The Reverend Aaron P. Kuubgar, a Clinical Psychologist, has appealed to health workers to establish good relations with patients and their families to positively build their psyche to speed up recovery.
He said nurses especially as first line actors in in-patient and out-patient services at health facilities should be first to communicate with patients in a manner that would create trust and make the patients to feel comfortable and optimistic in their situation.
The Reverend Kuubgar made the appeal during the launch of Northern region chapter celebration of Ghana Psychology week, organised by the GPA in collaboration with Total Life Enhancement of Centre Ghana (TOLEC-GH) in Tamale.
The event was on the theme: Psychological well-being (PWB), Bedrock of National Development, and meant to sensitize members of the public on the role of psychology in their well-being, and how important it was in healing processes.
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Reverend Kuubgar advised health professionals to provide other interventions to improve quality of life for their patients, especially in psychiatric or mental health cases, and urged government and other stakeholders to support health professionals with tools to enhance their work and advance mental health care delivery.
Mr Peter Mintir Amadu, the Executive Director of TOLEC-GH who is also a Psychologist at the University for Development Studies (UDS), urged nurses to enhance their skills in Bachelor of Science in Nursing, where there were more emphasis on psycho-social aspects of nursing and mental health.
He said the nursing career required deeper knowledge of human psychology to assist with mental illness, addiction, and other serious disorders and encouraged nurses to go steps further to upgrade their knowledge to enhance their career.
Mr Daniel Acquah, a Psychologist in Depression and Management at the Tamale Teaching Hospital said “Research has shown that psychological well-being is a diverse multi-dimensional concept, which develops through a combination of emotional regulation, personality characteristics, identity and life experience”.
He added that psychological well-being could increase with age, education, extraversion and consciousness and could also decrease with neuroticism, adding that health personnel needed to be skilled at navigating both the emotional and physical needs of their patients for their well-being.
