Continue From Friday Speaking at a health training workshop organised by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR) and Curious Minds, a media based youth organisation for journalists in Accra recently, Dr Amofah said the totality of health care provisions depended largely on many factors and not only the provision of health facilities and health […]
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Continue From Friday
Speaking at a health training workshop organised by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR) and Curious Minds, a media based youth organisation for journalists in Accra recently, Dr Amofah said the totality of health care provisions depended largely on many factors and not only the provision of health facilities and health care professionals.
“What needs to be done is to become champions of the fact that health does not only depend on hospitals and health professionals but it depends on the integrated actions of a number of multiplicity actors.
“It’s more on the focus of prevention of diseases and promotion of health and then as a last result, no matter what happens, you will fall sick and then the hospital will manage that,” Dr Amofah said.
Dr Amofah explained that primary health care became a bigger issue before the late 1970s after it was observed that there was inequality in the health status of the people leading to deterioration in the health of Ghanaians and that necessitated the mobilisation of integrated approaches adopted at the time to improving the health of people.
He said although that intervention really helped at the time, the focus had now shifted more into provision of mainly health facilities, which most politicians pride themselves in, leaving the core actions of preventing diseases and health promotion that would lead to behavioural change in the life styles of the people at the background.
He said the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme was also still related to curative health services and not the preventive that would allow people to just walk into a facility to check their health status to help prevent diseases like hypertension and diabetes which continue to increase.
Role of Journalists in PHC
Dr Amofa called on journalists to learn to become “medical journalists” who would strive to understand the issues of health holistically and help in efforts at informing and educating the public on health promotion.
He said since the media had a critical role to play in championing the tenets of primary health care, it would be important to partner practitioners in creating the needed awareness among the citizenry.
The Media could also be involved in the mobilisation of funds to bridge the resource gap and monitor events for accountability and evaluation purposes.
Dr Robert K. Mensah, a Consultant on Reproductive Health at the UNFPA, who also spoke at the training, said, in the provision of primary health care, community engagement was key in achieving higher results.
“People should be part of finding solutions to their health needs.
“Attitudes of people and communities must be influenced by leadership. We need to make communities and individuals be aware of what is wrong with them, what they are doing right or wrong and not only to sensationalise issues,” Dr Mensah told the journalists.
He said journalists needed to build their capacities in Medical journalism, which involves the dissemination of health-related information through mainstream media outlets.
He said when medical issues were widely reported, these reports influence physicians, the public, and the government as well.
“And therefore for journalists to avoid being criticised for being misleading, inaccurate, or speculative, personnel needed to be professional and precise.”
Dr Mensah, however, admitted that the availability of health information through accurate journalistic reportage was steadily increasing every year and had led to a variety of effects in the behaviours of recipients.
He said most inaccuracies and speculations in news coverage could be attributed to a number of barriers between the scientific community and the public that include: lack of knowledge by reporters, lack of time to prepare a proper report, and lack of space in the publication.
He advised journalists to ensure that they do evidence based reporting and get their terminologies right to enable them have a positive effects of the public.
In summary the major concepts that underlie the principles and philosophy of the original PHC Declaration are: Equity of access, Emphasis on prevention of Diseases and Promotion of Health, Integrated Quality Health Service Delivery, Appropriate technology, Holistic health, Social acceptability and community participation, Cost-effectiveness and affordability, Socio-economic development and health, Intersectional collaboration and team-approach as well as Political support.
“Under such a scenario it behoves governments and ministries of health, especially in developing countries, not to forget the principles and philosophies underlying the original PHC concept. Otherwise the mistakes of the past are bound to be repeated,” Dr Amofa noted.
Source: GNA
The post Prevention Of Diseases Through Primary Health Care appeared first on The Chronicle - Ghana News.
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