“Suspect your wards of starting drugs if they start withdrawing”-Mental Health expert 

Lydia Abena Manu, an addiction counselor and the Chief Executive Officer of ‘Willing way Foundation Ghana’ has advised parents to look out for the following signs in their children as they may have started taking hard drugs when they start showing the same.

According to her, when children or young ones start Withdrawing from family, lack of appetite for food in the initial stages, falling in love with sweet drinks and candies among others, it is an indication they may have started taking hard drugs amongst others. 

She said this during a sensitization forum organized by the ‘Willing ways Foundation Ghana’ at the Sunyani Municipal Health Directorate.
The exercise according to the organizers is aiming at educating health workers and the general public on the need to take Mental health issues seriously.

Speaking in an interview with Soiree News Rosemond Kissiwaa, Madam Lydia Manu said, her foundation is in Sunyani to establish a center to take care of mental health patients.
She said they are going to work in collaboration with health institutions and Social welfare to help eliminate most of the patients who are left to suffer on their own.

She called on parents to look out for the signs that indicate their children are engaging in drugs.

The addiction counselor entreated couples to consider the wellbeing of their children and maintain their marriages since most of the causes of drug abuse start with broken homes.

She also called on parents not to drink alcohol or do drugs in the presence of their children.
She also urged them to keep their children close to them to avoid them being trained by their friends on the streets.

She called on family members not to neglect children that lose their parents at tender ages with no proper guidance, a situation she describes as one of the contributing factors of children engaging in drugs and subsequently being mentally challenged.