A Speech and Language Therapy Clinic has been launched and opened at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. The clinic will provide speech and language evaluations and treatment for children.
It will also provide anyone who needs speech, receptive and expressive language, social language, stuttering, voice, or other communication disorders, as well as feeding and swallowing evaluations and treatment for children who have difficulties with problems in this area.
The clinic will serve the five regions of the north. In low and middle-income countries, such as Ghana, communication disability is poorly recognized and rehabilitation services for people with communication disability are limited.
As rehabilitation services for communication disability develop, and the profession of speech-language pathology grows, it is important to consider how services can most appropriately respond to the needs and preferences of the community.
Being the first in the northern sector, the clinic will serve the people in the five regions of the north. The Speech and Language Therapy unit is commissioned by Board Chairman Operation Smile Ghana, Subhi Accad and Swedis Post Lottery.
Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah is a consultant plastic Surgeon and Director of the National Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Center at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and he explains the importance of the clinic. Chief Pharmacist of Northern Region, Dr Dominic Korsah on behalf of the Region’s Director of Health Services reveals one of the neglected areas of modern healthcare is the area of speech and language therapy and the clinic will be a center of excellence for the entire nation.
Director of Medical Affairs at TTH, Dr Adam Atiku has commended Operation Smile Ghana for commissioning the Speech and Language therapy clinic.
According to him, ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages remains a key prior agenda of the Hospital. He says the speech and language therapy will not only serve the northern but the entire five regions of the north.
The director has however assured proper care of the clinic adding that it will be used for its intended purpose. A speech Therapist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital Desmond Lamptey further indicates the clinic will reduce the cost parents used to incur in traveling far distances to access such special healthcare.
”The commissioning of this clinic will save many parents a lot of money in assessing speech and language therapy for their children, and with this intervention it will go a long way to improve healthcare in the region”, he says.
Source: Ghana/Tamale/zaanews.com/Lilian D. Walter