AN OPINION ON THE MENTAL FITNESS IN GHANA

A psychologist based at the Accra Psychiatry Hospital once revealed that nine out of ten Ghanaians had a mental challenge. Dr Akwesi Osei's revelation debunks the claim that walking down the streets naked and unkempt is the only manifestation and definition of madness.

All Ghanaians suffer one mental illness from another.

Mental fitness, here in Ghana, is arguably a debative topic to probe into. But records show that the daill stresses and pressures on the average Ghanaian continue to reduce the tenacity of the mental faculty. Not a dawn moment in the dailies reveals cases of suicide and homicide in communities here in Ghana.

A deserted mentallychallenged woman.

Stress, if assessed investigatively shows that the nature of the Ghanaian job market, the high demands from education, the unending efforts in marriages, the changing scenes of cultures and the innundation with information are but examples of how prone the Ghanaian mind is to becoming mentally unstable.

Although the rate at which persons are losing their minds and chosing the streets keep rising steadily, the percentage of the number of persons mentaly unstable also remains relevant. It is surprising though how this phenomena stretching through every economic level in Ghanaians; the poor, middle class and upper class thus making it a national issue.

With students as young as 21 battling with deppression; with teenagers struggling with self identity, with formal and informal workers striving to make ends meet with the palsy salary paid them, the argument is clear that we all have a mental issue or another and that just seeing other mentally challenged accross the strreets should rather inform us on the question of what happens next should our mental inbalances deteriorate.

For now it is clear that mental health in Ghana cannot be assesed from the back ground of persons with severe mental challenges; but within us.

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AN OUTLOOK ON SLUMS AND HUMAN HEALTH.

 
It has been revealed that over 48 per cent of Ghanaians living in Accra, the capital city of Ghana can be located living in slums or better still, poorly laid out settlements. What this means is that many a Ghanaian either share a room with four or more people. What this also means is the fact that accommodation remains a drain to many- Squatting therefore remains a cold solace.

Overcrowding, lack of portable water, electricity and community development can be seen as the very description to a slum settlement. But what about the health implications?

Coastal Slum in Jamestown

A stroll down the inns of the coastal slums of Jamestown in Accra greets you with a breeze of sweaty pungent odour and filth from tightly non spacious rooms and greasy open gutters. For once you will tend to think you are on a dump site but a closer realisation startles you of your real location.

A well laid out settlement
 

The sheer prevalence in premature deaths of all natures and form; the clear scenes of teenage pregnancies; the usual adaptation to filth and the contagious culture of idleness are but some of the health implications slum settlements tend to have on settlers.

Although much effort is being made to quell the ravaging effect on the expansion of slums across the regional capitals especially within the coastal plains of Accra, it is veritably clear that this phenomena forever reveals the huge health gap between the many a poor and the little a rich.

Yes the battle for healthy living and complete fitness can be won through healthy eating and exercising. But what happens when the very roof one lies under; not to talk of his environment is short of a consciousness to human dignity.
Spacious housing alone reveals the health gap between the rich and poor in urban Ghana.