There is a growing concern among residents and businesses over the increasing number of mentally challenged persons roaming naked in the Ho municipality.
A recent tour of the capital city saw at least twenty (20) mentally challenged persons at vantage areas; mostly around the central business centres.
A major concern is their harassment of road users and pilfering of items from shops with impunity.
Others were seen piling and littering the streets with rubbish.
Their activities residents say threaten their security. Some residents who spoke to Citi News recounted how they were physically harassed by the mentally challenged in their homes and offices.
Although comprehensive plans were made after Ghana’s Independence to build additional six psychiatric and rehabilitation centres to the existing three facilities, to accommodate the growing number of psychiatric patients in the country, those plans are yet to materialize.
The absence of rehabilitation facilities in the Volta region and the congestions at the existing facilities in Accra, Pantang and Akaful has exposed the weak support systems in the Ghana, for the mentally disabled.
This has renewed concerns over the implementation of the defunct Mental Health Law. Although Ghana has ratified a number of international human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the implementation of the Mental Health Law which was enacted in 2012 has been a major setback towards the protection of Persons with mental disabilities and the improvement of mental health services.
The situation apart from creating an unhealthy socioeconomic environment is a crucible for the infringement of fundamental rights of such mentally challenged as they are susceptible to torture and other inhumane treatments from persons who feel threatened by their activities.
Clearly, there is the need to remove such persons from the streets, house them in decent environments and provide them with adequate health care services.
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By: King Nobert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana