According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in four people globally will suffer from a mental or neurological disorder at some point in their lives. Around 450 million people currently suffer from such disorders, meaning that mental health disorders are one of the leading causes of disability and ill-health worldwide.
Research done in Ghana also indicates that, over forty percent of Ghanaians are living with some mental health issue.
Given the numbers involved, does society take mental health seriously enough? Should we be spending greater resources supporting mental health services, for example? Should public education be promoted to reduce the stigma around mental health?
Ghana we do take everything for granted. There have being several cases involving mentally challenged people causing harm to others. Since they’re mentally ill, nothing can be done to them.
Our psychiatric centers are also in a deplorable state but the government doesn’t care about that cos they are busy thinking about how to buy themselves V8s. Most of these mentally challenged people are found on the streets but it seems nobody cares until they cause harm to others.
In Ghana, mental health problems don’t exist. I have a mental disorder, when I talk to folks in Ghana they go like “oh, you’re not sick, there’s nothing wrong with you”, (apparently being sick in Ghana is only physical) then they want to push things under the carpet. In EU, I have four doctors who assure me and make it known directly to me my situation is serious and I have no fear or shame letting anyone know I have a problem and need help. That’s the level of civilisation some of us in Ghana may never reach.
Definitely. Anyone can have mental issues, just like COVID, it’s not stigmatised at all in the EU. Schools and the government are not doing anything about mental health issues.
So technically, we’re lacking behind in everything as a country. We don’t take mental health seriously a bit here in Ghana. As a matter of fact, healthcare generally is not taken serious here. Most of us here also hates to go for check ups regularly in the hospital to know how healthy we’re until we become seriously ill before we set foot in the hospital.
Many also can’t speak because of fear of stigmatization when it comes to mental health generally. Education on it in our schools and the government as a whole is so poor.
That’s how we do our things here in Ghana. We don’t find solutions to little problems until it turns to be a nationwide problem. I know of a guy(21 years of age) whose situation could have being cured but now he’s on the streets in my area totally mad.
Pantang hospital is even in a deplorable state now. Since it was established in 1975, they’ve not received much facelift. To talk about relating mental health to witchcraft and sending them to pastors instead of psychiatrists to help them is so funny. We’re generally a confused country, how can you seek help from a pastor when all that you need is a doctor?
What??? 40%?? Hmmm no wonder we still in crisis because most of these people are our leaders #MindGamesDemAPlay and that’s why they don’t listen to what we the citizens says but keep doing what they like
If you want to talk about our leaders we won’t finish today. Everything our leaders do shows clearly that, most of them are very sick in the brain but failing to seek for help. Who in his/her right senses in this Covid-19 pandemic, will go for GHC165.2 million loan to buy themselves V8s? Out of the 40% our leaders are the majority looking at their activities.
I believe the stigma around mental health has something to do with the oddity in our culture. Because many people are not doing that great, but if anyone express how they truly feel, people will look at them with judgement Attitude but as humans, we all get anxious, melancholy, these are normal feelings,. but for someone to admit they’re having this feelings, for some weird reason people think there’s something wrong with this peoples, but we all feel this way from time to time.
So the stigma around this mental problem make people hide their feelings, I think we should be able to talk about freely so we can mitigate it
