In response to the distress calls from management of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, some trainee nurses under the membership of the Foundation for the Mentally Challenged (FMC), a Non-governmental Organization have presented assorted items worth Ȼ3,000 to cater for the needs of inmates.

The mental hospital is reported to have closed down its Out-Patients-Department (OPD) because it is reeling under a whopping four million Ghana Cedis debt owed its suppliers over the years.

The items presented to the hospital were bags of maize, rice, beans, cooking oil, toiletries, sachet water, fruits and vegetables.

Others items were cartons of soap, sacks of used clothing, bathroom sandals, loaves of bread as well as games of Oware and Ludo.

Presenting the items to the management of the hospital following an earlier clean-up exercise at the male ward of the hospital, Ibrahim Obese, President of FMC said, as student nurses of the 37 Military hospital Nurses and Midwifery Training school, the gesture was to help in solving some of the many challenges confronting the hospital.

 According to him, the group was formed a year ago with the aim of disseminating and educating members of the public that persons with mental challenges are just like any ordinary person on the streets.

“The main focus of the FMC was to educate the public, not to discriminate against patients or people living with mental challenges” he noted.

He called on the public and benevolent organizations to continue to support the operations of the hospital in times of need, especially at this time of the suspension of Outpatient Services (OPD).

Receiving the items; Patience Agyare, a Senior Staff Nurse of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital thanked and expressed hospital’s profound gratitude to the members as well as the patrons of the foundation.

She urged corporate organizations to come to the aid of the hospital in these trying times as mental illness can affect each and everybody irrespective of one’s position in the society.

Assigning reasons for the closure of the OPD, she said the debt situation of the hospital has catapulted over the years, and continuing admissions would only accrue more debt, hence the need to shut it down.