Depression among women registering disturbing trend in Berekum Municipality Depression among women registering disturbing trend in Berekum Municipality

Berekum (B/R), June 18, GNA – There is an increasing trend of depression among pregnant women and girls in the Berekum Municipality of the Bono Region, Mrs. Salomey Mensah, the Berekum Municipal Mental Health Coordinator has said.

This is because most men who impregnated women and girls neglected and abandoned them, whilst many parents in the area also failed to accept their girls who were 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 the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sideline of a training workshop on maternal mental health held on Monday at Berekum, Mrs. Mensah said 80 per cent of the about 1,485 cases of mental health were depression.

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

They were 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 and dressmaking to enable them to buy drugs and fend for their families.

It was in line with a project titled “Enhancing Maternal Mental Health of 29,520 Pregnant Women and Mothers and Their Children to Realise Child Health in Ghana”, being implemented by MIHOSO with funding from CMB International, a NGO.

Aimed at improving access to quality and appropriate maternal and child health services to target women and children, the three-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 somehow had mental disorders, a situation Mrs. Mensah added were affecting the recovery rate or treatment process of many of the patients.

Mrs. Mensah condemned public stigmatisation 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 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 continued taking the course of their 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.

GNA

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