Browsing by Author "Selormey, R.K."
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Item Exploring the Lived Experiences of Incest Victims and Views of Informants(University of Ghana, 2019-07) Selormey, R.K.Incest has been described as an abuse which leaves victims with serious adverse effects such as poor psychological health and suicidal tendencies. To curb this menace, efforts need to be made to create positive environments for victims of incest to lessen the effect that the abuse has on the victims. This study thus aimed at exploring subjective experiences of incest victims and the support that key informants in the society could provide, and barriers that hinder the provision of their services to the victims of incest abuse in the Shai Osudoku district in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The study was mainly qualitative in nature but used quantitative measures to assess the psychological distress levels of the victims. In all, 20 participants were used for the study, 8 of whom were incest victims and 12, school professionals. Findings from this study showed that the victims of incest received little or no support upon disclosure of the abuse, relied on intrinsic coping mechanisms, experienced high levels of psychological distress and reported suicidal behaviours. Further, school professionals were also limited in the kind of help they could provide due to lack of appropriate personnel and inadequate societal support and infrastructure. These findings imply that, the environment of these victims does not encourage disclosure and trusted adults are unable to provide the needed support and protection that these victims require.Item Fear of COVID-19, perceived academic stress, future anxiety, and psychological distress of Ghanaian university students: A serial mediation examination(Journal of Psychology in Africa, 2022) Dey, N.E.Y.; Oti-Boadi, M.; Malm, E.; Selormey, R.K.; Ansah, K.O.The study examined the direct and indirect relationships between fear of COVID-19 (FC), perceived academic stress (PAS), future anxiety (FA), and psychological distress (PD) among students in Ghana. Students (n = 241; female = 64.1%; mean age = 21.54 years, SD = 2.04 years) completed online surveys on fear of COVID-19, perceived academic stress, future anxiety, and psychological distress. Following mediation analysis performed in PROCESS, results revealed that academic stress and future anxiety independently and serially mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and psychological distress. Independently, PAS mediated the relationship between FC and PD, and FA similarly mediated this relationship. Considered together, the effect of FC on PD initially occurred through PAS, and then FA. We conclude that high psychological distress is associated with increased fear of COVID-19, perceived academic stress, and future anxiety of Ghanaian university students.Item ‘We are all working toward one goal. We want people to become well’: A visual exploration of what promotes successful collaboration between community mental health workers and healers in Ghana(Transcultural Psychiatry, 2023) Kpobi, L.; Read, U.M.; Selormey, R.K.; Colucci, E.The practices of traditional and faith-based healers in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and elsewhere have come under intense scrutiny in recent years owing to allegations of human rights abuses. To mitigate these, there have been calls to develop collaborations between healers and formal health services to optimise available mental health interventions in poorly resourced contexts. For various reasons, attempts to establish such partnerships in a sustainable manner in different countries have not always been successful. In this article, we present findings from the Together for Mental Health visual research project to showcase examples of healer–health worker collaborations in Ghana that have been largely successful and discuss the barriers and facilitators to establishing these partnerships. Data reported in this article were collected using visual ethnography and filmed individual interviews with eight community mental health work ers, six traditional and faith-based healers and two local philanthropists in the Bono East Region. The findings suggest that successful collaborations were built through mutually respectful interpersonal relationships, support from the health sys tem and access to community resources. Although these facilitated collaboration, resource constraints, distrust and eth ical dilemmas had to be overcome to build stronger partnerships. These findings highlight the importance of dedicated institutional and logistic support for ensuring the successful integration of the different health systems in pluralistic settings.