Gov’t Committed To Fighting Schizophrenia - Minister

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, has assured the public of government’s commitment to rid the country of schizophrenia by improving the quality of treatment and medicines administer to patients.

As part of measures to fight the disease, the Minister revealed government’s intensions to set up a Mental Health Authority, empower frontline health workers and create awareness at the grass root about ways to prevent schizophrenia.

Speaking at the launch of this year’s Mental Health Day, Nana Oye Lithur, who is also a human right activist, implore the media to use their platforms to educate Ghanaians not to stigmatize people living with schizophrenia, instead help them because they need cooperation to recover.

“Recovery is challenging but if they know that there are people out there who are willing to support, love and care for them, their recovery will be easy,” she stated.

This year’s Mental Health Day, which was under the theme “Living with Schizophrenia” brought together lots of health workers and Non-Governmental Organization like the Department for International Development, British High Commission, World Health Organization and Mind Freedom Ghana among others.

In an address, Chief Psychiatric at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Akwasi Osei noted that this year’s celebration is dedicated to persons living with Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia he said is one of the most severe forms of disorders of the mind, often leading to muddled and bizarre thinking, deteriorating lifestyle and distortion in the way one perceives reality.

According to him, data from the psychiatric hospital over the years has shown that among patients who visit the hospital, 7-75% of them are cases of schizophrenia.

“Last year 2013 for example, Ankaful psychiatric hospital recorded 7.8%, Accra psychiatric hospital recorded 29.2% while Pantang recorded 55% of OPD cases being cases of schizophrenia related disorders,” he revealed.

He said schizophrenia is common in Ghana “but the problem is, many people do not recognize it and even if they do, they send the victims to inappropriate places like traditional healing centers and prayer camps where they are put in chains, starved, flogged and sexually abused or used for force labor. Females in the northern part of the country with such conditions find themselves in ‘witches camp’ while others are left on their own and they end up on the streets.”

Dr Akwasi Osei warned that schizophrenia, if not treated, could lead to “lock up potential in the individual and some end up committing crimes and in a study in the 1990 was found that 31% of offenders sent to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital were having schizophrenia.”