Depression among women registering disturbing trend in Berekum Municipality

Health

Depression among women registering disturbing trend in Berekum Municipality

There is increasing trend of depression among pregnant women and girls in the Berekum Municipality in the Bono Region, Mrs Salomey Mensah, the Berekum Municipal Mental Health Coordinator has said.

This is because most men who impregnate women and girls neglected and abandoned them, whilst many parents in the area also fail to accept their girls who are impregnated.

She said cases of depression and teenage pregnancies were common, and highly recorded at Berekum Zongo, Senease, Kato, Koraso, and Ayoronpe communities.

In an interview with newsmen on the side-line of a training workshop on maternal mental health held in Berekum, Mrs Mensah said 80 percent of the about 1,485 cases of mental health were depression.

Organised by MIHOSO International, a health centered Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) the training workshop was attended by 30 maternal mental health patients in the Municipality.

They are made up of leaders from self-help groups established and being supported by MIHOSO undertake livelihood empowerment programmes such as bead and soap making, livestock production, hair dressing dressmaking to enable them buy drugs and fend for their families.

The training workshop is in line with a project titled â€œenhancing maternal mental health of 29,520 pregnant women and mothers and their children to realise child health in Ghanaâ€, being implemented by MIHOSO with funding from CMB, International, an NGO.

Aimed at improving access to quality and appropriate maternal and child health services to target women and children, the three â€“year project is being implemented in 18 Districts and Municipalities in the region.

Mrs Mensah who is a Principal Nursing Officer indicated that this year alone about 60 new cases of mental disorders had been recorded in the Berekum Municipality with depression, epilepsy, psychotics and substance abuse being common.

She regretted that many men and families abandoned their wives and relatives who one way or the other had mental disorders, a situation she added were affecting the recovery or treatment processes of many of the patients.

Mrs Mensah spoke on and condemned public stigmatization of patients saying because of high stigma and discrimination, some of the patients put on drugs had failed to go for check-ups.

Many of the maternal mental patients who spoke during the training expressed discomfort over intermittent shortages and high cost of drugs, and appealed to the government to do something about it.

Mr Thomas Benarkuu, the Programme Director of MIHOSO, appealed to the various District and Municipal Assemblies in the three regions to support the patients to access drugs for their treatment.

He said mental health remained a huge health burden, adding that patients could be treated if they continue taking the course of drugs.

Mr Benarkuu expressed appreciation to CMB International for the project, which he said was making huge impact on the socio-economic livelihoods of the patients.

Source: WatchGhana.Com/ K. Peprah