Lack of mental health career interest among Ghanaian social work students: implications for social work education in Ghana

ABSTRACT

Training mental health care providers is an emerging agenda in Ghana. Because traditional and religious healers are still a primary source for help seeking among those with mental health disorders, the social work education curriculum has yet to fully incorporate mental health training and practice. An exploratory, descriptive study was conducted on a sample of Ghanaian social work students (n = 207) to examine their interests in various career options, including mental health practice. Students indicated a marked preference for career interest in the areas of medical social work, community development, women and children’s empowerment, domestic violence/abuse, and administration/management. Of greatest importance to the field of international social work education is that no student indicated a career interest related to working with people with mental disorders/mental disabilities. This finding is consistent with other research showing that mental health stigma and lack of mental health knowledge discourages young Ghanaian medical students from showing interest in psychiatry. The authors discuss the move to establish a professional mental health workforce in response to Ghana’s Mental Health Act of 2012 and provide recommendations for incorporating mental health training in Ghana’s social work curriculum to train a future generation of mental health practitioners.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work education
• mental health
• practice
• Ghana
• social work careers