Give mental persons ‘Mental Health number’ for identification incase...

An Assistant Development Planning Officer at the Bongo District of the Upper East Region Billy Warnermann Akopeele has called on government to look into the growing norm of people using mental health as cover-up for committing various crimes.

Mr. Akopeele said this during a meeting with representatives of mental health, Self Help Groups (SHGs) together with key staff of the Bongo District Assembly and other decentralized agencies as part of activities to mark the 2021 World Mental Health Day.

“We have what we called ‘disability number’ all of us seated here are mentally disturbed in one way or the other. But what is so worrying is that both past and the present government, security services and even our courts, some people will commit a crime and after the crime is committed, because they want to spare those who committed the crime, they will now associate the problem with mental health which is very painful.

“We have ‘disability numbers’, so if you know that your relative is mentally not 100 percent, I think there should be something like a ‘mental health number’ too, identify that person and then get a mental health number for him. So that one day, if he commits a crime, we know the person has a peculiar problem already.

“You don’t wait for somebody to come and butcher my relative, then when the issue is taken to court because you think you have the ways in and out, you go and see the judge, the security personnel’s and all they now have to say is that he has a mental problem and the case is gone. Is very bad,” he lamented

He noted that such activity has been going on especially in the high profile cases. He sighted a recent case of a young man who was later reported of suffering from a mental disorder after he butchered two children and stored their parts inside his fridge at Abessim.

The interface meeting gave leaders of SHGs the opportunity to demand increased support to persons with mental health conditions and the operationalization of the District Mental Health Plan.

This activity is undertaken with the support of Ghana Somubi Dwumadie funded with UK aid from the UK government. The meeting is expected to bring about scaled-up quality, integrated, disability-inclusive community-based and recovery-oriented mental health and social services.