It is not enough to have only 3 Psychiatric Hospitals in Ghana - Practitioner

A public relations member at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital Emmanuel Appiah has called for decentralisation and integration of mental healthcare.

He said the country should have a plan that would ensure that mental health facilities are constructed in all the regions of Ghana.

The current situation where we have the three major psychiatric hospitals in the Greater Accra Region he lamented was not the best.

The PRO said it is sad and shocking that the whole of Ghana we have only three psychiatric hospitals and these hospitals are in Accra.

"We don’t have any major hospital in Kumasi and other regions. What we have are community psychiatric hospitals manned in facilities that cannot even admit patients for more than two days,” he said.

He also advised Ghanaians to stop treating mental health as a spiritual issue and seek help.

Families and friends of mental health patients he added should help when a relative or friend is undergoing treatment.

He was speaking to Kwabena Agytapong on Frontline on Rainbow 87.5FM.