Ghana
QualityRights in Mental Health – Ghana
In February 2019 WHO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Ghana and twelve civil society organizations, launched QualityRights in Mental health, Ghana, a project which aims to undertake a country-wide implementation of the WHO QualityRights initiative. This includes the widescale roll-out the QualityRights e-training programme on mental health, human rights and recovery among national stakeholders including health and mental health practitioners, policy makers, people with lived experience, families, NGOs, Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), faith based organizations, nurses, social workers, staff at prayer camps, medical and allied health students, teachers, the police, health planners and service providers, journalists and others.
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 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.
Target
- 50,000 national stakeholders trained using the WHO QualityRights e-training platform on mental health, human rights and recovery
- 1600 national stakeholders and influencers participating in QualityRights face to face training workshops
By training stakeholders on a massive scale, we can positively impact the lives of 1 million people who have a mental health condition, psychosocial, intellectual or cognitive disabilities throughout Ghana.
Major achievements and Milestones
- High Level national launch of the QualityRights Initiative in Ghana 26th February 2019 – 800 participants
- Six national and regional QualityRights training workshops held in 2019
- A research protocol was developed for the QualityRights assessments of mental health services in Ghana
- Ethics approval to conduct QualityRights assessments of eight facilities received from Ghana Health Service Review Committee
- Training on how to conduct human rights assessments using the WHO QualityRights Assessment Toolkit was conducted on 27 – 30 May 2019
- Three assessment teams have been established for the assessment of mental health facilities in the country
- Ghanaian QualityRights experts provide training and strategic advice on implementation of QualityRights implementation in Kenya
- Several professional organisations have been approached to register QualityRights in mental health for CPD pointsThe National Council on Persons with Disability invited MHA/QR Ghana to participate in the maiden Disability Inclusion Summit in a form of a parallel panel discussion on QualityRights in mental, intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.
- QualityRight e-training certificate is prerequisite requirement for all staff at Accra Psychiatric Hospital to receive a promotion
- World Health Assembly 2020, WHO Director General commends Ghana for its important achievements in implementing QualityRights.
- On Tuesday, 3rd December, 2020, in commemoration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a QualityRights sensitization meeting was held during which the Mental Health Authority/QualityRights Ghana were invited by the National Council on Persons with Disabilities to participate in the maiden Disability Inclusion Summit in a panel discussion about QualityRights in mental, intellectual and psychosocial disabilities. It was agreed that this collaboration between MHA and the Council will become a yearly occurrence.
- As at April 2021, five health profession bodies have accredited the QualityRights training as Continuous Profession Development course and one institution has incorporated it into their curriculum:
- Medical and Dental Council: 3 credits points
- Psychology Council: 3 credits points
- Allied Health Council:
- QR e-training-5 credit points
- QR face-to-face traing-7 credits points
- Nursing and Midwifery Council: 3 credit points
- Pharmacy Council: 3 credits points
- Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives: incorporated into the curriculum of the Mental Health Division as a semester course
- 26 – 29 April 2021: Training of trainers online workshop on mental health service transformation planning
- May 2021 – Ghana launches its new “Mental Health Policy 2019 -2030: Ensuring A Mentally Healthy Population“. The policy sets out the vision, mission, goal and objectives for mental health for the decade ahead, and outlines key areas for action to promote human rights, including the incorporation of Quality Rights processes in mental health care.
- March – July 2021: 185 staff from 3 psychiatric hospitals, 5 general facilities with psychiatric units as well as persons with lived-experience have received face-to-face QualityRights training.
- Face-to-face training in the Northern part of Ghana training is ongoing (July-September 2021) for 200 health staff, police, social services, persons at health training institutions as well as persons with lived experience.
- October – December 2021: 125 persons with lived experience across the country to receive QualityRights training.
- October – December 2021: 200 traditional and faith-based practitioners to receive QualityRights training.
- February 2019 to October 2021 – 658 people have received face-to-face QualityRights training in 18 training session
Links and Social Media
Website: https://www.qualityrights.com.gh/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/QRGhana
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/qualityrightsgh
Instagram: https://instagram.com/QRGhana
QualityRights e-training stats – Ghana (since March 2019):
As at 13 September 2022:
- # people registered: 42,450
- # people who have started the course: 26,683
- # people who have received their WHO certificate: 22,091
National QualityRights Launch, February 2019
National QualityRights Launch Programme
National QualityRights Launch report
QualityRights Ghana – National planning meetings
1st Planning Meeting of project implementation partners – programme
2nd Planning meeting of project implementation partners – programme
National training workshops
QualityRights Training of Trainers workshop agenda
QualityRights Regional training workshop agenda
QualityRights Service Assessment training workshop agenda
QualityRights Assessments
Research protocol: Assessing human rights and recovery in mental health services in Ghana
National promotional materials
QualityRights e-training flyer
Videos
Living with bipolar disorder in Ghana – a personal story
Abena Korkor Addo – Student, Cape Coast University, Mental Health Advocate
Kofi Okyere Darko – Radio presenter
Rocky Dawuni – Reggae Musician
Philipa Baafi – Gospel Musician
Emmanuel Agyeman Badu – football player, Udinese
Databases
Database of human rights Civil Society Organizations & Disabled Peoples’ Organizations in Ghana
QualityRights Ghana Reports
QualityRights in Mental Health – Ghana, is made possible thanks to the financial support of the UK Department for International Development (DfID), the Federal Ministry of Health of Germany (BMG), the European Commission and the Fondation d’Harcourt.
