The Member of Parliament for the Bortianor-Ngleshie-Amanfro Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Sylvester Tetteh, has asserted that all government policies must include persons with disability to better cater for their needs, especially in the area of health.
He said the semester programme for teaching Sign Language as a course at the various training institutions is inadequate and the framers of the course outline must go back and develop a more effective outline that would equip the health professionals with that particular skill to communicate more effectively with persons with disability.
“There should be a mandatory policy of the government through the Ministry of health demanding that all health workers acquire the skill of Sign Language. I would like to encourage some members to join me in pushing for the Ghanaian Disability Act which will take care of such persons”.
In a statement on the plight of persons with disability in accessing healthcare in Ghana read on the floor of parliament on March 17, 2022, the MP noted that, “The inadequate policies of the Government targeted at such people makes it challenging for them to enjoy a quality healthcare service. Making reference to the various health policies of the government, some policies don’t even mention disability and those that do, mention it in a general context. Such policies like the Human Resource Policies and Strategies for the Health Sector, the Ghana National Healthcare Strategy, Health Sector Staffing Norm and the revised National Health Policy”.
He also questioned why many of the health professionals are able to communicate with the Deaf and Dumb at the hospitals, both private and public?
“Unfortunately, most healthcare workers have inadequate skills in Sign Language making it difficult for them to interact with the deaf and dumb at our various hospitals. Mr. Speaker, we have the sign language experts on televisions interpreting news, parliamentary proceedings and others but in the health sector where they are most needed, such experts are absent”.
Mr. Tetteh however, commended the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education for instituting the Sign Language Course at our various Training Institutions, but “it is certain that a semester course in Sign Language is not enough to acquire the skills to communicate with such persons.
Unfortunately, these factors are interconnected and expose Persons with Disability to adverse health problems such as further deficiencies, poor health conditions, sexual abuse, sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancies, miscarriages, severity and chronicity of avoidable health conditions leading to a low quality of life”.
He used the occasion to draw the Parliament attention to the fact that women and young girls with this disability are the most vulnerable in our society….., “many of them suffer from rape and other injustices from family and sometimes strangers yet their inability to communicate makes it difficult for justice to be served and the necessary medical attention given. I would like to refer the house to an online publication of Tuesday, 21st December 2021 by Ghana Talks Radio with the headline “Father impregnates own deaf and dumb teenage daughter at Twifu Nkohunuho”, a terrible incident that happened where a father impregnates his own daughter”.
He went on to add that, “despite the ratifications of the goals of these international documents and some gains made to improve the livelihood of Persons with Disabilities in Ghana, they still face other challenges in life, especially access to quality and standard healthcare. According to the World Health Organization, such persons are about threefold likelihood to be denied medical care and four-times increased likelihood to receive substandard care from health professionals. This is due to several factors such as low income, inadequate government policies targeted at Persons with Disability, low levels of education, lesser economic opportunities, inadequate knowledge of healthcare workers about how to interact with such persons and poor infrastructure”.
By Edzorna Francis Mensah