With a population of over 1.3 million residents, the Upper East Region has only 1 Specialist Psychiatrist who handles a population of people suffering from mental health conditions.
The only Specialist Psychiatrist in the Upper East Region, Dr. Dennis Daliri said the country currently has a little over 50 specialists and most of these specialists are operating in the southern parts of the country.
“In the Upper East Region, for a Specialist Psychiatrist, I am the only one for now and I am hoping that sooner than later, we will get more. The truth of the matter is that we can never have enough. That is the reality because even as a country, as far as Psychiatrists are concerned, we are just a little over 50 currently in Ghana. A ratio of about 1 Psychiatrist over a population of 800,000 people.”
Mr. Daliri said even though the Upper East Region has mental health nurses in some facilities, there is a need to have enough Psychiatrists to handle the overwhelming number of mental health cases in the region and Ghana as a whole.
Dr. Daliri who called on policymakers and stakeholders to prioritize mental health issues lamented that Ghana and for that matter, the world have relegated mental health issues that are gradually affecting the productive workforce.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Bolgatanga|Ghana
