dublin next year. The runners up were the contestants from the University of Ghana Medical School, namely, Miss Alpha Oteng-Twumasi and Mr. Micheal Knight. For their prize, they also get to participate in a four week sponsored elective placement in psychiatry at St John of God Hospital also in Dublin.

The fourth edition of the competition will be held in November 2014 at a venue in Cape Coast. More details of this event will be published in due course.