Health personnel undergoes sign language training

The Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD) has started a six-month training programme for health personnel to mitigate challenges facing them in delivering quality healthcare to hearing-impaired persons.

Mr James M. Sambian, Executive Director of GNAD, said at the start of the training on Friday that the aim was to mainstream sign language services into the healthcare delivery system.

He said the training would give the personnel knowledge and skills to communicate with deaf persons.

Mr Sambian said the project, which is a pilot one, is being sponsored by STAR-Ghana, and is being implemented at the Ridge Regional Hospital in Accra, and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.

Mrs Victoria Kwao, participant, told the Ghana News Agency that the training would go a long way to solve problems of wrong interpretation and guarantee quality services to deaf persons.

She called for the extension of the training to all health personnel in medical facilities, adding, “The training is very interesting it is going to help us a lot. It should form part of studies at nursing training and medical schools.”

In March GNAD also appealed to the government to recognize Ghana Sign Language as official language for the deaf and make provision for the employment of sign language interpreters in healthcare centres.

There are approximately 110,000 deaf persons in Ghana, according to the 2010 population and housing census.

Source: GNA