Pathways to psychiatric care for mental disorders: a retrospective study of patients seeking mental health services at a public psychiatric facility in Ghana

Abstract

Patients used different pathways to seek psychiatric care, namely direct pathway to a psychiatric hospital or through transition from informal non-psychiatric service providers. Since nearly half of patients do not initially seek mental health care directly at the formal psychiatric facility, it is important for the government of Ghana to increase funding to the mental health authorities in Ghana as a matter of priority so that more individuals can be identified and integrated into mainstream psychiatric treatment and general health facilities where there are trained Community Mental Health Officers (CMHO) and Clinical Psychiatric Officers (CPO) to provide early intervention and treatment.