Over 2,220 mental health recovered patients have been reunited with their families and communities.

The 2,220 persons were among the 2,850 admitted to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Pantang Hospital and Ankaful Hospital.

The Accra Psychiatric Hospital facilitated the reintegration of 1,650 patients, Pantang Hospital reconciled 320 patients and Ankaful Hospital reintegrated 250 patients.

The reintegration is in line with a new psychiatric regime designed under the Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846).

To ensure a successful reintegration, community psychiatric units work in partnership with the Social Welfare Departments (SWDs) across districts in the country.

Professor Akwasi Osei, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Mental Health Authority (MHA), says psychiatric health care has evolved over the years and now, there is the community-care approach.

Interacting with the Daily Graphic, he indicated that recovering patients are no longer locked up for a long period but taken back into their respective communities for care with proper supervision.

“Mental health care has gone through various evolutions. Now the current evolution is the recognition that persons with mental health care can be treated in their communities and not necessarily at the institutions.

“Those days when people were kept so long at the psychiatric institutions are long gone; now the focus is on community care.”

According to him, inbuilt psychiatric units have been established by the government in all regional and district hospitals in the country, where psychiatric nurses liaise with personnel with social welfare to provide the services needed.

Regarding decongestion of psychiatric wards, Professor Akwasi Osei said the Accra Psychiatric Hospital has been downsized to 350 patients.Â

The CEO noted that the hospital previously used to house over 2,000 patients.

He continued: “Pantang Hospital also used to have a huge number, but has reduced it to between 200 and 150 patients. Ankaful Hospital previously had 350, but has reduced it to about 100 patients recently.”Â

Cindy Boadu, a trader at Madina Market, is among the many who have been reintegrated into society after being admitted to the Pantang Hospital between December 18, 2019, and July 12, 2020.

While expressing thanks to the management of the hospital, she assured that her condition would not deteriorate since “I take my medications regularly.”

Meanwhile, Dr Frank Baning, a Medical Director of Pantang Hospital, indicates that the community-care approach has been instituted to ensure persons admitted at Pantang Hospital are not abandoned by their families.

He stated the approach is part of processes families must agree to before their loved ones are admitted.

“So, when families go through the psychiatric units across the districts in the country, the units establish where to find the family or a contact person to ensure that recovered patients could go back home.Â

And after treatment, when we realize the person is getting better, the social welfare unit at the hospital starts tracking the community psychiatric unit within the communities where the patient originally resides and the process of reintegration continues from there.”

Not all recovered patients have been able to reunite with their families.

One, Samuel Kofi Agyemang, has been employed as a cleaner at the Pantang Hospital, after it was discovered that members of his family who could identify him have all passed away.

Samuel Kofi Agyemang, also known as Wofa, is said to hail from Bekwai in the Ashanti region.

Source: The Independent Ghana