Pathways To Psychiatric Care Prior To Presenting At A Public Pychiatric Hospital: A Cross Sectional Study Of Mental Health Patients At Pantang Psychiatric Hospital

ABSTRACT Background: In Ghana, about 2.4 million people suffer from mental health illness and only 67,780 (2.8%) received treatment in 2011. The pathway to seek for care by patients who experience first episode of mental health illness may determine how early or late they receive the needed treatment. This study has been conducted to study help-seeking patterns in patients with psychiatric illness, the pathways they traversed to reach psychiatric services, and to understand the factors that influence the patient’s help-seeking pathways. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted at Pantang Psychiatric Hospital in Accra. It involved 115 patients aged between 18 and 82 years. Only patients’ relatives or care givers between 18 and 70 years were interviewed. The study adopted the World Health Organization’s (WHO) health encounter form to collect information about patient’s pathway contacts to psychiatric care. Results: The study subjects consisted of 50.4% males and 49.6% females. At the early onset of illness, 23.5% contacted religious or traditional healers, 28.1% went to a general hospital and 50.4% had a direct pathway to a psychiatric hospital. In a chi-square analysis of association, marital status (P = 0.001) and employment (P = 0.004) are significantly associated with patient pathways to psychiatric care. Conclusion: Patients used four types of pathways to psychiatric care namely;(1) direct pathway to a psychiatric hospital, (2) transition from religious or traditional healers to psychiatric hospitals, (3) transition from general hospital to psychiatric hospital and (4) upon onset of illness directly to unorthodox providers to general hospital and to psychiatric hospital.