Gov’t Must Prioritize Mental Health – Asantehene

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has urged government to make mental health an urgent national priority.

According to him, mental health could not continue to be relegated to the background as had been done over the years amid the rising cases of mental disorder.

The Asantehene made the call in a speech read on his behalf at the 59th annual conference of the Ghana Medical Association, in Kumasi.

“Mental health in Ghana” is the theme chosen for the four-day meeting.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu asked that the government to provide the Mental Health Authority with adequate financial and logistical support to effectively discharge its mandate.

He added that mental health laws and related legislations should be made to work to address mental health problems facing the nation.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu used occasion to call on government to implement the agreed conditions of service for medical doctors, explaining that the implementation was necessary to save the nation from another “debilitating strike action”.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Dr. Ebenzer Ewusi-Emmim, President of the GMA, expressed concern over the feet-dragging on the implementation of the agreed condition of service for its members by the government.

He underlined the determination of the Association to do everything to make sure that the conditions of service as approved by the government, the Labour Commission and the Association, together with the market premium for doctors were fully implemented.

Source: thePublisher