The position of Ghana on the progressive map of positive mental health: A critical perspective

ABSTRACT

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mental health is a state of well-being and not just the absence of diseases. With this definition, there has been a surge of mental health research, albeit still predominantly in Western countries, which is reflected in contemporary theories on positive mental health that include ‘flourishing mental health’, ‘salutogenesis’, and ‘fortigenesis’. However, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), mental health research is slowly receiving scholarly attention. The aim of this paper was twofold: Firstly, to highlight progress that had been made in some LMICs, giving consideration to research across different settings and populations as a basis to argue for more research on positive mental health in the Ghanaian context. Secondly, to present a critical perspective on the current mental health research trends in Ghana, thus discussing important recommendations for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Positive mental health
• mental health promotion
• LMICs
• Ghana
• research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Using different search engines that included the databases such as EBSCOhost, Academic search premier and Google Scholar, keywords used for search were ‘mental health’, ‘mental health and development’, ‘mental health promotion in low- and middle-income countries’ and ‘mental health research in Ghana’. Empirical studies on specific mental disorders were excluded, while theoretical and conceptual papers as well as reports from the global fronts were included.

Additional information

Funding

We also like to thank the Graduate School of Stellenbosch University for funding the first author’s doctoral studies from which this manuscript emerged.