The human rights violations and poor quality of care and support for people with mental health conditions, psychosocial and intellectual disabilities have been well documented in recent UN, Human Rights Watch and other reports. These violations are occurring in mental health services, in faith-based settings (including prayer camps) as well as in the community more generally.

There is a momentum in Ghana to improve this situation, with the introduction of a new Mental Health Act (2012), the creation of a Mental Health Authority aimed at promoting good quality and humane care through policy and integrated services, as well as activities being carried out by civil society partners to promote and protect the rights of persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities and mental health conditions.

In order to effectively and sustainably promote rights and recovery in all settings and at all levels, however, it is essential to improve knowledge, attitudes, and practices among all mental health and disability stakeholders, including people with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities. To date, however, widescale capacity building remains a major gap in efforts taken at the national level.

The QualityRightsin Mental Health initiative in Ghana, aims to strategically launch and roll out, over the course of 3 years, an e-training programme with online coaching on mental health, human rights and recovery – a foundation course among key mental health and disability stakeholders including service providers – in order to promote attitudes and practices that respect dignity and rights and which promote holistic, person-centered, recovery-oriented care and support. The e-training will be supplemented by face-to-face capacity building within the limits of available resources.

OBJECTIVES

• Build capacity and change attitudes among a wide range of national stakeholders in order to promote recovery and respect for human rights for people with mental health conditions, psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.
• Transform formal mental health and social services as well as services provided in traditional settings (in particular prayer camp) in order to end abusive and coercive practices, and promote care and support that is acceptable, of good quality, meets people’s needs and respects their dignity and rights.
• Make available the e-training programme with online coaching on mental health, human rights and recovery to university level students as part of their curricula in order to equip student nurses, doctors and other relevant categories of professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills to deliver good quality services and supports.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

• The existence of a scalable & cost-efficient e-training programme on mental health, human rights, and recovery, with the capacity to reach large numbers of stakeholders at national level.
• The provision of holistic services that comply with recovery principles and international human rights standards.
• People with mental health conditions/psychosocial disabilities and intellectual disabilities experiencing better health outcomes and respect for their rights in all aspects of their lives
  Transformation of community attitudes towards people with mental health conditions/psychosocial and intellectual or cognitive disabilities across Ghana.