On November 30, 2018, BasicNeeds-Ghana convened a meeting with the Greater Accra Regional Alliance for Mental Health and Development as part of a UK funded Maternal Mental Health project titled “Enhancing Maternal Mental Health of 29520 pregnant women, mothers and their children to realise maternal and child health in Ghana”. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss with alliance members ways in which they could incorporate maternal mental health in their programming as civil society organisations and individuals interested in mental health development.
BasicNeeds-Ghana Programmes Manager, Adam Dokurugu Yahaya, in giving an overview of the Project to members of the alliance, said the main target of the project was to enhance the Maternal Mental health of pregnant women and mothers in five selected regions namely, Upper East, Upper West , Brong Ahafo, Northern region and Greater Accra Regions. He added that the project was also expected to improve livelihoods of poor and vulnerable pregnant women and new mothers with mental health issues. He further informed the alliance members that Traditional birth attendants will be trained as part of the project to refer pregnant women at risk of complications during pregnancy.
The Deputy Director in charge of Public – Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate, Dr. Amoussou-Gohoungo, during his remarks, said the Ghana Health Service was happy to be working with BasicNeeds-Ghana to implement the project. He added that the fact that the capacity of existing health facilities and their staff will be strengthened was of utmost importance to the Ghana Health Service. In his view, such an exercise would help health professionals to gain the requisite skills needed to appropriately screen pregnant women and new mothers for signs of mental health problems and commence early treatment.
In an earlier development, the Maternal Mental Health Project was launched by the Country Director of the Department For International Development (DFID), Philip Smith, at a ceremony that was attended by dignitaries from the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, Mental Health Authority of Ghana and National Health Insurance Authority, among others.
