Ghana Somubi Dwumadie Provides 6 Oxygen Concentrators for Psychiatric Hospitals
Ghana Somubi Dwumadie’s MEL Advisor, Emmanuel Osei Mensah (right) presenting the oxygen concentrators to MHA CEO Prof. Akwasi Osei.
Ghana Somubi Dwumadie has presented six (6) oxygen concentrators to the Mental Health Authority (MHA) for the use of the three (3) main psychiatric hospitals in the country.
This follows commitments made by the programme in 2020 to the MHA to provide this equipment after its assessment of the Covid-readiness of the three hospitals during the initial outbreak of the pandemic.
Ghana Somubi Dwumadie (Ghana Participation Programme) is a four-year disability programme in Ghana, with a specific focus on mental health. This programme is funded with UKAid from the UK government. The programme is run by an Options’ led consortium, which also consists of BasicNeeds-Ghana, Kings College London, Sightsavers International and Tropical Health, and focuses on four key areas:
Promoting stronger policies and systems that respect the rights of people with disabilities, including people with mental health disabilities
Scaling up high quality and accessible mental health services
Reducing stigma and discrimination against people with disabilities, including mental health disabilities
Generating evidence to inform policy and practice on the effectiveness of disability and mental health programmes and interventions
Ghana Somubi Dwumadie is also undertaking a range of activities to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with disabilities, including mental health disabilities.
In September last year, the programme undertook a COVID-19 Readiness Assessment of the Ankaful, Pantang and Accra Psychiatric hospitals as part of the COVID-19 support from the programme. The readiness assessment revealed a number of core strengths at the hospitals. However, there were some areas needing further support, including the provision of equipment for handling cases or COVID-19 in case of an outbreak in the psychiatric hospitals.
Working alongside MHA and the psychiatric hospitals, Ghana Somubi Dwumadie agreed to procure two (2) oxygen concentrators for each hospital. Oxygen concentrators were selected instead of oxygen cylinders, since the former is more sustainable – it extracts oxygen from the air itself, making the supply more sustainable.
Presenting the equipment to the MHA at the Accra City Hall on Thursday, Team Leader of programme Lyla Adwan-Kamara, in a statement read on her behalf said:
“Ghana Somubi Dwumadie is really pleased to be able to support the three psychiatric hospitals with these oxygen concentrators.
“This will enable them to save the lives of mental health patients in light of any COVID outbreak in the hospitals, in the event of another wave of COVID-19.”