‘Ghanaian employers must implement workplace mental health policies’ - Dr. Richmond Adusa-Poku

Employers in Ghana have been charged to introduce and implement mental health policies at the workplace to protect the wellbeing of their employees.

As Ghana joined the rest of the world to mark the World Mental Health Day, it is emerging that the number of people battling with mental health issues at the work place is on the rise.

Data from the World Health Organization’s Special Initiative for Mental Health Situational Assessment in Ghana revealed that 6.34% of young people within the ages of 20-29 years are battling depression, whereas the figures are even higher among retirees and older people aged 70 and above.

Speaking at a virtual event organized by MentaPulse Africa on the theme “Safeguarding employee mental health in Ghana” to mark World Mental Health Day, President of Pharmacists in Mental Health, Ghana (PMHGH), Dr. Richmond Adusa-Poku said, “every workplace must have some form of mental health policies developed [and implemented] where just like with sexual harassment, employees are informed of the channels for reporting such incidents. If you suspect any form of discrimination, there are channels for reporting and seeking redress. So there must be clear guidelines and policies in the area of mental health.”

With a general apathy towards issues of mental health in the country, Dr. Adusa-Poku noted that employees must be provided basic mental health training at the point of on boarding to equip them with the skills to identify harmful mental health trigger points, and how to deal with them or avoid them altogether.

“Every employee must receive training on mental health first aid. The modules may be provided by the specialists but the aim is to arm them with the skills to identify when they or their colleagues are having mental health incidents to provide immediate support or refer to the appropriate authorities,” he added.

Meanwhile Executive Director of MentaPulse Africa, Manuel Koranteng maintains that organizations must overhaul their setups to reduce the exposure of their employees to the continuous risk of adverse mental health incidents.

“We must reshape the work environment to reduce psychosocial hazards such as long unhealthy working hours, heavy workloads, culture of abuse and discrimination, etc to protect workers from experiencing adverse mental health conditions,” he said.

Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.

EAN/DAG