The Korle Bu Teaching hospital now has a mental health unit and a 12-bed ward.

According to the Acting CEO of the Mental Health Authority, Dr Kwasi Osei, the move is to aid the decentralization of mental health care so as to reduce stigmatization. 

The facility is the second in a general hospital after the one at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.

In an interview with JoyNews, the head of Psychiatry at the Korle Bu teaching hospital, Dr Sammy Ohene, was confident that the facility will bring a new dimension to mental health care delivery in Ghana.

'We are different from other facilities across the country or elsewhere because this place is cleaner and we will offer all the services a mental health facility offers', he said.

The facility intends to use its homely atmosphere of male and female ward separated by a wall to fast-track healing of patients who visit the unit. 

Dr Kwasi Osei, however, cautioned authorities not to 'send nurses to the unit to attend to patients as a form of punishment because that will negatively affect patients and running of the unit.'

Dr Osei also advised authorities of the unit not to quickly transfer patients from the main wards to the mental health ward but treat them in the main wards until it is necessary to do so. This he is sure will help deal with stigmatization and also save the unit from congestion.

The unit is the 19th Department at the Korle Bu teaching Hospital and is likely to be increased to a 15-bed ward by the end of the year.