Include mental health in school curricula - Psychiatrist suggests
A former Chief Psychiatrist at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Professor Joseph Bediako Asare, has called on the government to include mental health in the education curriculum at all levels.
He said that would help students to overcome depression or mental health challenges.
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He explained that the introduction of mental health in schools would also help create the maximum awareness that the country needed.
He made the call at a panel discussion to mark this year’s World Mental Health Day in Accra dubbed: “Working together to prevent suicide: a call for national action.”
The programme was organised by BasicNeeds Ghana, in collaboration with the Alliance for Mental Health and Development, Speak Your Mind campaign team and champions of the Time to Change, with support from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID).
Mental Health Day, celebrated on October 10 each year, seeks to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilise efforts to tackle issues of mental health.
Suicide cause
Prof. Asare attributed the high number of suicide cases among students to the breakdown of the family system.
He explained that most parents did not have time for their children, hence were unaware when their children were depressed.
He added that the leading cause of suicide was depression.
Other causes, he said, were previous suicide attempts, substance abuse, mental disorders, incarceration, exposure to suicidal behaviour, taking antidepressant medications and a history of being abused or witnessing continued abuse.
Kill stigma
Taking her turn in the discussion, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Augustina Naami, said some societal and cultural norms had given rise to stigma which had impacted negatively on the participation of people ,especially persons with disability in the society.
She, therefore, called for an end to stigmatisation and cultural discrimination against mental health patients, particularly those suffering from psychosocial disorder.
"We must kill stigma or else we cannot fully pursue social inclusion.
We must rather support persons with disability so they can participate and help build their societies," she stated.
She further advocated engagement with such persons on plans aimed at improving their lives.
"They understand their challenges better than any of us so we must include them in the planning of strategies to help them.
It is better to develop their capacity to enable them to take part in the decision making process if they are challenged capacity-wise," she added.
She said people living with disabilities could equally function like any other person.
Approach
The Country Representative of the World Health Organisation, Mr Owen Kaluwa, called for a comprehensive multi-sectoral approach to reduce suicide cases in the country.
The Executive Director of BasicNeeds Ghana, Mr Peter Yaro, said the government had a moral and legal obligation to safeguard the human rights of its citizens, especially those afflicted by mental health illness.
He also emphasised the need to ensure that persons who attempted suicide and survivors of those who were lost to suicide were supported with required services rather than criminalising suicide.
