The Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD) has called for the establishment of a special unit with well-trained staff at general hospitals to attend to persons with hearing impairment.

It also stressed the need for improved communication between healthcare providers and patients through training in sign language interpretation and the development of more signs for specific sexual reproductive health (SRH) concepts.

It added that improving the knowledge of teachers and families on sexual reproductive health would be a game-changer, as they had been identified as major sources of information for the hearing-impaired in the subject.

The association made the call during a forum in Accra to share findings on a research work on “SRP Health Gap analysis with deaf people in Ghana”.

The event was to promote public discourse on how best the sexual reproductive health needs of the deaf community could be addressed.  

The research work was conducted by the GNAD and funded by Amplify Change.

It aimed to analyse gaps with deaf people in Ghana and improve sexual reproductive health information and services for the deaf and hard of hearing people in the country, with a component on menstrual hygiene management for adolescent girls in residential schools for the deaf.

The research was implemented in the Upper West, Northern, Upper East, and Eastern regions, sampling 408 deaf people, made up of 180 males and 228 females.

Use of contraceptives

A Professor with the Department of Health Promotion and Disability Studies at the School of Public Health of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Wisdom Kwadwo Mprah, said the research revealed that 56 per cent of deaf people sampled did not use contraceptives, although about the same percentage were sexually active, while only 27.9 used contraceptives.

He said 69.1 per cent were in a relationship, while 26.7 were not in a relationship.

Prof. Mprah also said that the majority of the respondents accessed information on sexual reproductive health from health providers, teachers, family and friends.

Other sources included posters, magazines, durbars, social media, television and films, among others.

SRH services

The National President of GNAD, Mathew Kubachua, expressed the hope that the dissemination of the findings would draw the necessary attention and subsequently find solutions to the challenges faced by deaf people in terms of accessing sexual reproductive health services.

The Programmes Manager of GNAD, Seidu Musah Akugri, also said that there was limited national data on sexual reproductive health challenges specific to the deaf community.