A CHARITY aimed at improving care for the mentally ill in Ghana has been launched.

Health bosses from Hampshire have joined forces with the College of Health in Ghana to set up the Kintampo Project and bridge the gap between medical standards in the two countries by training mental health workers in the West African country.

Many mentally ill people in Ghana will never receive treatment and many are beaten or shackled to exorcise the “evil spirits” thought to cause mental illness.

The project is the culmination of five years of work between the College of Health and Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and their mission is to have trained hundreds more mental workers by 2017.

For more information log onto thekintampoproject.

org.