Mental health crisis in Ghana

The conditions suffered by Ghanaian mental health patients in state-run psychiatric facilities. Ghana. 20/10/2009.

These images were taken whilst working for a British mental health organisation in Ghana throughout October and November 2009-12-17
According to the World Health Organisation, Ghana has a critical shortage of nurses and doctors. Many Ghanaian psychiatrists and mental health nurses have left the country and are now in the UK and USA.

Most (98%) mentally ill people in Ghana attend pastors at prayer camps or traditional healers, although many go untreated. However, the pastors and healers shackle and chain sufferers to control their behaviour. Patients with severe depression or schizophrenia are often beaten and starved by these ‘healers’ to try to get rid of supposed ‘evil spirits’.

Currently Ghana’s state psychiatric services are mostly 1500 inpatient beds in 3 large mental hospitals on the coast and 40 beds across in regional hospitals and private clinics. A few psychiatric nurses provide community services but their training stopped some time ago. There are only 5 psychiatrists for 20 million people, whereas, using USA / UK norms there would be 7000 for the same population.

To protect the mentally ill against human rights abuses and to improve state services, Ghanaian health professional and advisors have drafted a new mental health Bill to replace their outmoded one. The new Act will control the treatment of mental illness even by traditionalists and it will vastly improve the government psychiatric services but its passage through the parliament, which started in 2006, has been severely held up. The last incoming government pledged to enact the Bill, but Ghana is still waiting.