One of the rooms for the inmates. INSET: Samuel Kwakye Boaten, Director, Clubhouse Ghana
CLUBHOUSE Ghana Rehabilitation Centre, has officially began operations in the country with the admission of some 22 patients with mentally health condition from the Pantang and Accra Psychiatric Hospitals.
As part of its efforts to help address mental health challenges in the country, the facility seeks to provide patients with critical intellectual and hands-on training in a safe, supportive, and serene environment.
The facility’s model of healthcare provision is designed to equip patients with important skills and apprenticeship training through various programmes designed for practical living and development.
At a ceremony to receive the patients at the facility in Accra, Director for Clubhouse Ghana, Samuel Kwakye Boaten, said the facility embodies the values of friendship, kindness and love.
“This facility is a family oriented one. This place is not a hospitable where there are rigid systems or protocols. This place is a home away from home. Here, we call everyone ‘members’ and we see ourselves as brothers and sisters”, he stated.
Mr. Boaten also noted that the facility would further assist the inmates to secure jobs after full recovery in order for them to be self-sufficient.
Christopher Komla, Psychiatrist Social Worker at Clubhouse indicated that the concept used at the facility does not focus only on the condition of the patient but also the social factors that contributed to their predicament.
“The concept used here is skills acquisition, housing and employment”, he disclosed, adding that the facility aims at bridging the gap between the hospital and the community where the patient would receive training which would aid their integration back into the society.
Dr. Naa Adoley Botchway, Specialist Psychiatrist at the Accra Psychiatrist Hospital, also in charge of assessment at the facility on her part touched on the prerequisites for admission into the house.
According to her, brief assessment of the patients is carried out when they are brought in where important aspects of their lives are checked. Later, they manage their physical, biological and social aspects and “when we deem they’re a suitable, we bring them in here.”
“Ideally, we look for relatively suitable patients who can work and cope independently in Clubhouse”, she intimated.
She further disclosed that two mentally challenged individuals had been brought into the house prior and through careful treatment given them in the house, they have both developed critical skills with one venturing into hairdressing and the other into business.
BY Nii Adjei Mensahfio