The Acting Head of the Psychiatry Unit at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Ruth Owusu-Antwi, has raised concerns over Ghana’s capacity to respond to the growing menace of substance abuse, warning that the country is facing a “huge crisis” due to a severe shortage of addiction specialists and treatment facilities. Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show after the airing of Deadly Doses 2—the latest Hotline documentary by investigative journalist Nana Boakye Yiadom—the psychiatrist said the country’s already limited mental healthcare workforce is further constrained by the small number of professionals with specialised training in addiction management.
The documentary investigates the growing dangers posed by drug abuse and counterfeit medicines, exposing their devastating impact on individuals, families and communities. Commenting on the issues highlighted in the documentary, the KATH psychiatrist said Ghana’s shortage of psychiatrists is only part of the problem. “Even more worrying is the number of psychiatrists we have in this country, and the number of psychiatrists who are sub-specialised in addiction management,” she said.
According to him, addiction treatment is a highly specialised area of psychiatry and mental healthcare that requires dedicated education, clinical training and treatment approaches beyond general psychiatric practice. “Addiction is a sub-speciality in psychiatry and mental health. Mental health nurses, psychiatrists and other cadres within the mental health fraternity can specialise in addiction because it comes with unique training and treatment strategies,” she explained.
Although psychiatrists receive some level of training in managing substance use disorders during their professional education, she noted that only a small fraction pursue advanced specialisation in addiction medicine. “Considering the already low number of psychiatrists in general, those who have specifically sub-specialised in addiction management are very few,” she stated. She stressed that the shortage extends across the entire mental healthcare system, affecting nearly every professional group involved in the treatment and rehabilitation of people living with substance use disorders.
“When we look across the different professions—from doctors and mental health nurses to clinical …
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