(Fred Tetteh Alarti-Amoako, 19.05.2008) Though
people with mental disabilities are viewed by some as a
nuisance on the streets, a mental health expert says
government should not attempt to drive them from the
streets since that is not the best solution.
"The way forward is not to bundle them and drive them
several kilometres out of the town and leave them there,
for they will definitely return," Peter Bedimak Yaro,
Country Programme Manager of BasicNeeds Ghana, an NGO has
stated.
The sure way, he said, is to "pursue the simplest,
less expensive yet sustainable measure: reunite them with
their families by impressing upon them to come and take
them off the streets and seek attention for them from the
psychiatric units."
Mr Yaro, who disclosed this at a two-day workshop for
Coordinating Directors and Planning Officers in the
Northern Region on issues of mental health, said there is
the need to create opportunities for mentally ill people
that will enable them acquire a skill. This move, he
explained, will keep them busy as well as help them
create and produce and ultimately earn some income.
He noted that efforts must be made to make the streets
of Ghana clean and free of mentally ill people as the
country attempts to boost and diversify the tourism
sector. He added: "A good tourism sector does not only
mean development of tourist sites and good hotels,
restaurants and bars but clean spacious streets that are
devoid of vagrants."
The workshop was organised for the technocrats and
political authorities with the intention that district
budgets will include items for addressing vulnerable
groups including mentally ill people, people with
epilepsy and their carers.
Mr Yaro further called for the extension of poverty
alleviation funds such as the Micro-finance and Small
Loans Schemes to the mentally challenged.
According to the 2001 report of the World Health
Organisation on mental health, an estimated 23 percent of
all populations will experience some form of mental
illness in their life-time. Mental illness accounts for
12.3 percent of the global burden of disease. It is also
projected that by 2015, neuro-psychiatric conditions will
surpass cardiovascular diseases.
Source: www.thestatesmanonline.com
