Bolgatanga, Whenever Ms Aloriba Adatukey, a 36-year-old woman from Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region is not feeling well, she practises self-medication rather than visiting the healthcare facility.
The case
‘One time, I had abdominal pains and my menses were not flowing regularly, so, I visited the hospital but no one could understand me because I am deaf and I did not know whom to consult and explain for the person to understand’.
Ms Adatukey who revealed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview through a Sign Language Interpreter in Navrongo is a hearing/speech-impaired person who can neither read nor write.
She continued ‘so, I always rely on my colleagues who are also hearing impaired whenever I am sick who will usually give me the cover of some medicines and I will take it to the pharmacy to buy the drugs and because the pharmacy attendants do not also understand sign language, they will just sell the drugs to me without asking any question’.
Sign Language
The reason Ms Adatukey stopped visiting the healthcare facility for treatment is because the healthcare facility in her area does not have a Sign Language Interpreter and the health workers cannot understand or communicate effectively with her.
She explained that sometimes the self-medication helped to ease the pains but many times, the practice did not help and could even worsen her plight.
‘One day, it became critical and I visited the hospital with my friend who could read and write so she texted her friend who is a Sign Language Teacher at one Senior High School, who came and explained to the nurses to understand and they were able to treat me well,’ she said.
The ordeal of Ms Adatukey is not different from what many hearing/speech-impaired persons are going through in their efforts to access certain services especially policies and healthcare which is critical to the survival of every person.
Ms Ida Dambayi, a 27-year-old hearing/speech impaired young lady, explained that she visited the hospital a number of times but anytime she writes the health workers will not understand.
‘One day I visited the hospital because my menses were not stopping after about 10 days but they could not understand what I wrote on a sheet of paper for them until my friend who is an interpreter came and explained to them,’ she said.
Statistics
Currently, more than 1.5 billion people globally, representing nearly 20 per cent of the world’s population are affected by hearing loss in at least one ear with 430 million, representing over 5 per cent of the world’s population, requiring rehabilitation
According to the World Health Organisation, 80 per cent of the figure was found in developing countries while it is estimated that over 700 million will have disabling hearing loss by 2050 globally.
Statistics from the 2021 Population and Housing Census, revealed that nearly half a million (470,737) people in Ghana had some degree of hearing impairments.
Many of this category of people are unable to access services particularly government policies and healthcare services for the reason that there are no Sign Language Interpreters at these institutions particularly healthcare facilities.
Hospitals without Sign Language interpreters
Most public institutions particularly healthcare facilities in Ghana do not have sign language interpreters and the situation is hampering healthcare delivery especially for persons with hearing impairments.
Checks by GNA have revealed almost all public healthcare facilities in the Upper East Region including the Regional Hospital do not have sign language interpreters and most of the health workers did not have any training on sign language interpretation.
Dr Samuel Aborah, the Clinical Coordinator at the Upper East Regional Hospital noted that the hospital did not have sign language interpreters and the healthcare workers were not trained on it, so the personnel had a hard time understanding hearing impaired persons who visited the hospital for medical attention.
He said it was easier to communicate with only those who visited the hospital with their relatives but it was however difficult to communicate with those who visited the hospital alone, adding that ‘if the person can read and write, then we write but those who are not literate, we try in any way that can lead to understanding’.
The Clinical Coordinator therefore called for the introduction of sign language into the curricula of medical education to ensure that medical doctors trained had the ability to communicate using the sign language to help improve healthcare delivery for the hearing impaired.
Disability Act
The Ghana Disability Act of 2006, Act 715, stipulates that health care and medical treatment must be made accessible to all Ghanaians living with any form of disability while the Ministry of Health include the study of disability and disability related issues in the curricula of health training institutions in the country to develop human resource base that would provide quality health care for all.
In 2019, the government directed the Ministry of Health to collaborate with the Ghana Education Service, Ghana National Council of Disability and Ghana National Association for the Deaf to recruit Sign Language Interpreters at various health facilities across the country.
Mr Sumani Bapio Ibrahim, a Hearing Impaired, and Disability Right and Youth advocate, said little had been done to address issues of lack of sign language interpreters at the health facilities and the situation continued to deny persons with hearing impairments quality health care.
Mr Mark Akubire, the Upper East Regional President of Ghana Federation of Persons with Disability, explained that lack of sign language interpreters in government institutions was denying many of their members access to quality services.
‘Apart from the hospitals, there are government institutions such as the courts, social welfare departments and other institutions that do not have sign language interpreters and that demotivates the hearing impaired from seeking services from those institutions.
‘There are many sign language interpreting graduates who are unemployed, the government needs to engage them at the health facilities because the Disability Act which is policy calls for inclusiveness but persons with hearing impairment continued to be denied the needed services because of communication barrier,’ he said.
Efforts
In an interview with the GNA, Mr Sebil William, the Principal of Nursing Training College, Bolgatanga, explained that for about five years all the health training institutions in the country had been running French and Sign Language as courses to equip nurses and other health workers with the knowledge to communicate with all persons.
However, he noted, the Sign Language course in particular was being taught for only one semester (last semester of the final year) which did not give the students ample time to learn it in detail.
‘For us here (Nursing Training College, Bolgatanga), although we are supposed to teach it at the last semester that the students will spend in school, we usually start in the second year (level 200) so that the students will be able to understand it better,’ he said.
He regretted that many people with disabilities especially the hearing/speech impaired had to go through difficulties in accessing health services, adding ‘we are one and we need to create that environment for all to thrive and access all services including healthcare’.
SDGs and Universal Health Coverage
It is left with barely seven years to the deadline for the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Ghana’s agenda of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) which emphasized stringent actions to ensure that all persons had access to quality and equitable healthcare delivery.
Ghana is at risk of losing out on achieving any of the 17 SDGs goals by 2030 if the healthcare system is not made disability friendly especially for the persons with hearing impairments.
It is refreshing that all health training institutions had started running the Sign Language as a course, however, dedicating only one semester to such an important aspect of healthcare system is woefully inadequate.
Recommendations
It would therefore be prudent for all health training institutions including medical schools to run sign language as a course from the first year to the last year and make compulsories for all students to learn.
It would not also be out of place if government in consultation with the appropriate authorities introduces sign language to the whole educational system to be taught at all levels of education in Ghana or at least from the second cycle institutions to tertiary.
This would ensure that many families and communities and workers in the informal sector understood sign language and could communicate effectively with their relatives and community members with hearing issues while government employ the graduates in service providing institutions such as the Assembly and courts among others.
Conclusion
While waiting for long term solutions to this phenomenon, it would be appropriate for government to ensure that all health facilities had stationed Sign Language Interpreters even if they did not have health training background to support the health workers to communicate effectively with persons with hearing impairments.
This would not only bridge communication barrier in health service delivery, fulfill the implementation of the Disability Act but would help the country achieve the Universal Health Coverage and the SDGs particularly goals three.
Source: Ghana News Agency