Ghana psychiatric unit

I really enjoyed my time in the PMGY ghana house, I made lots of wonderful friends and got to explore some of ghana with the most amazing staff team! On days off we were always given options of things to do by the in house staff such as the culture centre, market etc. and were generally either taken there or shown how to get there (which we always felt safe doing by ourselves as the tro tros were quite easy to use). The biggest challenge was dealing with the lack of running water but we all managed to deal with that quite quickly. it was really fun being able to live with so many people and play games every evening to chill out after placement.
The trips to cape coast and mole national park were amazing, it was incredible to be able to see so much of a different country and i really enjoyed the surfing lesson. it was really fun being able to do something recreational and getting some fabulous experiences along side my friends.
I enjoyed the placement and tried to get as much out of it as possible, i learnt a lot from the nurses who were very willing to explain to us what was going on. However the psychiatric unit was disappointing as the nurses and patients spoke in the native language to each other ( as expected i guess), which made it difficult to understand what was going on and to make a positive contribution. the nurses did their best to explain what was happening but we weren't left with much opportunity to participate and do things. we also went out with the community outreach nurses into the local community to promote mental health and reduce stigma which was really interesting to learn about how little the public knew about mental health. again there was not much english spoken here so it was difficult to understand and contribute to the discussions. overall the placement was positive and i learnt a lot but i feel i was limited by the language barrier.
I really enjoyed the whole experience, and it was really sad to leave everybody behind when i had to go home. it is definitely an experience that I won't be forgetting any time soon.