To ensure easy and efficient services for people who need assistance, the government must allocate funding to mental health delivery.
As suicide is no longer a crime, conventional government health organisations must strategically hire and work with mental health specialists to offer the necessary support for those who may seek treatment due to mental health issues.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Collins Badu Agyemang, National President of the Ghana Psychological Association (GPA), made the following statement: "If the health delivery system does not promote well-being and prevent the onset of mental health challenges by engaging psychologists at the workplaces, in schools, and communities, then the country may not be able to prevent people from getting into the mental health system.
He emphasised that to guarantee that there are mental health specialists in all hospitals staffed by government health workers, "there must now be purposeful and intentional recruitment and engagement of mental health professionals in mainstream government health organisations."
He was expressing his ideas about what needed to be done to guarantee that there would be real advantages for the provision of mental health services now that the suicide statute had been repealed.
On March 28, the Ghanaian Parliament removed the legislation that made attempting suicide a crime by amending the Criminal Offences Act 1960.
Until Parliament amended the Criminal Offenses Act's suicide-related parts, Ghana was one of the 20 nations that still had laws that penalised those who attempted suicide.
The act was repealed after years of arduous advocacy from mental health professionals, which received strong support with a Private Member's Bill sponsored by Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, MP for Asante Akim Central and Chairman of the Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Committee, and Bernard Ahiafor, MP for Akatsi South, Ranking Member of the Committee.
While there were some health professionals to assist in providing effective services, according to Dr Agyemang, there were not enough psychologists, who were the main gatekeepers to identify the early indicators and provide the necessary assistance when patients called the hospitals.
Even though there were a lot of well-trained psychologists, according to him, they were not hired or integrated into the traditional healthcare delivery system.
"We do have some mental health nurses; we have around 70 psychiatrists in the nation, but we do not have enough psychologists," he said. "Psychologists are the key gatekeepers to address acute distress that individuals will be going through."
Therefore, the President of the GPA called for strategically planning to use psychologists to promote wellbeing and stop people from developing mental health issues, adding that even though the nation lacked enough psychiatrists, there were enough trained psychologists to be used to assist in workplaces, educational institutions, social settings, and hospitals.
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