Ghana: Mental Health
Duration: 12'51"
Producer: Simon W. Davies
Tell your doctor you have depression in Britain and chances are you'll
be sent to a psychiatrist and prescribed anti-depressants like prozac.
In Ghana - whose language doesn't even have a word for "depression" -
the approach is much more holistic. The National Health Service,
Ghanaian style, involves 45,000 Traditional Healers. The reliance on
healers is not just a cultural preference, it's a practical necessity.
Ghana has just 13 psychiatrists and the hospital in the capital Accra
is one of only three in the whole country. In this report we hear from
one of the professors at the hospital in Accra who decides to blow the
whistle on the abuse, and the conditions that people with mental
illness endure. The film illustrates how options for people in Ghana
with serious mental illness are stark. |
