Abstract:
Persons born with intellectual and developmental delays tend to have additional health needs that are not met at the primary health level because of lack of facilities, limited knowledge and skills of the health personnel at that level to be able to support such families adequately. This puts barriers of access to health care in the ways of such families. This study seeks to suggest ways of addressing these bariers to make the ‘health for all’ meaningful to such families.
The study design was a qualitative cross-sectional one Sixteen (16) participants were interviewed for this study using a self-structured in-depth interview guide to get their perception of the quality of health care delivery for children with intellectual disabilities. The participants were made up of nine (9) health and allied health workers and seven (7) parents of children with different types of intellectual and developmental delays. The analysis was conducted using the Dedoose online analysis software to code the themes that are discussed in the results section of this study.
The results of the study showed that the health needs of children with intellectual and developmental delays are multifaceted and requires a multi-disciplinary team to address these. We also found out that there is a knowledge gap for the health care professionals at the primary health level when it comes to the care of children with intellectual disabilities. This study also brought to the fore that when parents/carers of these children don’t get the needed care/support from the health system, they resort to traditional and religious sources of care.
The study concludes that the Ghana Health Service works through the District and Municipal Directors of Health Services to begin to build the capacities of the health personnel at the CHPS and health centre levels to be able to achieve the universal access to health for all through the primary health care system, by providing the targeted care for these children and their families.
