Mental Health & Psychology Associate

Ghana’s mental health sector is funded primarily by the government. Its psychiatric services stem back to the early 19th century where patients who suffered from mental health illnesses would be detained in prisons. This slowly developed into a ‘lunatic asylum’ created under legislation passed in 1888 that would see those suffering with psychiatric illnesses being placed here.

1904 saw the first purposeful psychiatric hospital built in Ghana accommodating 200 patients to start with. Despite ongoing expansions being made to the hospital in the years onwards from this, frequent overcrowding remained a continuing issue.

For the fifty years from the late 1920s, key players in the Ghana mental healthcare system began to address key issues that were prevalent in the sector and address them accordingly. Extensive amendments were made to hospital buildings with rapid expansions in staff training and recruitment. From the 1950s innovative treatments for psychiatric illnesses such as ‘chlorpromazine’ and ‘electroconvulsive’ therapy began to emerge more prevalently. Patients were removed from chains and isolation between patients became discouraged. Staff were now refrained from punishing patients as previously had been a norm as knowledge and understanding began to increase in and around mental health and the issues associated with it.

Despite such advances, many citizens in Ghana still believed and practised in the traditional forms of psychiatric treatment. Many patients or their relatives would still opt for a traditional or herbal form of treatment such as visiting shrines, herbalist centres or prayer camps that would be relatively more accessible and inexpensive. Even though psychiatric services have been rooted in Ghana for over a century, there remains a widely held belief that mental health illnesses remain caused by supernatural evil forces that are best exiled by traditional medicine methods.

Nevertheless government policy in the long term remains to establish and expand psychiatric facilities in all regional and district hospitals. Part of this saw training courses developed in the 1970s to create registered mental nurses (RMNs) and community psychiatric nurses (CPNs). Government and University collaboration with a Danish NGO in 1994 saw funding and expertise in the training programme for CPNs and medical assistants in the Northern and Upper regions of Ghana expanded and accelerated. Two university psychiatric departments in Accra and Kumasi had been developed to offer out-patient clinical services, in addition to teaching and research work as government policy attempted to normalise, ingrain and mainstream up to date psychiatric services into the primary healthcare.

However the reality is a lot more needs to be done to achieve this even today. With a population of over 26 million, Ghana only has 13 practising psychiatrists in the public service. Inadequate staffing in general remains a recurrent problem with occupational therapists, social workers and CPNs all hard to come by. Traditional healers who can bring with them inhumane treatment methods remain prevalent in Ghana today. It is estimated that around 2.5 million people in Ghana currently suffer from some form of mental health illness.

The mental health and psychology placement in Ghana is designed to give you an insight into how psychiatric services operate in Ghana today and gain a deeper understanding to the history and developments of Ghana mental healthcare. Public education plays a leading role today in helping to overcome widely held traditional myths about mental illnesses and encouraging patients and relatives to seek early professional and alternative treatment.

Such alternative treatments focus in areas such as occupational therapies and community outreach programmes. Volunteers on the Ghana mental health programme will spend time on their programme involving themselves with such programmes. This is directly in line with the new mental health act passed in 2012 that aims to combat the stigma and discrimination associated with mentally ill people in Ghana that remains widespread and doing so via a more community-based approach as oppose to a previous institutional model that existed.

The mental health experience is based in the Tafo District at the Tafo Government hospital. The hospital incorporates 2 clinical psychiatric unit departments, an experienced psychiatric doctor and community psychiatric nurses. There is also a chance to spend time at the psychiatric wing at Manhyia hospital across your placement too. The friendliness and willingness of these healthcare professionals together with their high levels of English at both of these hospitals means they are always on hand to answer your questions and describe consultations clinically.

Essential Programme Information

As for all our volunteer programmes in Ghana, it is possible to combine multiple projects during your time with us. If this is something you’d like to do, then please apply for the main programme you’d like to take part in but also outline in your online application the details of the other projects you’d like to do. Our local team will finalise the details of your placements during your in-country orientation.

For the majority of our programmes you can apply at any time. However, we advise that you apply as soon as possible to ensure we have availability on the programme – particularly if you’re looking to travel between June and August, as spaces can fill up very quickly during this period.

It is best that you apply sooner rather than later as some of our programmes only have a limited capacity and spaces get filled very quickly. 

Travel tips

On your first day at the project the community nurses will be on hand to give a talk with you around the psychiatric history and development that Ghana has experienced. 

Across your time on the experience, will go on to learn the processes involved that the doctors and nurses go through when undergoing consultations with psychiatric patients. This includes assessing patient records, evaluating any progresses, measuring any diagnoses and prescribing any relevant medicines. The doctor will talk through with you generally the different ways in which they take care of patients suffering from mental health issues. There will be ongoing opportunities for you to assist in such health education procedures throughout.

Part of the mental health experience will see you embark on our community outreach programme that is led by psychiatric qualified nurses and worked in partnership with Tafo Hospital. This will involve mental health talks in communities and schools, reaching out direct to people in the community suffering from psychiatric issues and performing home visits to persons who have been to the hospital with mental health diagnosis and checking up on their progress and wellbeing. 

Results of the outreach programme are updated accordingly in reports and presentations that you will be assisting in. Please note that the outreach programme usually runs on an ad hoc basis and is dependent on the number of patients at the time.

Please note this programme has been specially designed for those already studying or looking to further study psychology/mental health and may not be appropriate or applicable for those outside this. If you are wanting to gain an insight and awareness into mental health in a new environment and culture then this programmes aims to provide you with such an opportunity to do so within a community setting.

Your level of hands-on involvement is dependent on your experience, duration of programme and willingness to get involved. The doctors will assess your capabilities and assign responsibilities accordingly. Those with little or no medical experience will assume a largely observational role. If you are studying a medically related degree, then you should have more opportunities to undertake some more basic hands-on involvement if you choose to. However, please note we can never guarantee hands-on experience, as the decision ultimately lies with the medical staff and is not something actively encouraged from our side.

The people in Boabeng and Fiema consider the monkeys to be sacred and in the 70s actually came together to pass a law prohibiting causing harm to the monkeys. The sanctuary holds about 400 Colobus and Mona monkeys. They come into the village all the time to steal things, but as the people are not allowed to hurt them, they simply get away with it!

The guides at the sanctuary will take you on a tour of the rainforest and local village, where you will see monkeys everywhere. There is also a monkey cemetery in the forest, where the priests of the village have been buried alongside monkeys that have passed away.

FURTHER AFIELD

LAKE BOSOMTWI

A popular retreat for volunteers at the weekend looking to escape the hustle and bustle of Kumasi. The lakeside area has a range of decent, inexpensive hotels that you can go to for a night or two. You can take a boat trip, go swimming, or just chill out by the lake.

BEACHES & SURFING
Not far from Cape Coast you’ll find no shortage of great beaches such as Anomabo, Elimina and Busua.

And if you fancy your hand at surfing then Busua is a small, laid back coastal village with surfing at its heart. As surf destinations go, Busua really is a frontier town: it’s home to the only two surf shops in Ghana, and almost every one of the country’s surfers live in the village. Not that there are very many of them.

With gentle waves, warm water and an absence of sharks, the beach is an alluring proposition for anyone looking to learn to surf in a tropical destination off the usual circuit. It is perfect for beginner to intermediate surfers, but the more experienced can make easy trips along the coast to find more challenging and potentially unridden waves.

KAKUM NATIONAL PARK

From Cape Coast, it is highly advised that you take a day-trip to Kakum National Park.