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Tag: Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations

  • Normalise seeking help for mental health issues

    Dr Joel Agorinya, a psychiatrist at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, has advised the public to normalise seeking help for mental health issues.

    He said there were a lot of people walking on the streets who had mental health issues but were shy to seek help even though there is help.

    “There are patients who will invite you to their homes in Ghana to attend to them or those who would like to come to the hospital early in the morning around 5AM because they do not want to be seen entering the psychiatric hospital,” he said.

    Dr Agorinya gave the advice when he trained selected member of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) and some Social welfare officials on mental health issues.

    The training organised by Basic Needs Ghana, an NGO with a focus on mental health issues was supported by Ghana Somubie Dwumadie, a disability focused programme on mental health and the UK Aid.

    The training is expected to enhance participants’ knowledge on mental health and to help them understand persons with mental health issues.

    Dr Agoriyna said there was a need to desist from stigmatising persons with mental health issues and encourage them to seek help.

    “Elsewhere, there is nothing shameful about seeking help for one’s mental health issues, you see some celebrities take to social media to announce that they have depression or they are taking a break to enable them go through rehabilitation,”

    There is nothing shameful about mental health, it is also a kind of illness that can happen to anyone but in Ghana people tend to hide or sneak into the Psychiatric hospital whenever they need help,” Dr Agoriyna said.

    He said that now psychiatry care has been decentralized and every health facility in Ghana, even the CHPS compound has someone who is a trained mental health care professional.

    Dr Agoriyna said mental health care if not well handled could cost the country billions of dollars because people with mental health issues tend to be non-productive at work.

    Estimating the cost of mental healthcare in Ghana, Dr Agorinya who had an interest in global mental health issues, said it could cost a family about GHS4000 monthly to provide care for their loved one with mental health issues.

    He urged Ghanaians to stop stigmatising and abusing persons with mental health conditions, saying, “There is never any justification for abusing any person with mental illness.

    Source:GNA

  • Normalise seeking help for mental health issues

    Dr Joel Agorinya, a psychiatrist at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, has advised the public to normalise seeking help for mental health issues.

    He said there were a lot of people walking on the streets who had mental health issues but were shy to seek help even though there is help.

    “There are patients who will invite you to their homes in Ghana to attend to them or those who would like to come to the hospital early in the morning around 5AM because they do not want to be seen entering the psychiatric hospital,” he said.

    Dr Agorinya gave the advice when he trained selected member of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) and some Social welfare officials on mental health issues.

    The training organised by Basic Needs Ghana, an NGO with a focus on mental health issues was supported by Ghana Somubie Dwumadie, a disability focused programme on mental health and the UK Aid.

    The training is expected to enhance participants’ knowledge on mental health and to help them understand persons with mental health issues.

    Dr Agoriyna said there was a need to desist from stigmatising persons with mental health issues and encourage them to seek help.

    “Elsewhere, there is nothing shameful about seeking help for one’s mental health issues, you see some celebrities take to social media to announce that they have depression or they are taking a break to enable them go through rehabilitation,”

    There is nothing shameful about mental health, it is also a kind of illness that can happen to anyone but in Ghana people tend to hide or sneak into the Psychiatric hospital whenever they need help,” Dr Agoriyna said.

    He said that now psychiatry care has been decentralized and every health facility in Ghana, even the CHPS compound has someone who is a trained mental health care professional.

    Dr Agoriyna said mental health care if not well handled could cost the country billions of dollars because people with mental health issues tend to be non-productive at work.

    Estimating the cost of mental healthcare in Ghana, Dr Agorinya who had an interest in global mental health issues, said it could cost a family about GHS4000 monthly to provide care for their loved one with mental health issues.

    He urged Ghanaians to stop stigmatising and abusing persons with mental health conditions, saying, “There is never any justification for abusing any person with mental illness.

     

  • PWDs call on government to expedite amendment of the Disability Act

    The Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD), has called on the Government to expedite the amendment of the Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715) to promote and protect the rights of PWDs in the country.

    According to the group, the law, in its current form, was fraught with inadequacies and did not conform to the dictates of the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified by Ghana in 2012.

    The group is also unhappy about ill treatment meted out to persons with disabilities at various facilities in the country, hence, their call.

    Narrating the ordeals of these PWDs, Chairman of the group, Mr Alexander Bankole Williams, at a press conference held in Accra on Thursday said, “we have women with disability who go to seek sexual reproductive healthcare services when they are pregnant and are given wrong medications and the fetuses in their wombs are aborted simply because the doctors cannot communicate to them in accessible forms.”

    The Federation further argued that Act 715 did not have any provision on specific rights of children and women with disabilities or any relevant measures to deal with their issues.

    They said although Section 6 and 7 of the Act talked about accessibility to the built environment as well as goods and services, the law had no Legislative Instrument to spell out the details regarding how those rights ought to be accessed.

    “It has no detail on the specific right to life of persons with disability particularly in a country like Ghana where the lives of children are being taken away because they are born with certain categories of disabilities,” Mr Williams said.

    “Our lives are not worth living. It is too depressing to live as a person with Disability in Ghana,” he lamented.

    Act 715 was passed by Parliament on June 23, 2006 and received the assent of the President on August 9, 2006.

    The CRPD defines PWDs as people who have physical or sensory impairments that, when combined with other obstacles, prevent them from fully and effectively participating in society on an equal footing with others.

    In Ghana, PWDs form eight per cent translating to 2,098,138 of the population, according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census.

    The census data indicates that the percentage of the Ghanaian population over the age of 65 years is 3.14 per cent (approximately 967,000 people).

    Ms Mawunyo Yakor Dagbah, National President, GFD, said the Federation was available to provide technical support towards the re-enactment of Act 715.

    “The disability movement will not countenance any delays whatsoever so far as the process of the amendment is concerned as a simple review and subsequent amendment of Act 715 has taken over ten years to get to this point,” she said.