By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bolgatanga, Aug 29, GNA – More than 250 children from Bolgatanga Municipality and its environs in the Upper East Region have benefitted from free health screening and medical care for various conditions of Neurodevelopment Disorders.
The beneficiaries were screened for various conditions such as intellectual disabilities, autism, cerebral palsy, communication disorders, learning disorders, and conduct disorders among others with some receiving physiotherapy, behavioural and general therapeutical and medical support.
Various stakeholders such as parents, caregivers, teachers, school owners, health workers and the members of the public were also educated and sensitised on early signs of Neurodevelopment Disorders and how to handle children with special needs for better growth outcomes.
It was sponsored by Ms Katherine Millar, and her husband Professor Mamudu Akudugu, both Lecturers at the University for Development Studies, as part of activities to mark the birthday of Ms Millar.
The exercise was in partnership with Mission Pediatrics, Klicks Africa Foundation, and Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment Ghana (RISE-GHANA) with support from the Millar Institute for Transdisciplinary and Development Studies.
Neurodevelopment Disorders are conditions that affect the development of the nervous system, leading to abnormal brain functioning of a child which may affect emotions, learning abilities, self-control and memory and the conditions tend to last for a person’s lifetime.
The couple, for some time now, had arranged and has been paying for a Language and Speech Therapist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital to bi-weekly visit the Upper East Region to interact and provide medical services to children with language and speech disabilities.
Professor Akudugu explained that the gesture was the brainchild of his wife, Ms Millar, to give opportunity to parents and their children with such conditions to be screened and given medical care to help the children grow better.
Ms Millar explained that there were many children suffering from Neurodevelopment Disorders in northern Ghana and Upper East Region in particular but there were limited specialists in the country, particularly in northern Ghana to deal with such conditions.
She said many had to travel to Accra with their children to see a specialist because there were no specialists in Northern Ghana, adding “for the whole of the five regions of the North, there is only one Language and Speech Therapist at Tamale Teaching Hospital.”
She said due to poverty, many were unable to travel to Accra to see specialists and called on the government to train and employ more specialists in the sector and post some to the region to help improve the situation.
Dr Marilyn Marbell Wilson, a Neurodevelopment Pediatrician, Mission Pediatrics, said stakeholders must intensify advocacy on the fact there were many children in the country suffering from Neurodevelopment Disorders and the need for such issues to be prioritised.
This would help to demystify myths and misconceptions surrounding neurodevelopment Disorders, to help reduce stigmatisation, help parents to support their children for better growth and influence policies for early interventions, she added.
Mr Desmond Lamptey, the Language and Speech Therapist at Tamale Teaching Hospital, said data available indicated that there were about 40 Language and Speech Therapists in the country and called for investment to train more specialists to help improve service delivery.
Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister, indicated that the Regional Coordinating Council was working hard with other relevant stakeholders to put measures in place to attract and retain critical health staff especially specialists in the region to help improve quality of health service delivery.
GNA