By: Rita Kafui Nedjoh | Voltaonlinegh |

The Mental Health Unit of Peki Government Hospital in the South Dayi District of the Volta Region has graduated 16 young rehabilitated mental health clients with life skills to aid them financially.

The patients who graduated with a certificates and starter packs went through a nine-month training in mushroom farming, snail farming, and beads with slippers making under the mental health client rehabilitation project of the hospital’s mental health unit.

The mental health rehabilitation project is an initiative which seeks to develop the necessary emotional, social, vocational, financial and intellectual skills needed to live and learn in the community with least amount of professional help to ensure an effective reintegration of recovered clients into the society.

It is a collaborative effort of Peki Government Hospital and Ebenms Fungi Production with support from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Peki.

Head of Mental Health Unit, Peki Government Hospital, Mercy Sitsofe Tettey noted that mental health “is no respecter of persons” hence the need to join hands together to explore the potentials of the youth masked by their mental disability momentarily for the development of society.

Madam Tettey said effective rehabilitation and reintegration of mental health clients ought to be a collective effort of health care providers, clients, care givers and the society to eradicate the mentality that mental disorder patients “are useless” in the development of the society.

She congratulated the beneficiaries and commended the various stakeholders and individuals who supported the project.

South Dayi District Director, Ghana Health Service, Patience Nunoo lamented the neglect of mental health patients by their relatives due to stigmatisation and the non-availability of facility to accommodate, rehabilitate and integrate them back into society.

Madam Nunoo decried the difficult situations under which mental health nurses in the district operated and mentioned the absence of motorbikes for defaulter tracing, risks in handling more aggressive clients, accommodation for mental health clients and staff and non-availability of free medicine as examples.

She disclosed that the district from 2017 to the first quarter of 2019 had recovered and managed a total of 1,658 mental health cases, 330 vagrants, 159 defaulters and 201 relapse due to non-compliance, refusal to turn up for revisit and unavailability of free medicine.

She therefore called on the Member of Parliament for the area, philanthropists and individuals to help sustain the project to aid the reintegration of mental health patients into society.

Executive Director, Ebenms Fungi Production and trainer of the beneficiaries, Togbe Dzempe II of Takla Traditional Area commended the hospital for making the dreams of his foundation possible.

Togbe Dzempe noted that Ebenms Fungi Production is an incorporated company involved in the production of mushroom, ‘shito’ with mushroom base, honey production and snail farming.

He called on individuals and organisations to support the course with material and financial resources to help the foundation reach out to more of the less-privileged in society.

Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com