IN the last four weeks, four cases of suicide have been widely reported in the media with three of the victims being teenagers.
FIRST, there was the case of the KNUST student who was reported to have hanged herself in her room, then came the University of Ghana student, who was reported to have jumped from the fourth Floor of her hall of residence to her death. A 16-year-old girl in New Tafo in the Eastern region was also reported to have hanged herself in her mother’s kitchen, and a young man in his 30’s was found hanging on a tree around Achimota in Accra.
INDEED, the rapidity of the suicide cases have even confounded health officials. However, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority (MHA), Dr. Akwasi Osei believes that the difficulties in the economy are the causes of the incidents.
Speaking on Joy News on Thursday March 9, 2017, he noted that the key underlying factor that pushes people to take their own lives was the hardship they face especially in the economy.
“If the economy is not booming and people are having hardship you will have this [suicide] happening”, he was reported to have said.
THIS brings to the fore, the need for government to begin to prioritise mental health issues in the country so as to help curb the rising rate of suicides. And that can only be achieved if government shows the political will to pass the Mental Health Act (L. I) into law.
THE Ministry of Health must actually lead a national debate on how to fix the country’s broken Mental Health delivery system. This Today believes will have to include massive public education, employee counselling assistance at the work place, programmes well-tailored for schools and which will provide counseling opportunities to people suspected to have problems and identify what is wrong with them in a timely manner.
BUT the sad part of this is that, nothing much has been heard from the Ministry since these cases were reported. Mental illnesses are attributed to disorders of the brain. According to experts, they have many causes and result from complex interactions between a person’s genes and their environment. Having a mental illness is not a choice or a moral failing. Mental illnesses are said to occur at similar rates around the world, in every culture and in all socio-economic groups.
THE available statistics are staggering. It is said that one in five young people suffer from a mental illness, that’s 20 percent of our population but what percentage of the National Health budget is spent on mental healthcare?
THE impact is even more than the statistics as it destroys life, families, communities, and above all a nation. This makes it a concern for all, considering the spate of suicides among teens which we have experienced in the last few weeks. All well-meaning Ghanaians, the government, and Parliament must start thinking seriously about what we can do to immediately address this serious public health issue.
WHAT we critically need at this moment is a Mental Health Bill to address the challenge. The Executive arm of government together with Parliament and all major stakeholders must work together to draft a comprehensive bill to help fight this menace.
ALSO increased budgetary allocation is a priority. How many mental health facilities do we have in the country and how many are well equipped?
HAVING clinical psychologists at all secondary and tertiary institutions, and well equipped counselling centers in our hospitals are critical, to begin with. We will need to put in place some basic interventions to make people who have suicidal tendencies to feel confident to walk to someone they would confide in as a professional to help them where necessary. Not all patients require medicinal therapy but if we make it easier for patients to walk in and share their problems with the hope of being listened to, we would make some headway.
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