Ghana News

Accra, Ghana – When Cynthia Adjei* had an episode of an acute mental health condition in her junior high school in 2021, she was greeted with derision. This led to a deep depression that threatened her future education as she couldn’t bear to face her fellow pupils.

“I never wanted to go back to school because I felt that everyone was staring at me and making comments as I passed by,” the now 18-year-old teen recalls. “All I could imagine was people talking about me,  and laughing.”

Accra, Ghana – A tragic explosion that levelled the entire village of Appiatse in Ghana’s Western region in January 2022, taking the life of Grace Essien’s* husband, literally halted life as they knew it for her and their three children.

Traumatized and grieving, the 30-year-old recalls feeling like her world had ended. “That was one of the most difficult times in my life. I was so devastated that, even after a few weeks, hearing any sounds at all was just driving me crazy.” 

Accra, Ghana - Addressing gender barriers and inequities in access and use of health services has been identified as a key to accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly universal health coverage as enshrined in SDG three.

Since 2019, WHO has been supporting Ghana in deploying a web-based platform for monitoring quality Adolescent and Youth Friendly Health Services (AFYHS) standards. The platform, which has been deployed to 43 schools in four regions aims to empower adolescents to actively participate in monitoring the quality of healthcare services specifically designed for their needs. 

Context

The impact of the risks to mental health and associated disorders continue to undermine the attainment of the highest standard of health in African countries. The burden of increasing prevalence of mental health disorders is compounded by limited access to quality mental health services, and the exclusion of affected people from productive likelihoods.