A qualitative study of the impact of the World Health Organisation QualityRights human rights and mental health Training on changing attitudes to mental health and human rights in Ghana

Negative and stigmatising attitudes towards human rights and mental health exist worldwide. The Ghanaian government has attempted to tackle such discriminatory attitudes and practices to align with a human rights-based approach in mental healthcare through the implementation of the World Health Organisation QualityRights Initiative in Ghana. As part of the initiative, the World Health Organisation has developed a range of capacity building tools on mental health, disability, human rights and recovery. National stakeholders in Ghana completed the WHO QualityRights e-training to build capacity and change attitudes to promote recovery and respect for human rights for people with mental health conditions, psychosocial and intellectual disabilities. Participants completed pre- and post-training questionnaires assessing perceived attitude and practice change. Thematic analysis was conducted on the open-ended questions on the post e-training questionnaires to discover how attitudes were impacted by the e-training. Three themes emerged: "legal capacity and the right to decide", "coercion, violence and abuse" and "equality and community inclusion." Attitudes on the right to make decisions, treatment of individuals with mental health conditions, psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, equality, social inclusion and non-discrimination had improved to be more in line with a human rights-based and recovery-oriented approach to mental health. The QualityRights training shows promise as a scalable intervention to reduce stigma, promote rights, and improve care for individuals with mental health conditions, psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.