Edem Quarshie Ameglah, the Upper East Regional Coordinator for Mental Health Services in the Upper East Region, has explained that mental health services have improved greatly over the years.
There are now over one hundred mental health officers scattered across the Upper East Region, offering health services across the 15 MMDAs in the region.
“For mental health in the Upper East Region, we have been seeing improvements day in and day out. Years before, there used to be only one mental health nurse working in the region. Today, we have over a hundred mental health workers in the region. We have realised that mental health services have been brought closer.”
Mr. Ameglah said this when he spoke to A1 Radio’s Mark Smith on the Day Break Upper East Show.
The operations of the Presbyterian Psychiatric Hospital, according to the Upper East Regional Mental Health Coordinator, have boosted mental health care in the region.
“The on- boarding of the Presby Hospital has brought upliftment to the services. Wherever there is a specialist psychiatrist, you can be sure that when people need specialist attention, they can get that care. That is where Dr. Dennis Daliri and his team come in. That facility has made it possible for people who need to be admitted to have a place to be admitted for quite longer than in the district hospitals. You can be sure that once this is a psychiatric hospital, the kind of care you would get in there, may be better than what you may have in other places,” he said.
While the staff strength has grown, Mr. Ameglah expressed worry that the continuous brain drain would affect the services provided to the public. He explained that some health officers have begun moving from mental health to other sections of the health services, while other mental health officers are moving out of the Upper East Region.
In October 2022, a 10-bed capacity psychiatric hospital known as the Presbyterian Psychiatric Hospital Bolgatanga was established in the Upper East Regional Capital to provide mental health care to people in need.
The facility comprises a male and female ward, two consulting rooms, OPD, records, and an accountant’s office.
It is located at Bukere, a suburb of Bolgatanga, the Presbyterian Psychiatric Hospital shares premises with the Presbyterian Health Centre.
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), Right Reverend Professor Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante, said the establishment of the psychiatric hospital will augment the government’s efforts to manage mental health cases in the country.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
