The Department of Sociology and Social Work in collaboration with the Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has held a day’s Workshop on Intellectual Disability.
The workshop funded by the KNUST Research Fund (KReF) through the Office of Grants and Research, was themed: ‘Improving Healthcare for Persons With Intellectual Disability (PWIDs): Findings and the Way Forward’.
In his welcome address, a Member of the Research Team Dr. Peter Dwumah, said the objective of the workshop, is to present the findings on the theme to stakeholders on how to utilise assistive technology to enhance healthcare delivery for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PWIDs). In view of this, the workshop brought together healthcare personnel, staff of special schools, associations for people with disabilities as well as the Department of Social Welfare, representatives of the Metropolitan Assembly, the Ghana Health Service, media, among others.
The Principal Investigator, Dr. Kwadwo Ofori-Dua, said Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) have always faced physical, emotional and other forms of societal abuse. In addition, PWIDs face social stigma, with healthcare professionals in the country having little or no knowledge on how to handle them. He stated that the underlying question for the research was to find out if PWIDs were able to communicate their healthcare needs effectively.
Dr. Ofori-Dua noted that the workshop is a sequel to a similar one held in May 2019. He continued that the Garden City Special School, Deduako Special School as well as some health facilities were their main collaborators.
Dr. John Boulard Forkuor, in his review of the first phase of the project, said KNUST is focusing on a more collaborative research, where stakeholders make inputs into the researchers’ work before they go to the field.
In their presentation, Mrs. Dorcas Addo and Mr. Douglas Attoh, the research candidates, said the study revealed that most health care professionals have little or no knowledge on PWIDs. In addition, they lack skills on the management of PWIDs at health facilities. The study also revealed, that PWIDs also lack assistive tools in communicating their needs especially in accessing healthcare. It also came to light that most buildings are still inaccessible to PWDs.
Mr. Attoh and Mrs. Addo therefore called for the inculcation of studies on PWIDs in the training of healthcare professionals and development of assistive tools to enable PWIDs communicate their needs to ensure proper diagnosis and treatment.
In conclusion, the researchers called on the government through its regulatory bodies to enforce laws on accessibility for PWDs and to use the state media and the agencies to educate the general public on disability issues.