Former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Addai, has said the Mahama administration failed to commit adequate financial resources to mental health issues in the country.
According to him, the past administration spent huge sums of money on campaign activities ahead of the 2016 elections while neglecting mental health.
Speaking at the launch of Friends of Mental Health in Accra on Monday, October 23 Prof Addai expressed worry over the country’s inability to effectively assist persons with mental disorders.
He said: “We have forgotten that the brain is part of the body and every part of the body sometimes gets sick, and yet, when you get sick in the brain we don’t consider you as sick, it is either you are a witch or bewitched.
“Whenever I see a mentally sick person walking on the streets, sometimes totally naked, I don’t know whom we are indicting, but it is me and you, from the President to the young person.”
He added: “I couldn’t believe that in 2016, not a pesewa of government budget was dedicated to mental health. That was a year that literally millions were spent legitimately or bribing people to vote and not a pesewa in helping mentally sick people.
“I believe that there are many things that have to be done, we need roads, we need schools, we need factories and all of them, but nothing will define our humanity as Ghanaians than what we do.”
