Improving the Health of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Ghana through Quality Rights
Special Olympics participates in the roll out plan for World Health Organization Quality Rights Training Tools in Ghana
By Faith Chabedi, Inclusive Health Partnerships Manager, Special Olympics
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) protects the human rights of people with disabilities globally. Failure to adhere to the principles of the CRPD in various institutions and care centers (including homes) of people with mental illness, intellectual and psycho-social disabilities has resulted in them facing abuse, discrimination, stigma and poor health outcomes.
The Ghana Ministry of Health has called for training of policy makers, health workers, care givers, traditional healers and different categories of people who interact with people affected or at risk of being affected by these violations of the CRPD.
Quality Rights (QR) tools are an initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) to teach, promote, and assess compliance with the CRPD in the care of people with mental health, intellectual and psycho-social disabilities. The tools are provided in partnerships with the government and involved NGOs.
Special Olympics is one of the key players in the planning and rolling out the QR training tool to over 5,000 people including health workers, policy makers, mental health service users, Special Olympics coaches, clinical directors, athletes, family members, teachers and other alternative health service providers, like religious and traditional healers in Ghana.
Training will be launched in February 2019 and implementation will run until end 2020. Preparations for the launch are underway. Special Olympics Ghana chairman, Mr Augustine Kokukokor is representing Special Olympics in a planning team made up of representatives from the Mental Health Authority of Ghana, WHO Ghana, Ghana Health Services and other NGOs.
The QR training will be delivered to the identified people online and at organized face-to-face sessions. The Ministry of Health website will host the on-line tool, as well as additional information about mental health and intellectual disabilities. The face-to -face trainers will be trained at the upcoming Train-The-Trainer session to be completed in February 2019.
Special Olympics International, Special Olympics Africa and Special Olympics Ghana are in full support of this project and are looking forward to the start of another historic step to advance the rights of people with intellectual disabilities in Ghana and the whole world.
