The Health Awareness School

The Health Awareness School – Time To Grade 2011 Performance`

This year like many others, Ghana joined the world to mark several days set aside to raise awareness for certain health conditions. These events are to help us gain adequate knowledge about health issues and improve our lives. The world touched on many conditions, from AIDS through Tuberculosis, but at the end of the year, how many of us can confidently say that we have improved our lot from the information disseminated on those days.

As a government (ministries or agencies have been set aside to act), as health authorities and as individuals, have we really achieved the desired impact? Pick any newspaper, tune in to a radio station, surf internet sites and you will be bombarded with health issues. The church also gets its fair share of health information.

In the first part of this article, I grade the performance of health agencies and authorities in dissemination of information on selected health conditions, practical steps taken to help people and a means of monitoring the performance. Hopefully we will move away from the fun fare. Our grading is on a scale of 0-10 where 10 represents perfect performance. Note that no complex evaluations have gone into this work. It is only a concerned citizen’s view, which hopefully will give rise to the appropriate debate to move us forward.

1. World Health Day.

a. 7th April

b. Theme – “Antimicrobial resistance; no action today, no cure tomorrow”

c. Except for a little “noise” by the pharmaceutical society of Ghana, things were rather quiet on this day. A wasted opportunity to start a campaign to save ourselves from drug abuse. The odikro of my village at Adzintem definitely had no clue that a day had been set aside for information sharing

d. Grade - 4

2. World AIDS Day

a. 1st December

b. Theme – “Getting to Zero” – zero new HIV infections, Zero discrimination, Zero AIDS related deaths.

c. What a golden opportunity lost on the day. The focus before, during and after had been on partners withdrawing support. Fortunately a lot of work is done all year round in this area.

d. Grade - 7

3. World malaria Day

a. 25th April

b. Achieving Progress and Impact

c. Significant awareness creation and year round aggressive campaign

d. Grade - 8

4. World Tuberculosis Day

a. 24th March

b. Together We Can!

c. Am I the only one who missed this day? I think I caught a glimpse of the “talk” during the late night news. I doubt if any information got to likely contacts. Maybe the bulk of the work was done away from the prying eyes of the media.

d. Grade - 3

5. World Hypertension Day

a. 17th May

b. “Know your numbers, and target your blood pressure”

c. What happened to the non-communicable diseases division of the health ministry? This was an excellent platform to raise awareness of this killer. Could also offer free blood pressure monitoring which costs very little. Why are we planning to get disaster at our doorstep before we act? Moms Health Club organized blood pressure screening and education and the numbers were overwhelming.

d. Grade - 2

6. World Heart Day

a. 29th September

b. Theme – “ One World, One Home, One Heart”

c. After making a mess of World Hypertension Day, I expected a super effort on this day and beyond but alas that was never to be. Even groups known to be active on such days went to sleep.

d. Grade - 3

7. World Diabetes Day

a. 14th November

b. 84 countries went BLUE to mark the day and raise awareness. Ghana definitely took a comfortable back seat. We have no time to waste on these life style diseases. Will someone please remind us that, diseases such as diabetes are rising at an alarming rate and not only can they deprive us of manpower to build our nation, they also cause us to lose a whole lot of money as we try to manage them. Prevention is definitely much cheaper.

c. Grade - 2

8. World Hand Washing Day

a. 15th October

b. For truly clean hands always wash with soap and water at critical times; before meals, before preparing food and after visiting the toilet.

c. Thankfully a company assisted us in an effort to sell its products. Good job to you. If other companies expended similar energy in raising awareness of conditions that they may be linked to, what a happy bunch of people we would all be.

d. Grade - 8

9. World Toilet Day

a. 19th November

b. Only 13% of Ghanaians have access to safe toilets as defined by the wise men at the World Health Organisation. Some work was done but I expected more aggression, coming on the back of recent outbreaks of cholera and a recent flooding in Accra. Scary to think that so many of us are indirectly eating faeces hence the increase in diarrhoeal diseases including cholera.

c. Grade - 7

10. World Polio Day

a. 24th October

b. End Polio Now!

c. Great job by Rotary International. Year in year out. No room for complacency the Rotarians have gallantly led the battle. Ayekoo.

d. Grade - 8

11. World Day for Safety at Work

a. 28th April

b. The International Labour Organisation has set this day aside to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases.

c. I am certain over 90% of the companies in Ghana do not have the faintest idea that any such day exists. Except for a handful of companies that pursue this safety process aggressively, the rest of us have taken an extended French leave.

d. Grade -2

In this second segment, we will grade ourselves as individuals also on a scale of 0-10. Ten is an excellent score. Your grades should be based on the following

• Acquired knowledge (2)

• Sharing of knowledge (2)

• Making positive changes (2)

• Facing challenges but not quitting (2)

• Improved over last year as an individual (2)

Note that you will need to grade each point separately e.g. Stopped smoking (Grade - 10) the areas to be covered are:

1. Stopped Smoking

2. Reduced alcohol consumption

3. Eating less unhealthy food (salt, sugar and oil)

4. Increasing physical activity

5. Working towards ideal body weight

6. Doing basic medical tests such a cholesterol, sugar and oil

Dear reader definitely you have some health related questions or suggestions on your mind. Do not hesitate to send us an email and we will do our best to address them. Enjoy Christmas Day and do remember that Christ should be the focus and not the drinks, food and dancing.

Source:

D Kojo Cobba Essel

Moms’ Health Club

info@healthclubsgh.com