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‘Economic, relationship crises can trigger mental disorders’
Depressed individuals are at a higher risk of having serious mental disorders if things go worse, Dr. Richard Eghan of Nature’s Green Medical Centre has disclosed.
According to the Medical Practitioner, mental health disorders are more prevalent in our current dispensation due to issues ranging from economic, family, and relationship crises among others.
Dr Eghan said that persons “who have any of the conditions or symptoms of having mental health problems of any form need to seek help or timely psychological, psychiatric or medical intervention from an expert.”
The CEO of Nature’s Green Medical Centre at Taifa in Accra indicated that it was important for individuals living in a sound state of mind to constantly preserve their mental well-being to avoid any form of future mental disorders.
In an interview with The Spectator last week, he said “most mental health disorders are treatable, but required one to seek help if any state of abnormalities begins to show up.”
He cautioned persons living with or in close proximity with people with mental health problems to take safety and precautionary measures in their encounter with such individuals and must treat them in a welcoming way which would not lead to stigmatisation.
The Public Health Scientist said some persons living with serious mental and psychological health disorder could live a normal life in their daily day-to-day life encounter without any evidence or symptoms of abnormalities but could easily cause harm to an individual and treat them with respect to avoid stigmatisation.
“Imagine having a wife, girlfriend, husband or boyfriend who has serious depression or personality disorder whose symptoms could go out of control one day and bring serious harm to your life, yet the person seems normal to you because they have not shown any sign of aggression or violence towards you,” Dr. Eghan said.
He lamented that in Ghana, because much attention was not paid to mental health conditions and victims of mental health disorders, mental health patients may continue to suffer the symptoms of their conditions until they became completely insane.
“The world is sitting on a ‘time bomb’ with mental health problems as the level of mental health issues keep soaring on a daily basis especially during this global COVID-19 pandemic period”, he stressed.
According to a global health statistics, about 792 million people lived with mental health disorder of some kind translating to 10.7 per cent of global population.
Dr. Eghan said those with living anxiety constituted 384 million people, representing 3.8 per cent of the population while depression accounted for 264 million people which is about 3.4 per cent of the population.
He said a data published also estimated that mental disorders are attributable to 14.3 per cent of death worldwide or approximately eight million deaths each year.
Mr. Nicholas Nartey, a mental health advocate who produced an award winning film titled “KORO” underscored the need for recovered mental health patients who have undergone treatment and are living a normal life in society not to be stigmatised.
By Alfred Nii Arday Ankrah
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Swedru All Blacks back to winning ways, Roshan humble King Faisal
Sekondi Rospak FC made it eight wins in eight successive home games after three second-half goals from John Amoah, Joseph Ntow and Stephen Anthony Kofi. John Amoah opened the scoring in the 55th minute after a barren first half. Joseph Ntow added to the tally in the 56th minute before Stephen Anthony Kofi rounded things up in the 74th minute to give Rospak a 3-0 win over former Premier League side King Faisal.
Elsewhere at Swedru – leaders Swedru All Blacks humbled PAC Academy in an emphatic 2-0 win. Zayat Bubakari scored first for Swedru All Blacks in the 27th minute before Rudolf Junior Nana Kwasi Mensah made it 2-0 in the 34th minute. Swedru All Blacks are top of the table with 36 points – 4 points ahead of second placed Rospak FC.
Meanwhile, Former Premier League side Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs recorded their fourth successive home victory after beaten New Edubiase United 2-1 at the Robert Mensah Park. Enoch Odoom struck first for Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs in the 19th minute but Steven Asante equalized for New Edubiase United before halftime. After the interval, Godfred Eshun scored from distance in the 65th minute to help Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs secure all the points.
Here are the results in Zone Two
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Cervical Cancer alert: Avoid sex at early age
The Programmes Manager of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Mary Efua Commeh, has advised young girls to avoid sex at an early age.
This, she explained, will give the cervix the opportunity to mature before they become sexually active.
“You need to delay what we call the first sexual intercourse as much as possible to give the cervix the opportunity to mature before the person becomes sexually active,” she said.
Dr Commeh stated this in an interview with The Spectator in Accra on Tuesday as a part of the Cervical Cancer awareness month.
According to her, cervical cancer was the second leading female cancer in Ghana with a total of about 3,072 cases annually, and out of that, 1,815 deaths are recorded, representing more than 50 per cent.
She indicated that “If young girls are going to be sexually active, then you need to talk to your parents about being vaccinated.”
She explained that vaccinating young girls against human papillomavirus (HPV) has been found to be a very effective way of preventing cervical cancer.
“There are countries that started HPV vaccination years ago and they are not seeing any cervical cancers now because they would have eliminated most of the high-risk HPVs in their women. So if the high-risk HPV is not there, then obviously the results on cervical cancers are going to go down,” she added.
Dr Commmey said the HPV vaccination is recommended for young girls aged nine to 14 years, adding that it had been found to be highly effective, not just for cervical cancers but for other HPV-related cancers, such as anal cancers, cancers of the vagina, genital warts, amongst others.
She further elaborated that the idea is to put up a barrier before the HPV comes in and that once a young female encounters it, she is already protected.
She also mentioned that for cervical cancers, the main cause is called HPV infection, saying generally, all sexually active women acquire HPV at some point in their lives.
However, the Programmes Manager of NCDs at the GHS mentioned that the body has a way of clearing the HPV, explaining that it is a natural mechanism that goes on, unfortunately, there are a few women whose HPV persists.
Moreover, she noted that the numbers for Cervical Cancer tend to be much higher because at times, clients would wait, and try all sorts of medications before they finally report to the health facility saying “we actually lose some women before they get to the hospitals with over 75 per cent of the cases coming in its third and fourth stages.”
Dr Commey, therefore, called for public awareness while ensuring the availability of information for prevention and control.
By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu
