Story: Mary Ankrah
THE Mental Health Society of Ghana (MEHSOG) has called on the government and politicians to consider people with mental illness into their decision-making process.
They said such a consideration would enable them to actively participate in the democratic governance of the country.
They also entreated polling station agents to assist mentally ill persons to vote during the December 7 elections.
That, they said, would enable them to contribute their quota to the development of the country as well as reduce the menace of stigmatisation and discrimination that mentally ill and epileptic people suffer in their daily lives.
The National President of MEHSOG, Mrs Montana Minatu, made the call when she spoke to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the fourth annual delegates congress recently held in Accra.
The two-days delegates congress was on the theme: “Ensuring Total National Development through Participation in the Democratic Governance and Peaceful Elections: The Role of People with Mental Illness in Ghana”.
It brought representatives from different organisations of mental health and epilepsy services as well as their primary care-givers across the country to enable them deliberate on issues that affect mental ill persons in participating in development.
The congress also afforded the delegates the opportunity to share ideas and experience on how mentally ill people could be empowered to participate in governance and national development.
Mrs Minatu observed that it was important for people with mental illness to participate in ensuring peaceful, free and fair elections because such people suffer most when there is conflict in the election process.
“Government and politicians must be more interested in issues about persons with mental illness or epilepsy because their votes count in the coming elections”, he opined.
For his part, the deputy Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Sekyere Antwi-Boasiako, observed that mental illness and epilepsy were devastating illness as it makes it impossible for the country to maximise the use of resources and subtract from the contributions that people who suffer from mental illness or epilepsy could potentially make to national development.
“Government recognises that accelerated and inclusive national development efforts require all human resources to be effectively harnessed”, he said.
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