Include neurodevelopment disorders treatment onto NHIS – government urged

By Anthony Adongo Apubeo

Bolgatanga, Aug 30, GNA – Government has been urged to take steps to include the treatment of Neurodevelopment Disorders onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) benefit package.

Such a move would go a long way to bring financial and economic relief to poor parents whose children are suffering from such conditions, improve access to healthcare for all and better growth outcomes for special children.

Stakeholders such as parents, healthcare providers, caregivers, teachers, Civil Society Organisations, among others, made the call at a symposium on Neurodevelopment Disorders, held at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

The stakeholders also called for investment to train specialists to ensure easy access to service delivery across the country and prevent people from travelling long distances to access care.

The forum was organised by Ms Katherine Millar, and her husband, Professor Mamudu Akudugu, both Lecturers at the University for Development Studies as part of activities to mark the birthday of Ms Millar.

The event was in partnership with Mission Pediatrics, Klicks Africa Foundation, and Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment Ghana (RISE-GHANA) with support from the Millar Institute for Transdisciplinary and Development Studies.

Neurodevelopment Disorders are conditions that affect the development of the nervous system, leading to abnormal brain functioning of a child, which may affect emotions, learning abilities, self-control and memory and the conditions tend to last for a person’s lifetime.

In addition to the symposium, a free health screening for various conditions of Neurodevelopment Disorders was also organised and more than 250 children from Bolgatanga Municipality and its environs benefitted from the gesture

Madam Belinda Azusyine, a mother of a child with special needs from Bolgatanga, noted that the cost of treatment and medication for such children and children with Neurodevelopment Disorders was having a toll on families.

She there were no specialists in the region and northern Ghana as a whole and parents of children with special needs had to travel to the South, particularly Accra and Kumasi to access medical care but poverty had made some parents unable to afford the required medications for their children.

“I was supposed to be visiting the hospital in Kumasi every month but the transportation alone I could not afford and the least amount of money I use to buy medicines is GH₵500.00 every

month. I am a teacher but unemployed, so, I am pleading with the government to include the treatment of these conditions onto the NHIS package,” she pleaded.

Ms Margaret Akindeba, another mother of a child with special needs, indicated that due to the cost of treatment and stigmatisation, many families were hiding their children in their home, which was impeding their growth and development.

She said although not all Neurodevelopment Disorders required medications, those conditions that required medications should be, as matter urgency, captured in the NHIS benefit package to support special children.

Ms Jaw-haratu Amadu, another mother with a special child and head of programmes for RISE-GHANA, said apart from the high cost of the medications, the region did not have specialists in such a field and called on the stakeholders to help train more specialists to provide critical care to the patients.

Ms Millar explained that there were many children in rural areas like the Upper East Region who were suffering many Neurodevelopment Disorders and the symposium was to create a platform to build the capacity of the primary stakeholders on early signs and how to assist children with such conditions to have a better growth.

She said the move was also to increase awareness about the conditions, demystify myths and misconceptions and influence policies directions to ensure early interventions and diagnosis to help in the growth of such children.

GNA

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