LOUD IT FOUNDATION

Our solution aims at reducing the stigma and mortality cases associated with mental health issues affecting women in rural communities in Northern Ghana by providing a sustainable and accessible plan.

Mental health concerns account for approximately 14% of the global disease burden and in Ghana, about 13% of the population (roughly 4,000,000 people) have a mental health disorder of one kind or the other of which 3% suffer from severe forms and the remaining 10% suffer moderate to mild forms.

However, this is not a true reflection of the number of people who suffer from these concerns especially in the rural parts of northern Ghana as most of these cases are attributed to supernatural causes hence most of the victims end up being confined to prayer camps, spiritual healing centers and for a great number of women,” witches camps”. These women are usually, stigmatized, discriminated against and their basic human rights violated. The living conditions in such camps are very heart wrenching to say the least. The victims are subjected to all manner of public disgrace, abuse and even death as was the case of madam Akua Denteh, a 90-year-old at Kafaba near Salaga in the Savannah Region of Ghana. Madam Denteh was accused of being a witch, dragged through the whole community and lynched afterwards.

This can largely be ascribed to the fact that there is very little knowledge about this topic in those regions and so the people do not see this an issue of medical concern but rather a spiritual one due to the unusual behaviors the patients exhibit.

Secondly, Ghana spends only about 1.4% of the total government expenditure on mental health and even with this, the country faces a mental health treatment gap of 98% meaning only 2% of people are receiving the care they need. It can be observed that the mental health sector in Ghana, particularly the rural areas, has received minimal attention in all of its aspects. This coupled with the fact that there is little awareness on mental health aggravates the discrimination and violation the victims face.

The main problem our foundation identified is the victimization of women with mental health concerns which is due lack of mental health awareness and inadequate research and data to guide and support the formation of policies to improve mental health in Northern Ghana. This central problem further results in the loss of significant number of lives, increases morbidity and causes a drastic reduction in economic productivity. This consequently exacerbates the poverty situations already existing in these deprived communities. It is worthy to note that the wards and dependants of these women are left to their own fate after their accused benefactors have been apprehended. 

A University in Northern Ghana called The University for Development Studies (UDS) was established with an aim to blend the academic world with that of the community in order to provide constructive interaction between the two for the total development of northern Ghana. The University by its mandate has a pro-poor community focus and this is reflected in its methodology of teaching, research and outreach services. 

The school combines academic work and rural community-based field practical works which require students to spend two months annually in selected rural communities in any of the Northern regions to undertake community diagnosis and to collaborate with the community and other sectors in the promotion of development.

Our solution to curb the menace of victimization of mental health patients especially women is the establishment of the Loud It Foundation.

Loud It Foundation seek to do this by educating the people in these rural areas to create awareness on the reality and existence of mental illness to influence healthy decision making in these communities when women show symptom of not being mentally stable instead of confining them to Witch Camps.

Our foundation will implement this by partnering the University for Development Studies to leverage on its existing Rural Community Based Field Practical outreaches in these rural communities by equipping these students to serve as Mental Health advocates alongside their academic project while in these communities.

Our role would entail the facilitation of a virtual training programs for these students.      

As part of our solution, the foundation intends to have skills training for these women confined to the camps to enhance their usefulness in society. This, we believe would go a long way to help improve the symptoms of some of these patients as some depressive symptoms are due to hardships in living conditions.  

Our foundation’s main focus is women in rural areas in Northern Ghana. Most of these women have little or no formal education, live in very deprived communities and have no access to mental healthcare services. Our solution will bridge the mental health illiteracy gap in these underserved communities and in addition equip the victims with certain basic vocational skills that will be beneficial not only to themselves but the community as well. 

We are a team of two with Gloria Adade being the team lead and Jochebed Quarshie a co-team member. Both team members are students pursuing career in the health field with the team leader currently a final year medical student and the co-team member a final year undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary studies with concentration in Psychology, Anthropology, and pre-med.

Gloria the team leader has gotten the opportunity to volunteer in some rural parts of Ghana where she got the experience to interact with people of our project’s demographics.

 Jochebed the co-team member is also currently working with Gloria on a mental health project with the OKB Foundation, a foundation focused on proving basic health care to people in rural Ghana.

The co-team member, unfortunately had to deal with a mental health condition where she experienced the stigmatization and religious beliefs around it, until she moved to the US where she’d gotten the opportunity to deal with it in a more scientific and holistic manner.

To conclude, these experiences have given both team members the necessary exposure and prerequisite to execute the solution plan to its maximum efficiency.

We at Loud It have consulted some psychiatrist in Ghana as well as carry out extensive research with regards to mental health concerns in northern Ghana. Also, we are currently engaging the OKB think tank consultancy team which seeks to collaborate with other like-minded volunteers to brainstorm and execute ideas that will help provide mental health care to some of these communities in Ghana. 

Attempts to address the issue of Mental Health in Ghana and the Issue of Victimization of Women in Northern Ghana has seen numerous approaches such as Criminalization of the act, forced closure of some of these witch camps, and the use of Mass Media such as TV and radio to educate Ghanaians.

None of these attempts has been effective as the act has still persisted over decades. For instance, the use of Mass Media in attempt to create awareness hasn’t been effective as the rural communities where these acts of victimization are practiced don’t even have access to electricity hence the use of Television and Radio is not commonplace.

Also, most of these approaches have failed to tackle to the root cause which is the lack of awareness in these rural areas. Some criteria for branding a woman a ‘Witch’ in these areas is Severe Antisocial behavior, and symptoms of Hallucinations and Delusions. Women who display these symptoms are immediately branded ‘Witches’ because of the lack of understanding by these communities that these are symptoms of possible mental illness.

Loud It foundation’s approach in using Face to Face Health Education as the method to tackle this menace is the first of its kind. It addresses the downsides of previous approaches made by the government and other institutions. This method used in other settings has proven to resolve problems that prevent people from making healthy choices and it will effectively create the necessary awareness in these communities.

Also, our strategy to partner the University for development Studies also leverages on an already existing successful outreach program hence increases the chances of our foundation’s project to be sustainable in the long term.    

Reduction in the incidence of witch camp admission in rural communities in Northern Ghana by 25% by the end of the year 2024 which will be measured and verified through field survey report from the project management team.

we seek to achieve this by 

1.Establishing a project team

2.Signing  a Memorandum of Understanding with the University

3.Engaging the Ghana Psychiatric Association to develop a training manual for students

4. Developing the Loud It Training App which will be readily accessible. 

5.Training of Students prior to commencement of their rural community-based field work. 

6.Field work to raise mental health awareness in the communities

7. Regular Monitoring AND evaluation of the project.

Ghana has about 50 indigenous languages with English as the official language spoken among the literate population in the country.

The northern part of Ghana has the lowest literacy rate in the country with a literacy rate of approximately 39%. This figure is even less in the rural communities in this part of Ghana. Our foundation’s plan on educating people in these rural communities would be impeded without a means to communicate effectively with these people regardless of the illiteracy rate.

 Our foundation will employ the use of AI Audio-to-Audio translator apps which our Mental Health Advocates would have installed on their smart phone to aid effective communication while on the field.

Our foundation also seeks to involve the involve the Ghana Psychiatrist Association in development of a training manual and training of the students. Unfortunately, as of 2022, Ghana has only 61 psychiatrists of which most are based in the Southern aspect of the country. Our foundation intends to use Virtual Meeting Apps such as Zoom and Google Meet to facilitate the training session between the Students and the Psychiatrists.

Also, the foundation intends on developing a smart phone app version of the Awareness Guide that will be created by the Trainers for the Field Advocates for easy accessibility while on the field.

Studies conducted by The Saneh Institute, Ghana in 2021 shows that there are about 500 women in 5 known witch camps in rural parts of Northern Ghana (most are yet to be discovered). With the communities being adequately educated on mental health through the Loud It foundation project, we hope to reconcile at least half (approx. 250) of these women with their families as well as provide the appropriate health care by close of next year.

financial constraints in the acquisition of translation devices for the students, stipends for volunteers, Honorarium for psychiatrists and funding for the smooth running of administrative work of the foundation.

Not Applicable

Loud It Foundation intends to run as a nonprofit corporation with a tax-exemption status and would be eligible for grants and donations from charitable organizations.

The Loud It solution plan in using Face to Face Health Education as the method to tackle this menace is the first of its kind. It addresses the downsides of previous approaches made by the government and other institutions. This method used in other settings has proven to resolve problems that prevent people from making healthy choices and it will effectively create the necessary awareness in these communities.

Also, our strategy to partner the University for development Studies also leverages on an already existing successful outreach program hence increases the chances of our foundation’s project to be sustainable in the long term.

In addition, our solution will as well address the issue of unemployment and idleness by providing victims with basic vocational skills to improve upon their livelihood.

We hope to ensure financial sustainability by pitching our idea to interested investors to whom we would extensively elaborate on the benefits their investments are going to make on the lives of these women. 

Secondly, we will partner will existing organizations with similar interests. 

Additionally, we will appeal to higher institutions for grants and donations and other means of support to ensure the full implementation of our solution plan.