Birim Central piloting epilepsy control project

The Ministry of Health in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) is piloting a “Fight against epilepsy initiative-Ghana Project” in the Birim Central Municipality.

The aim of the project is to improve access to care for people with epilepsy and to integrate the care of epilepsy into primary health care in the country.

A team from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the WHO visited the Akyem Oda Government Hospital, the Oda Old Town and the Akyem Akroso sub Municipal Health Centres to see how the project was going on.

Dr Mrs Cynthia Sottie, Focal Person for Mental Health at the GHS and National Coordinator for epilepsy, told the GNA Media Auditing and Development Tracking team that, the project was started in January.

She said the visit was to enable the team to see the work the 30 nurses who were trained for the project were doing and to support them.

The trained nurses are expected to carry out early identification and assessment of epilepsy cases, treatment and management of epilepty and mental clients, offer outreach services, home visits, health education at schools, churches and on the radio.

Dr Sottie said the visit would also enable them to see how the project was going on and plan for its sustainability and scaling up.

She said GHS would ensure the availability of drugs to make sure patients could be diagnosed and treated at the local level instead for them to travel far to seek medical treatment.

The major challenge facing the project is the detaining of epileptic patients at prayer camps for long period without allowing them to seek medical treatment.

Dr Tarun Dua from WHO appealed to the nurses to do home visits, public education on epilepsy and to follow up cases.

She said apart from the Birim Central Municipality, the project is also being piloted in the West Akyem Municipality, all in the Eastern Region and four other regions.

Nurses on the project said their training and work had brought some improvement in the perception people held about epilepsy.

The GNA, Star-Ghana media Auditing and Tracking of Development projects is an initiative launched to promote transparency, participatory democracy, social accountability and good governance.