John Dramani Mahama this evening mounted the podium at the State Banquet Hall in Accra and told Ghanaians in a live nationwide broadcast event that his government will in the next four years prioritize mental health care by ensuring strict implementation of the Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846).

Under such strict implementation, he said his administration will be seeking to construct two additional psychiatric hospitals to augment the existing ones when given the mandate to govern the country a second time.

One of the facilities, he noted, will be constructed in the Ashanti Region to serve psychiatric patients in the middle belt while the other will be constructed in the Northern Region to serve those in the northern belt.

The Accra Psychiatric Hospital, the President added, will be moved from its current location to Pantang with the existing Pantang Mental Hospital upgraded into a first class mental facility.

Delivering highlights of the NDC manifesto 2016, President Mahama said the three existing mental hospital facilities in the country is not enough and expressed the belief that the proposed two additional hospitals when constructed will relieve the pressure on the existing ones and serve the people better.

Currently the only psychiatric hospitals in Ghana are the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Pantang Mental Hospital and Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital.

Kasapafmonline