MENTAL ILLNESS AND AWARENESS CREATION THROUGH THE GHANAIAN MEDIA SPACE.

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Mental illness or health disorders refer to wide range of mental health conditions that affect our mood, thinking and behaviour.

Mental health generally includes our emotional psychological and social well-being. Our ability to handle stress and relate to others borders on our mental health situations.
Mental health is important at every stage of life from childhood and adolescence through to adulthood.

Some diagnosable mental illnesses include clinical depression which is characterized by persistently depressed moods and loss of interest in one’s daily activities, bipolar disorders which are generally associated with episodes of mood swings from depressive lows to manic highs and schizophrenia. Consequently we have to pinpoint some important facts about mental illnesses.

Mental illnesses are as real as cancer, diabetes and other health diseases. Even though not everyone develops mental illnesses, anyone can develop it at a point in their life.

Persons living with mental health problems can recover well with treatment and support and they can be productive when given the opportunity. Mental illnesses make people miserable and they tend to react in so many different ways such as withdrawing entirely from family and friends and unusually neglecting their personal hygiene or even their responsibilities.
When people with mental illnesses relapse they have difficulty concentrating or following conversations, they might end up hearing voices that no one else can hear.

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The most advisable way to manage mental health illnesses is to seek professional help and support. However, other self-help strategies to adopt include becoming more physically active, being emotionally aware and positively reframing your mind.
People have very diverse views and opinions about mental illnesses while others are completely unaware of what mental illnesses entail.

A Media campaign to create awareness and emphasize on mental illnesses and how to deal with them will be a good initiative to undertake. Media reportage can help caution people on stigmatisation and discriminating against people living with mental illnesses and the threat it poses to their lives.

The media can also advocate for mental health policies in workplaces and fight for equal opportunities for people living with mental conditions, encourage the public to acquire knowledge about mental health.
Also, the media being the fourth estate of the realm has the power and right platform to rally the support of the government towards focusing on the country’s mental health system be it enhancing our mental institutions or even providing more human resource at our mental health institutions.

Mental health illnesses can affect a person’s ability to function and their everyday activities, however, time, reassurance and support is all that people battling with mental illnesses may need to recover.

This feature was originally published in the SUPREME NEWSPAPER.