NGO, UKAID initiate health project for PWDs, others

Hope For Future Generation (HFFG), a non-governmental organisation, in collaboration with the UKAid, has launched a one-year project to help improve the health of persons living with disabilities (PWDs) and mental conditions.

The project has been dubbed the “Somubi Dwumadie” and it seeks to establish a network between the target group and  healthcare providers.

Among other aims, the project will  provide psychological support to health workers and persons living with disability and mental health conditions to enhance the relationship between the two for better health outcomes and help reduce stigmatisation of the target group.

Concept of project

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Director of HFFG, Mrs. Cecilia Senoo, said the project was designed to improve access to health care for persons living with disability and mental health conditions.

“The project is to bring the distress and the difficulties these group of people face into focus and provide support for them, as well as create an enabling environment that will make them feel safe and cared for and to ensure that there is no stigma in the society for people living with disability and mental health to feel free to access health care,” she said.

Overview of project

The Project Coordinator of HFFG, Mrs. Nancy Ansah, said they had launched a toll-free line that health workers and people living with disability and mental health conditions could call to seek help.

She said PWDs required additional assistance from health workers to use healthcare facilities because majority were not disability-friendly.

She also highlighted how PWDs and other vulnerable groups had been neglected in the national COVID-19 intervention programmes and called on the government to ensure no one was left behind in any intervention.

Mrs. Ansah said the project, therefore, sought to help bridge the neglect gap.