The Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS) is to collaborate with the National House of Chiefs, to carry out a research on cultural practices relating to death and burial in selected traditional areas in the country.

The project has been put together in response to the Ebola outbreak in the sub-region, recognising the role death and burial practices contributed to in terms of its spread, Professor Jacob Plange-Rhule, Rector of the College said at the opening of the 12th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the GCPS in Accra on Wednesday.

“The College believes that this is an important project, as the findings from it will provide evidence to inform strategies to make traditional body handling practices safer”, Prof Plange-Rhule explained, adding that the collaboration falls in line with the research and advocacy for health mandates of the College.

The three-day AGM meeting was on the theme: “Mental Health in Ghana-New Approaches to an Old Problem”.

At the AGM, 99 new members and 26 new fellows were inducted into the College. The members are Residents who have completed their course training in their various faculties and had been successful at the membership examinations of the College, while the Fellows are either members of the College who had undergone successful further specialty training and had satisfied their examiners.

Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle, the Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Accra, who was the special guest of honour, expressed worry over how Ghanaians wasted money on funerals, saying some outmoded widowhood rites meted out to women, were also contributing to “the many women who are being inflicted with mental health problems”.

He said the faith based organisations, including churches, mosques and some fetish or juju men, where most people sent their mental health family members to, as first points, were also major culprits in abusing the rights of such mental patients.

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle said such faith-based organisations should therefore be brought on board just like the traditional rulers in finding ways of properly handling mental health problems.

Mr Alex Segbefia, the Minister of Health, said the problem of mental health was currently recognised as a major health hazard with lots of attention being paid to it, all over the world.

He said in Ghana, studies show that the rate of psychological distress is 41 per cent and the contribution of Disability Adjustment Life Years by mental and neurological disorders is nine per cent.

He said there was the need to re-think approaches to mental health in Ghana, and rather change the focus from service-centred approach to one where services are organised around the needs of the person.

“It is true that medication has dramatically improved the quality of life for many mentally ill, but that does not exclude the vital importance of good counsel, love, nurture, encouragement, and words of hope,” he added.

The Health Minister further called for a bold new approach based on new medical, scientific tools and insights that are now available, saying the health system must face up to the realities that mental health was becoming a huge challenge in communities.

“We must find innovative ways of seeking out the causes of mental illness and of mental retardation in our communities. This is the only way we can mount a preventive strategy to deal with the challenge”.

Professor Thaddeus P. Ulzen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the College of Community Health Sciences, University of Alabama, USA, said mental illnesses resulted from a complex interplay of brain circuitry neurotransmitters, genetics, psychosocial and environmental factors, causing people to behave abnormally.

Prof Ulzen, who is also the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Medicine, University of Alabama, said it is estimated that one in four people would have a psychological problem once in their life time.

He said stigma based on ignorance continued to be a significant barrier to mental health care in Ghana, and the same stigma also made patients to postpone seeking treatment for mental health care.

He therefore called for a closer look at the prevention of psychological illness as a nation, adding, new technologies, should be adopted in dealing with mental health, while health institutions should all include mental health education in their curriculum.