I will be working at Pantang Psychiatric Hospital for three weeks in November 2024. While there, I aim to understand the local burden of mental illness and familiarize myself with managing common mental health conditions within low resource/no resource areas in a low and middle income context (LAMI). I will be attending an orientation with local supervisors and department members at Pantang Hospital, attend inpatient psychiatry rounds daily, shadow and collaborate with psychiatry attendings and/or residents from The University of Ghana Medical School or West African College of Psychiatrists on the inpatient unit and accident and emergency shifts. Additionally, I will work on the community mental health follow up service and attend one Psychiatric Association of Ghana meeting. I have a genuine interest in global mental health and in caring for undeserved populations. Being of service to the psychiatrists, residents, medical students and mental health workers at this facility offers a unique experience to explore a different culture, witness a different spectrum of diseases and understand the challenges of caring for the sick in areas with constrained resources. It can be challenging having enough physicians and advanced practitioners available to address the needs and/or volume of the community. My hope is to help bridge this gap.
My project, No Health without Mental Health: Pantang 2024, will benefit the local residents of Pantang, a village about 25 km from Central Accra as well as those from surrounding communities that are seeking mental health services. By working at Pantang Psychiatric Hospital, I can help support local ongoing efforts to provide and improve access to mental health services in the region. Additionally, as I have an interest in global mental health this project also helps broaden my understanding of caring for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness in an area with limited resources.
As a psychiatry resident physician of West African descent, I feel especially connected to the continent and have a strong desire to do my part in understanding and addressing gaps in psychiatric care. My intent is to one day offer mental health services at a stand alone psychiatric facility in neighboring Cameroon. Observing which community mental health and public health strategies/interventions are successful may provide a great framework to implement this plan in the future.
Locally, the expected impact of my project is to provide psychiatric services to the local residents of Pantang as well as those individuals from the surrounding region. Globally, the expected impact is diverse. What I intend to learn from this project will be shared within the psychiatry department at my home institution in Philadelphia through a grand rounds presentation. I also intend to write a piece for the American Psychiatric Association Foundation newsletter as I am currently an APA Fellow. I plan to utilize research skills in health services and implementation science to explore and possibly strengthen LAMI health systems in the West African country of Cameroon. Lastly, I hope that sharing my story on Doximity will provide me with a broader audience to share my experience as a psychiatry resident physician and the parallels and contrasts in mental health care and services in the US and Ghana.
I had the privilege of both impacting and learning from a wide range of people during my global mental health elective. I provided psychiatric care to adults and children from across the country who sought services through the hospital's 24-hour outpatient clinic and inpatient units. I also had the opportunity to teach residents and nursing students about psychiatric medications, diagnostic scales, and patient management strategies, while gaining valuable insights into local traditional approaches to treating mental illness. Lastly, I participated in a community outreach event in collaboration with a church ministry, where the behavioral health team educated attendees, normalized discussions around mental health, and provided free mental health screenings with referrals when appropriate.
