40 Pct Of Ghanaians Have Mental Problem

About forty percent (40%) of the 22 million Ghanaian population, are said to have some kind of mental problem but the country lacks the logistics to solve the problem.

In an interview with the Accra-based FM station, PeaceFM, the Chief Psychiatrist of the Accra Psychiatric hospital, Dr. Akwasi Osei, explained that mental ill-health does not refer to those who are insane only, but also to anyone who has a thinking problem or depression.

He added that the whole country has only four psychiatric doctors in the public service and that has made mental healthcare delivery problematic and so keeps on increasing.

Dr. Osei expressed this sentiment to Peace FM on Monday 23rd March. He said lack of psychiatric doctors to act quickly on minor mental illnesses is what leads to major ones, which are commonly referred to as madness.

Besides appealing to the government to help train more psychiatric doctors, Dr. Osei advised Ghanaians to visit the psychiatric hospitals, especially those with depression problems to check their mental status in order to reduce the number of mentally ill people in the country, which currently stands at 40%.