● Mr Illyasu Baba

Absence of mental health facility in the Upper West Region has been identified as one of the major challenges preventing persons with mental health conditions from accessing treatment in the region.

Mental health patients are said to be loitering the streets of major towns in the region after they have been sent away from home for causing one ruckus or the other as a result of not getting the needed care and attention and no alternative places to reside.

This was made known by a Mental Health Advocate and Worker, Mr Illyasu Baba Yussif at Wa in an interview with The Spectator newspaper on the state of mental health in the region.

Mr Illyasu is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Bahass Foundation, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the needs of mental health persons in the Upper West.

His foundation mobilises persons with mental health issues on the streets, give them warm bath, clean shave, after which they are offered new clothes every month to wear.

He lamented that due to absence of a permanent mental health hospital, families of persons with the condition were torn between keeping them at home to create problems or sending them onto the streets.

“If there is a dedicated facility in the region which admits the patients and get them treated, I think some of them would have got better because sometimes it is just about having access to regular medication but this opportunity is absent in the region”, he said.

He stated that due to poverty, some people could not afford to take their relations with mental health conditions to other parts of the country where facilities were available to get catered for.

He was hoping to put up a permanent home for mental health patients but said he would need support from benevolent bodies to do so in order to be able to accommodate the patients and feed them constantly.

“Some people are left to roam the streets because they eventually become nuisance at home and to others, especially in instances where the family resides in rented apartments so they are forced to put them out on the street for the peace of everyone else”, Mr Yussif said.

He said the streets presented harsh conditions to these patients leading to deterioration of their health.

“But they know what I do and they are mostly around my office for food and other assistance, I think most of them have mild cases and would get better with just a little bit of care”, he said.

He used the opportunity to ask for support from benvolent individuals and organisations for his intended purpose and advised the youth to stay away from illicit drugs which could lead to mental problems.

When contacted, the Regional Mental Health Coordinator, Mr Sylvester Basagnia confirmed that the region did not have a mental health hospital but had a unit that was in charge of mental health and epileptic cases at the Municipal Hospital.

He said they could only detain the patients but not admit them for long so acquiring a permanent facility for such persons would be an added advantage for persons with mental health conditions and their families.

From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa