Mental Health Service in Ghana: a Review of the Case

Mental health care in Ghana has been fraught with several challenges leading to stagnant growth in mental health service delivery and in some cases a severe depreciation in the nature of care. The Government of Ghana pays little or no attention to mental health care in the country, a situation that has led to poor service delivery in the three major psychiatric hospitals in Ghana. The implementation of the Ghana Mental Act of 2012 has also been faced with major challenges with no significant progress being made. This studytherefore sought to review and document the development of mental health care services in Ghana. Specifically, the study examined the various legislations on mental health that have been enacted in Ghana since 1900; investigated the implementation of the current Mental Health Act of Ghana; found out whether the Ghanaian government has prioritise mental health services in the country and assessed the challenges and problems that confronted mental health services in Ghana since 1900.The study concludes that, since 1888 efforts have been made by various governments to legislate the provision of mental services in Ghana. However, these legislations have not always protected the rights and interest of the mentally ill

Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever in Africa: a Necessary Highlight

The purpose of this commentary is to re-evaluate the historic and scientific facts on Ebola haemorrhagic fever and the role of the International community, especially Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in stemming the tide. It rehashes the argument on causes and prevention and draws attention of readers to emphasize the need for establishment of airport, sea port and border health posts with well drilled and efficient health professionals to be able to test, detect and quarantine persons with Ebola and treat them to prevent the spread of the disease from infected persons to primary or first contacts and secondary contacts. Significantly, countries in the West African sub-region are alarmed by the potential spread of the disease to countries that have hitherto been free of the disease. The potential global threat of the disease has been analysed and measures to be taken by countries within the West-African sub-region have been emphasized. This notwithstanding, does the declaration of countries as Ebola-free suggest the last of it

Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Environmental Hazards in Sub-Saharan Africa

Environmentally responsive Education has been identified as a major way through which knowledge about the environment is imparted to students so as its desirable behaviors. Environmental hazards as an area within Environmental Education does not only orient students on causes and effects of negative practices that ruin the environment but also position them in a way that makes the application of such acquired knowledge beneficial to their societies. It is in this light that the knowledge, behaviours and pedagogical processes designed for students of Sub-Saharan African: A Sub-region that has hugely been hit by the adverse effects of Environmental hazards such as Desertification, Deforestation, Climate Change, Indiscriminate Waste Disposal Flood and Drought among others were assessed. An empirical study was however conducted among upper secondary school students with an average age of 17 of this area under study. Data was collected from 100 students from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana with 25 students representing each of the countries using a survey questionnaire. The results show a high correlation between Pedagogy and Knowledge while there was generally a marginal correlation between Knowledge and Behaviors. It was evident however that there is an appreciable degree of gap between students’ knowledge on environmental hazards and how practical this knowledge is intended for. It has therefore been suggested that the pedagogical processes in teaching environmental hazards be focused on the interrelationship between the knowledge and the practical behaviors which emanate from it

From The Holstein-Primakoff Transformation to Semiclassical Quantum Markovian Master Equations \u2013 with Applications in Magnetic Resonance

[from the Preface]: The present dissertation concerns some theoretical and computational aspects of multispin dynamics, mainly, in relation to magnetic resonance. ... The present dissertation is divided into five parts. Part I provides a quick overview of some fundamental concepts in quantum mechanics. The HP transformation is extensively discussed in Part II. Concepts from the theory of open quantum systems like completely positive maps, universal dynamical maps, quantum dynamical semigroups and quantum Markovian master equations are discussed in Part III. This is where we also refine, to some degree, many of these fundamental concepts. Part IV brings together concepts developed in Parts II and III. There, we introduce our proposal on how to still apply many of the ideas and concepts from open quantum system theory (the Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan- Lindblad approach) even when the environment is treated at the classical level. In particular, we discuss semiclassical quantum Markovian master equations and apply it to describe continuous wave magnetic resonance of multispin spin systems. The ACP scheme is also introduced in Part IV. Conclusion and perspectives on the work are given in Part

Assessing the Effectiveness of Credit risk Management Techniques of Microfinance firms in Accra

One fundamental problem faced by the Microfinance industry in Ghana during the period 2003-2007 was the technique adopted for credit risk management by the Microfinance firms (MFFs). This problem prompted this deductive study which was to assess the effectiveness of the techniques adopted by the MFFs to manage their credit risks during that period. The research examined the effectiveness of the techniques used by the firms. It was carried out with the support of a 5-member team from the Institute of Professional Studies, Accra, who assisted during the data collection phase of the study. The study was conducted using 20 Micro-firms in Accra which were randomly selected. The study established that the small MFFs were more vulnerable to credit risk than the bigger firms. The study came out with the recommendations that the MFFs should invest in computerised systems that would enable them compute and assess on a continuous basis, their credit risks track records and generate reports on credits granted. The firms should encourage their clients to insure against risk that might affect their businesses, invest in quality manpower so that they could assess their clients efficiently and help in managing their clients risk bearing portfolio. It was also recommended that the continuous use of written policies that guided most of the firms on credit granting should be encouraged by all the firms.Keywords: Risk, Creditworthiness, Microfinance, Firms, Management, Loan