ABSTRACT
Passed in 2012 after several years of advocacy, Ghana's new Mental Health Act (Act 846) facilitates an improved approach to mental health care, and enables a new way of providing treatments for mental health service users. Based on a human rights approach, it emphasises community-based interventions, focuses on processes to improve the quality of life of persons living with mental disorders, and constitutes a Mental Health Board to oversee the implementation of the law. In this chapter, we provide an overview of mental health legislation in Ghana from colonial through postcolonial times, and discuss the new law by assessing the current state of its implementation within the legal and health systems frameworks over the decade of its passage, and how it has impacted existing statutory provisions on mental health in Ghana. We also make recommendations for full implementation of the law.
