The Nkoranza South Municipal Mental Health Coordinator has expressed concern about the upsurge in cases of attempted suicides in the area, attributing the phenomenon to mental illness.

George Kwame Osei told JoyNews that the municipality recorded 13 cases of attempted suicide with actually succeeding in 2020.

He further stated that 24 cases were recorded in 2019 whilst 17 cases were recorded in 2018, saying depression due to marital problems, schizophrenia, alcoholism, bipolar disorders and epilepsy as some of the common cases in the municipality.

Mr Osei indicated most of the attempted suicide victims were people with mental disorders who were placed on medications but had defaulted due to a lack of psychotropic medicines.

He said cases of mental disorder keep on rising in the area, adding that 335 new cases were recorded last year.

The Nkoranza South Municipal Mental Health Coordinator is disappointed that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) does not cover some psychiatric medications.

“The high cost of psychiatric medicines such as risperidone, olanzapine, carbamazepine and fluoxetine has been the major cause of the many chronic mental disorder cases here in Nkoranza South since most of the patients cannot afford to buy these drugs, so I appeal to the government to get them to subsidise,” he noted.

He called on benevolent individuals and organisations to help the Nkoranza Health centre with motorbikes so that mental health nurses could attend to emergency cases in remote communities.    

Mr Osei, however, cautioned families within the Nkoranza South Municipality against neglecting their relations with mental illness.