Two health institutions receive medicines for mental health
Two health institutions in the Northern Region have received a quantity of psychotropic and anti-epilepsy medicines worth $300,000 to enhance mental healthcare delivery.
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The medicines, which were procured through collaborative efforts between BasicNeeds, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that focuses on mental health, and Direct Relief, a philanthropic organisation based in the United Kingdom (UK), are also meant for distribution to the various district health facilities in the region.
The beneficiary institutions are the Northern Regional Mental Health Service and the Kings Medical Centre at Kumbungu in the Kumbungu District.
The donation formed part of BasicNeeds’ efforts to support the delivery of accessible and affordable mental health care to people living with mental illness and epilepsy in the country, and the medicines are intended to be dispensed free of charge at the various psychiatric units.
Psychiatric services
At a brief ceremony in Tamale to hand over the medicines to the health institutions last Tuesday, the Executive Director of BasicNeeds-Ghana, Mr Peter Yaro, said one key challenge to quality mental health service was associated with provision of medicines through government’s supply, which were inadequate.
He said it was based on this reason that BasicNeeds-Ghana, in collaboration with Direct Relief, UK, and Johnson-Johnson, got those medicines to help the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to stabilise people living with mental illness so that they could at least work.
He also noted that those medicines were going to serve as incentives for mental health workers and also as working tools so that they would deliver quality services to people living with mental illness.
Mr Yaro said even though there was no psychiatric doctor in the Northern Region, they were going to make sure those medicines were used appropriately and they would get to all districts with the help of professional and experienced psychiatric nurses in the region.
Appreciation
The Northern Regional Mental Health Coordinator, Mr Mumuni Fuseini, who received the medicines, expressed his gratitude to BasicNeeds, saying they were going to use those medicines to the benefit of all that needed them in all the districts.
He said since 2015, they had not received any medicines from the Central Medical Stores of Ghana, adding that this donation would help them up to June this year before they would need more medicines.
He appealed for more funding from the government to enable mental health institutions and professionals to provide better and quality healthcare delivery to people living with mental illness.