Sign Language intepreters needed at health facilities
  
By Vida Essel
It was around 2am when her husband, Mr Mensah, also a (hearing impaired) person felt ill.
After taking some pain killers, which yielded no result, he was rushed to the hospital for better diagnosis.
Mabel Ansah, (not her real name), also a hearing impaired person told Daily Graphic.
She, however, met the shock of her life, “Doctors and nurses were on duty but not a single of them could understand my husband and I”.
“I could neither write nor read so after many hours of failed attempt, the doctors, nurses and I had no choice but to leave my sick husband to his fate”.
Mabel’s husband was pronounced dead later in the day at the hospital, a situation, she said could have been prevented if there was a sign language interpreter at the hospital.
Many more of these causalities have been recorded over the years in the country, but no one seems to show concern about it.
According to the Project Co-coordinator of the Ghana Association of the Deaf, Mr Robert Sampona, similar incidents happened to a pregnant woman about two years ago, when she was given a wrong prescription at the hospital which resulted in the death of her unborn baby and later herself.
 Communication plays a vital role in health care delivery, for a doctor to be able to diagnose what exactly is wrong with a patients, he/she ought to be able to tell how they are feeling.
This procedure is usually easy for persons who can speak and express themselves properly.
However, the situation is different for persons with hearing and speech impairment. 
To them the task is a cumbersome one and can only do so through an interpreter.
Though the problem calls for an integrated concern, not much had been achieved even with the existence of the 1992 Constitution and the 2006 Disability Act that require health care institutions in the country to make provision of appropriate facilities for disabled persons.

Sign language
Sign language is the major communication tool for hearing and speech impaired person. Without it, their very existence makes no meaning since it creates a barrier between them and society.
It is a language which uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning, as opposed to acoustically conveyed sound patterns.
It involves a combination of hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to express a speaker's thoughts.
Though very useful tool for them, not all hearing and speech impaired person are able to express themselves with it because the language is not universal.
To be able to sign properly, one requires further tutoring.

Sign language interpreters in healthcare facilities in Ghana
Accessibility to quality health care is very important to the development of every individual, society and the nation.
However, lack of sign language in hospitals in the country has made it difficult for the hearing impaired in Ghana to acquire the proper medical attention when ill.
According to the Executive Director of GNAD, Mr. James Sambian, none of the hospitals in the country has hired the services of sign language interpreters.
He, however, mentioned that the Ridge Hospital in Accra makes use of the association’s services when the need arises since it is closer to them.
Mr. Sambian also indicated that those who could afford employ the services of interpreters whenever they visited the hospitals.
A visit to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) and the Mamprobi Poly clinic confirmed Mr. Sambian’s assertation, as none of the department in the two hospitals had hired the services of sign language interpreters.
The Public Relation Officer of KBTH Mr. Mustapha Salifu said the hospital did not often receive patients with hearing impairment, but the few that visited came with their interpreters.
This suggests that, hearing impaired persons who cannot afford to pay for the services of an interpreter, cannot access quality health care.
 This situation has caused many of them to stay at home when sick, rather than visit health facilities in the country.

Deaf population in Ghana
According to the 2010 Population and Housing census, a total of 110,625 people in the country are deaf.
 Out of the figure women forms the majority with 60,500, the remaining, 50,125 were men.
The Ashanti Region has the highest population with a total of 18, 065, followed by the Eastern Region  with 15,076, Volta Region with 14,335, Northern Region, 10,838, Greater Accra, 10,713
The Central, Brong Ahafo, Western, Upper East and the Upper West regions have 10,702, 9,130, 8,691, 8,511 and 4,564 respectively.
The figure indicates that there is a large number of people in the country who have been neglected by authorities in in respect of access to quality health care, thus putting their lives at risk, all because of communication barrier.

Policies
Despite the fact that the 1992 Constitution, Article29 (6), provides that “As far as practicable, every place to which the public have access to shall have appropriate facilities for disabled persons”, many public places including healthcare facilities have turned a deaf ear to the provision.
Also, the Disability Act, of 2006, (Act 715) provides that the Ministry of Health, in formulating health policies, shall provide for free general specialist medical care, rehabilitate operation treatment and appropriate assistive devices for persons with total disability, but none of these requirements have been met.
 The Act again mandates the Ministry of Health to include the study of disability and disability-related issues in the curricula of the training institutions for health professionals to develop appropriate human resource to provide general and specialised rehabilitation services.
Despite the existence of all these legal frameworks, deaf persons have not been catered for in the various hospitals in the country because there are no sign language interpreters, the only important tool that aids their very existence.
 Mr. Sambian attributed the inability of the ministry and healthcare facility to adhere to these policies to lack of knowledge about the existence of the law or financial constraints.

Call on Government
At a recent advocacy workshop to develop a workable plan for the placement of sign language interpreters in public healthcare in Accra, the National Association of Deaf (GNAD) called on government to incorporate sign language interpreters into the healthcare delivery system to facilitate effective patient-doctor interaction.
They also urged the government to compel public institutions to comply with the provisions since they had failed to abide by them so far.
According to GNAD, the country has neglected them for far too long and it was time for the government and all agencies involved to take a second look at the plight of the hearing impaired persons and provide permanent solution to it.
 Mr. Sambian called on Ghanaians to rally behind the association in its quest for better conditions at health facilities for the hearing impaired and the disabled in general.
This call ought to be embraced by all Ghanaians to help solve the challenge and save the lives of many others like Mr. Mensah’s.

THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE

                                     THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE

We all make promises in life; to ourselves, our parents, friends and especially our loved ones into whose eyes we look as we stand  in  the presence of  God and vow to remain faithful till death separate us. In as much as we try hard, for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health, to honour these promises, there is one that we as Ghanaians have failed to honour and this is “The National Pledge”.

Though it is one of the first” oaths” we swear from primary one, when we start morning assembly ritual in our basic schools till our mature stage when we enter public service, little attention is paid to the meaning of the words in it. Others even forget the words with time. It is not surprising that some government appointees and beauty pageant finalists have difficulty in saying it.

 Some of the question  that sometimes boggles my mind and other patriotic citizens are that; do we as a nation really understand the meaning of the pledge we recite?, Could it be that they don’t understand at all or they do but fail to fulfill because of reasons known to them alone? Is it because someone somewhere is not doing his work well? Or is it that society has failed in inculcating the spirit of patriotism into us?

Perhaps, taking “The National Pledge” line by line will help us identify our mistakes and in effect, correct them.

I promise on my honour to be faithful and loyal to Ghana my Motherland.

We make this promise but little can we boast about this to Mother Ghana. We are far away from the faithfulness and the loyalty we promise mother Ghana. We take the slightest opportunity given us to rob the country of what is due her especially when it comes to its resources.

Like the Israelites in the Bible, lead by Moses made a promise to God to be faithful to Him alone by not worshiping other god but upon the little opportunity they had, they took the earring of the females and made gods out of them to worship, we promise Mother Ghana of our loyalty and faithfulness to her and the next minute we do the contrary.

We worship the riches in the country more than the country itself. That is why it is of little wonder that illegal mining, encroachment of public lands and property have taken center stage in our dear country.

I pledge myself to the service of Ghana with all my strength and with all my heart.

We pledge ourselves to the service of Ghana with all our strength and with all our heart but we render inferior services to the state in all the public companies despite the many times we have open our mouth to make this promise.

How many of the public companies can compete with the private sectors in our country? For instance, a manager of a state owned company arrives at the office two minute to the closing time and takes salary incomparable to that of a manager of a private company who starts his work right from his home.

 Some government employees do not lose any strength nor might because as soon as closing time is due, they are out of the office. The funny thing about this whole thing is that people who are willing to offer themselves to the service of the nation are not giving the chance or are  tagged  with funny names such as “ Post kaya, “Alekye”, ”wo nam pe job” and many other names that discourage these  dictated ones.

I promise to hold in high esteem our heritage, won for us through the blood and toil of our fathers;

I am sure our fore fathers are bowing in shame, for we have failed them. What has happened to all the beautiful Ghanaian culture that makes us unique from other countries on the continent? The communal spirit is gone. Today we stand and watch on as state property is destroyed without any action. What happened to the rich land of ours, the green vegetations, water bodies, minerals such as gold bauxites and many other valuables that our fore fathers left for us? We have failed to value all the treasures they left behind for us and have allowed people from nowhere access to all of them.

And I pledge myself in all things to uphold and defend the good name of Ghana. So help me God.

There are a lot of people who are not upholding or defending the good name of Ghana but are always on the move to rather dent it. Sometimes I just wish God will descend and punishes some of us for calling on him to assist us honour promises we have turned a death ear to. We may say the pledge for saying sake but one thing we need to bear in mind is that every unfulfilled promise comes with its own consequences. If we do not uphold and defend the good name of Ghana, whatever happens to her affects us too because she is the only one we have. I am not interested in why the Jehovah witness do not make pledges but if we will makes pledges and do not fulfill them, then it is better we do not make them at all.

The composer of this pledge did not wake up just one day to put together all these words. I am quite sure it took him so many sleepless nights, a lot of thinking, a lot research and a lot more insight to have come up with such a piece.

If we love Ghana and believe in her, let us look behind us once again and correct the correctable. Like the Akans say, ‘Sankofa Wonkyir’. To wit, it is not forbidden to go back and reclaim. Let us change our mind sets and start being patriotic like our fore fathers. 

In an election year like this, when so many unprecedented event have happened, it is pertinent that we all contribute our in quota in maintaining peace and solidarity. And it is my fervent prayer is that we will take time and reflect on the words of the National Pledge and get involved in making Ghana the black star that shines even in the night.

VIDA ESSEL

 vidaessel4u@yahoo.com

GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM