Last year, we celebrated 10 years of partnership with Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana! The team is finding that more children are being accepted within their societies and they are now attending school.
Our team in Ghana has been travelling to the Central region of Ghana to re-connect with old patients and identify new patients. On average, 6 patients received speech therapy per visit.
The project faces challenges in follow-up with former patients because contact information often changes or patients are not enthusiastic about further long-term treatment. Generally for most patients, the closure of the lip is of primary importance. The team hopes to educate parents about the important role of follow-up, revisions and constant contact.
In future, the team hopes to increase post-surgery follow up calls, obtain regular patient feedback, and create more awareness on cleft lip and palate by working with community health schools, public health institutions and Ghana Health Service. They also hope to create a national standards protocol with other hospitals and a guide for referrals.
These are some highlights of our partner’s work in Ghana in 2013:
- 91 Surgeries were carried out in 2013 – surpassing the goal of 80 surgeries for the year
- 17 of the surgeries were carried out as a part of PACT training
- 5 panel clinics – where patients were assessed by the whole team– were held
On the whole 1,358 interventions were recorded within the period. These included:
- 39 dental interventions took place
- 159 Speech therapy and audiology services took place
- The public health nurses provided 227 counselling sessions at the center and also during 28 home visits. The counseling covered social work and nutrition & feeding. They also offered speech articulation therapy to children needing the service.