Mental health advocate and founder of the Premier Rehabilitation Centre, Jahara Osman, is calling on Ghanaians to prioritise their mental wellbeing as she prepares to host a major forum in Accra on Saturday, May 31, 2025.

The event, dubbed: 'The Mental Health Forum', is expected to bring together policymakers, health professionals, faith leaders and everyday citizens to confront Ghana’s growing mental health crisis – a subject Jahara says has long been silenced in homes, workplaces and churches.

"What we have to understand is that mental health is the core foundation of every disease. If you're not mentally stable, you can get any sickness from just not being mentally stable. It's like the base of everything. So let's focus on getting our own brain, our own functions, to a stable level, and we will find out that a lot of these diseases we suffer from will just eliminate themselves."

“We're talking about adults who go through midlife crises and experience certain hormonal changes or neurological changes, and they find it hard to understand how they feel or how to manage the symptoms of what is causing their disorder. We are here to focus on all these issues and also provide a support line for suicide – if you have any thoughts of suicide, we would provide you with someone to speak to on a hotline,” she said.

The forum will feature panel discussions, breakout sessions and first-person testimonies aimed at demystifying mental illness, debunking stigma and offering real tools for healing.

Participants will hear from psychiatrists, trauma counsellors, pastors and people with experience navigating disorders such as depression, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder and anxiety.

Growing up undiagnosed with ADHD and later learning she is on the autism spectrum, Jahara says her early struggles with identity and misunderstanding sparked a deep desire to help others navigate similar challenges.

“As someone who grew up in an environment where mental health was never spoken about, my parents had no idea what or how to define my behaviour or how I approached life. It was a general treatment amongst all my siblings.”

“So I find passion in educating parents, especially parents with children that are on the spectrum – autism, ADHD, bipolar, and all other mental health conditions – on how to go about understanding the behaviour, picking up the little clues, because you would know more than any practitioner or doctor would, because you spend more time with your child than any doctor. So you being able to identify it would be the initial step to making your child's life a lot easier,” the mental health advocate added.

Through her centre and the upcoming forum, Jahara is hoping to equip communities with those tools. The forum will tackle issues ranging from neurodivergence in children to stress and trauma among adults. It will also launch a national outreach campaign targeting churches, schools and workplaces.

In many households, mental health is still considered taboo, often hidden behind silence or misunderstood as a spiritual affliction. Jahara wants to change that narrative and shift the conversation from fear to care and from judgement to empathy.

“So we're doing outreach programmes from after the month of May, from June to next year April, we're partnering with schools and communities. We're going to the outskirts, to the northern regions of Ghana, to the middle Ashanti Region. We're partnering with schools. If you are a church or a work environment and you need someone to speak to your employees, your church, or a foundation about understanding mental health, this is the time to reach out to us,” Ms. Jahara Osman revealed.

The outreach campaign will include church-based support groups, school awareness programmes and workplace wellness initiatives. Jahara and her team are also working to establish a toll-free hotline and regional wellness hubs to serve as safe spaces for people in emotional distress.

With support from the Ministry of Health, the Mental Health Authority and several development partners, the mental health forum is open to the public and free of charge.

It will be held at the Accra International Conference Centre and broadcast live on JoyNews at noon.

Mental health experts say Ghana is long overdue for a sustained national dialogue on mental wellness. According to the Mental Health Authority, thousands of Ghanaians suffer in silence – many without ever seeking professional help due to stigma, lack of access or fear of being shunned by family and faith communities.