Bolgatanga, June 11, GNA-The Alliance for Mental Health and Development on Wednesday served about 100 homeless mental Patients in Bolgatanga and Zuarungu a lunch of rice and chicken stew. They also gave the mental patients clothing from two bales of second hand clothes that the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly donated for that purpose. The Alliance reached out to the mental patients after it held a seminar for the youth, on the theme, 'the Youth and mental illness' as part of activities to mark its second year anniversary. Ms. Fati Alhassan, Coordinator for the Alliance noted that there was a need for an integrated approach to tackle mental health among the youth as it was a growing problem. She said the Alliance which is made up of 15 different departments had for the past two years been sensitizing the public about the causes, management and Prevention of mental illness on Radio and at community meetings.

"People's attitudes hardly change so there is the need to continue to do sensitization on the adverse effects of stigmatization, discrimination and reintegration of the mentally ill into the society", she said. She disclosed that two NGOs in Bolgatanga and Bawku had organized the mentally ill persons into associations to tell their own story and solicit support for their basic needs and rights.

Mr. Michael Fou, Upper East Deputy Director of National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) who presented a paper on the social perspective of mental illness in the youth, noted that the youth were most at risk of getting mentally ill since they were exposed to various challenging problems like peer pressure, drugs, alcohol and unemployment. He said most mental illnesses in the youth were linked to drugs and could cause students to drop out of school and render young people unproductive.

Mr. Fou urged the public to give support and care to mental patients and desist from neglecting and ridiculing them, saying, "our negative attitudes towards mentally ill people need to be changed." Mr. Anthony Akurugu, Psychiatric Nurse in charge of the Psychiatric Unit of Bawku Hospital called on parents to give all the necessary love and care to their children as a faulty upbringing, negligence, discrimination and lack of control over children could lead them to seek comfort at the wrong places or indulge in social vices due to peer pressure.

He said sudden aggression, talkativeness, or a refusal to talk were all symptoms of mental illness and should be reported to the hospitals. The Alliance for Mental Health and Development is made up of 15 different departments that have come together to help fight mental illness in the three Northern Regions.