Dr Amma Benin, Head of the Paediatric Department, International Maritime Hospital (IMaH), has advised that children with Down Syndrome should be helped to develop their potentials.
‘They are an important part of our society and should not be ignored or disciminated against,’ Dr Benin said, and called for more specialised schools to be built for them.
She said it was time for corporations and philanthropists to join forces to establish training institutions or foundations for people with Down syndrome.
Dr Benin made the remarks during the weekly ‘Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility,’ a Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting health-related communication and providing a platform for health information dissemination to influence personal health choices through improved health literacy.
The Tema Regional Office of the Ghana News Agency created the public health advocacy platform ‘Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility’ to examine the aspects of four health communication approaches: informing, instructing, persuading, and urging.
Speaking on the topic of the 2023 World Down Syndrome Celebration, ‘With Us, Not For Us,’ Dr. Benin stated that it sought to remind the entire community that individuals with Down syndrome needed to be a part of the work done to give them the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.
She added that the families’ unity might serve as a support mechanism for them to share ideas on how to care for their kids and other pertinent information.
She went on to say that the Autism Society of Ghana was started by a parent of a kid with the illness and that in order for society to be properly aware of Down syndrome, their families needed to take the first move.
She warned against stigmatizing families or parents with Down syndrome, stating that it could happen to anyone at any time.
She said depending on their intelligence quotient (IQ), certain children would be unable to attend a conventional school, emphasizing that the government must establish such training schools in all regions for children with special needs.
Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Regional Manager of Ghana News Agency Tema, explained that ‘Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility’ is part of a collaborative effort to establish a means for the dissemination of health information in order to influence individual health decisions by increasing health literacy.
He added that it also aims to leverage the Ghana News Agency’s and medical experts’ communication skills to inform the public that everyone’s health is important and should be a top concern.
He said the weekly health debate platform would also be used as a beneficial channel of communication for health specialists to inform the public on healthy behaviours and other general health concerns.
Source: Ghana News Agency