To meet the healthcare needs of mental health sector, management of Breast Care International (BCI) and Peace and Love Hospitals (PHLs) have donated drugs to psychiatric hospitals across the country.

The gesture is in line with its corporate social responsibility to ensure a continuous supply of the required medicines which hitherto has been one of the greatest challenges for Ghanaian hospitals to properly treat their patients with chronic disease, such as mental health.

This most recent BCI/PLH donation consisted of 7,680 bottles of psychiatric drug Risperdal indicated for schizophrenia and bipolar disease worth four million, six hundred and eight thousand cedis to the following selected health care institutions in the country that include: Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Tamale General Hospital, Tamale Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Tafo Government Hospital.

The others include: Mampong Municipal Hospital, New Edubiase Government Hospital, Konongo-Odumasi Government Hospital, Ejisu Government Hospital, Bekwai Municipal Hospital, Juabeng Government Hospital, St. Martins Catholic Hospital, Ejura Government Hospital, Willingway Foundation and Bolgatanga Regional Hospital.

President of BCI and CEO of Peace and Love Hosptial, Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, at a short presentation ceremony at the premises of the hospital in Oduom, Kumasi, said the donation represents yet another milestone and commitment of the two health care institutions to make good their corporate social responsibility in reaching out to the needy and marginalized in society.

“We will not shirk our responsibility in providing cutting edge healthcare in our hospitals. This is a pledge we won’t renege on as we strive on daily basis to provide quality health care while reaching out to the needy in society with free quality drugs and supplies, a practice reflective in our free countrywide screening and outreach programs designed to significantly reduce the high incidence of mortality and morbidity of breast cancer among our women.”

She expressed worry about how healthcare practitioners in the mental health sector complain of inadequate funding, poor logistics and outright public apathy towards the basic needs of psychiatric facilities and its mental health patients.

Due to this, Dr. Wiafe Addai said the management of BCI and PHL conscious of these challenges, periodically solicits donations of high-quality psychiatric drugs from abroad, distributing those same products locally in a bid to bring relief and succor to the mental health patients.

She also bemoaned how the ever increasing cost of access to health care delivery has given rise to self- medication, with individuals with no psychiatric training often exploiting the situation with counterfeit therapies for the unsuspecting public, sometimes resulting in needless serious injuries or in some cases fatalities.

The Breast Cancer advocate challenged the beneficiary health institutions to provide the donated psychiatric medicines to its underserved mental health patients, without charge, assuring that there would be more to ensure a sustainable treatment plan for these through the administration of this highest quality United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved medications.

Also, the beneficiary health institutions commended BCI/PHLs for the sustained support, assuring that the drugs would make a significant impact on health care delivery in their respective facilities, they thanked the Donor agencies - Direct Relief and Johnson and Johnson for their continued support and benevolence.

Meanwhile, the donated mental health therapies were made possible via a donation from Direct Relief, a non-governmental organization that is the leading agency based in the United States that provides donated Rx medicines to over 70 countries and from Johnson & Johnson, which is a global pharmaceutical and medical products corporation that has been very generous to Breast Care International and its humanitarian programs.