GNA – Professor Akwasi Osei, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Mental Health Authority has stressed the need for the media to play a leading role in promoting mental health knowledge and awareness in Ghana.
The media should also stimulate favourable attitudes towards persons with mental illness in their reportage to help to reduce stigmatization and discrimination of persons with all forms of mental illness.
Prof. Akwasi Osei, made the call at a two-day workshop on Mental Health Literacy organized for some selected journalists and media practitioners in the Ashanti Region in Kumasi.
The workshop, on the theme, “strengthening and transforming mental health reportage in the Ghanaian media space”, was organised by the Ghana Mental Health Authority (GMHA) in collaboration with the Ama Ataa Aidoo Centre for Creative Writing and the African University College of Communications.
It aimed at training journalists on mental health issues and form partnerships with the media, especially in the choice of words used in reporting mental health issues, to strengthen reportage in the media and reduce stigma.
Participants were taken through topics such as, “Appreciating Issues on Mental Health, and the Role of the Media in its reportage”.
Prof. Osei described mental health as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of infirmity.
“It is as real as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, and a person with mental health could recover well with appropriate treatment and support.
It could be biological, social, and physiological”, he stated.
Depression, he pointed out, also accounted for between two to five percent of mental illness in women, while 50 per cent of all mental health illnesses began at age 14.
Words influence mental health and, thus, positive words also stimulate good mental health.
Prof. Osei, therefore, urged the media to avoid using dehumanizing language and words when reporting on persons with mental illness.
Dr. Amma Boadu, a psychiatrist, said the brain was a complex organ with different parts responsible for different functions, and the common disorders that affected it were depression and suicidal thoughts.
She urged the media to help clear all myths surrounding mental health because it could be cured.
Dr. Caroline Ammisah, Deputy CEO of the GMHA, took the media through how they could take care of themselves to improve their mental health.
Mr. Sampson Agyarko, a recovered mental health patient, called on the media to use appropriate and supportive words to tell their stories to avoid stigmatization and discrimination.
GNA