Kumasi Psychiatric Hospital - Kumasi

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Date
1988-04-16
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Abstract
Very little has been done in the area of Mental Health since the building of the first Mental Hospital in 1906. This neglect of the Mental Health Service is surprising because our mental health problems have been growing ever since, and are likely to increase with the improved standard of living and the welfare society envisaged by the government. It must be appreciated that every change brings a host of new stresses and tensions to which we must like a quick and reasonable adjustment, if we are to maintain a normal mental equilibrium. 1. The ineffective utilization of available psychiatric opinion in planning. 2. The erroneous belief that psychiatric problems in the African are minimal and do not call for special attention. 3. The attitude that mental patients are dangerous and must be kept out of sight, thus satisfying the mentality that what cannot be seen is absent. This apartheid attitude towards the mentally ill and their problems forms the basis for the lack of planning, extension and proportionate growth of the Mental Health service vis-a-vis other services. It must (a) emphasize the global distribution of mental illness and its trends towards a gradual increase. (b) Underline the lack of respect of colour, race, creed and social status among the unfortunate sufferers. In the developing nations the general approach should be on the lines of community services. The basic assumption underlying community mental health is that behaviour is a function of two sets of variable, the person and the situationBehaviour is also related to attitudes of the individual as well as attitudes of the environment. A crucial aspect of the environment involves the interaction of the individual with members of his community. It is this interaction which implies an exchange of emotional support and services that gives rise to stress, tension failure of adjustment etc. This is the price of progress, a price which must be paid. Indeed most unaware of doing so. However, there are many in whom the stress of modern living- produces adverse effects such as anxiety and physical tension. No one can stop the world for these people, nor can they contract out of it. In a developing nation like Ghana, it is imperative that mental health problems be given their proper place and importance in the health services if we are to minimise the effects of inimical forces on the individual.
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A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture Examination, 1988
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