Basic Needs International, a non-governmental organisation in mental health, on Tuesday presented 1,000 copies of "Essential Skills for Mental Health Care" to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to boost mental health care.
Mr Peter Yaro, Country Programme Manager of Basic Needs, Ghana, said the books, requested by the GHS, are to argument community nursing in the country and work against stigmatization of mental patients.
He said Basic Needs would also be channelling it energies into improving epileptic treatment in Ghana.
Mr Yaro said in collaboration with the College of Physicians and Surgeons the NGO would be organising a trainer of trainers' workshop in August for health personnel after which a survey on epilepsy would be conducted.
Madam Amina Bukari, GHS National Coordinator, Community Psychiatry, said with support from Basic Needs all districts in the country can now boast of community psychiatry facilities enabling people to access psychiatry care instead of travelling long distances to the few facilities in the regions.
She advised Ghanaians to go for checks once every year adding that psychiatry care was not only about mental cases.
The Director-General of GHS, Dr Elias Sory, said Basic Needs had made meaningful contribution to mental health and caring for destitute as well and noted that the donation comes at a time when the world was reviewing primary health care to make it accessible to all.
He said the books were presented at the right time to enable the service to make significant input into Ghana's primary health care review, especially in the area of mental health.
Dr Sory said inaccessibility of mental heath care drove people to take medication for problems that required counselling compounding their problems.