Accra, Oct. 24, GNA - Dr Akwasi Osei, Chief Psychiatrist of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital announced that the country's mental hospitals now records 5 to 10 per cent increase in mental cases annually. " Last year, we saw 100,000 cases or attendance out of which twenty per cent were cases attending for the first time," he added. Dr Osei, who announced this at the launch of Well-Mind, Centre for mental health, an NGO on Wednesday in Accra under the theme: 'A Sound and Healthier woman: A Happy Home' said the situation had increase the workload and that there was the need for more and more people to join hands in meeting the needs of mental health patients in the society. 'Well-Mind' is an NGO working in the area of mental health to complement the work of government to give care, treatment and support to patients.

He noted that the WHO predicted that mental health would be the single most important disease in 2015 and added that this called for consented efforts to stop the situation. Dr Osei said there was the need for the decentralization of mental care in order to ensure that the underserved areas like the northern regions had access to quality care rather than resorting to any means of treatment.

He said currently, there was the mental health and Poverty project, which was a research consortium between four countries including Ghana to help address the increasing phenomenon. Dr. Osei therefore congratulated the founders of the NGO for the foresight and assured them that the hospital would collaborate with them to ensure that people got access to effective treatment. Mrs. Sharon Arthur-Morrison, Executive Director, Well-Mind said the NGO sought to provide relief in the area of education, identification, referral, treatment and monitoring. She said a community-based centre with qualified personnel would also be established to provide a whole range of mental health services. Mrs Arthur-Morrison said the NGO would deal with women health problems since they were the ones worst affected adding, " we will provide preventive service to improve women's health and well-being in the long term and keep our patients mentally stable". She noted that mobile clinics would be provided in the regions starting with the Volta Region, establish contact centres, provide home treatment and aftercare services to clients, run periodic clinics and do referrals where patients needed intensive care.

Mrs Arthur-Morrison said the NGO would build a clinic for women, which would include a mother and baby unit at appropriate locations for all women to benefit from their services.

She said the NGO remained concerned about the holistic approach to care for mentally ill women, who out of sickness were disabled and needed financial support adding, " It is important to inform you that a special disability fund named ANCHOR FUND has being put in place to have grant allocation to support such clients".

Mrs. Arthur-Morrison said mental health assessment for mother during antenatal or post natal, home treatment and monitoring of medication compliance would be a key factor to promote primary care. She called for the support of well-meaning Ghanaians to make the project a success. 24 Oct.07