Story: Peace AWUKU

The Mental Health Authority (MHA) has reiterated calls for the establishment of a mental health levy as a means of better caring for mentally ill persons on Ghana’s streets.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer for the Mental Health Authority, Dr. Caroline Amissah, said some of these endeavours require funding that was currently not available to the authority.

Her comments come amid growing concern over the number of homeless mentally ill persons on Ghana’s streets.

“Taking care of some of these things we find in our communities are not routine things, so the routine budgets that we plan and is allocated to us cannot come and do some of these things,” Dr. Amissah explained.

“The levy is not just about bringing money to the Mental Health Authority. But the levy also looks at clearing the street of such unfortunate persons. We can also train more people to take care of them,” she noted.

In addition, Dr. Amissah said the levy would also cater for better sensitisation on how to relate to mentally ill persons.

“After we have treated and managed them, and they are able to perform some of their normal social functions, people are still hesitant in receiving them, so there is a lot of education that needs to be done,” she said.