Ghana Somubi Dwumadie (Ghana Participation Programme)

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 UK aid from the UK Government. The programme is run by an Options’-led consortium, which also consists of BasicNeeds-Ghana, Kings College London, Sightsavers, and Tropical health, and focuses on four key areas:

1. Promoting stronger policies and systems that respect the rights of people with disabilities, including people with mental health disabilities
2. Scaling up high quality and accessible mental health services
3. Reducing stigma and discrimination against people with disabilities, including mental health disabilities
4. Generating evidence to inform policy and practice on the effectiveness of disability and mental health programmes and interventions

 In Ghana, people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions, experience widespread stigma and discrimination. This presents a major barrier which prevents them from equitably accessing health and social opportunities. Ghana Somubi Dwumadie worked across four key areas to provide an holistic approach to ensure that all people with disabilities and mental health conditions are engaged, empowered, and able to enjoy improved wellbeing, social and economic outcomes and rights.

What we have achieved

Under the programme, we supported the Mental Health Authority (MHA) to establish a Mental Health Review Tribunal and Regional Mental Health Visiting Committees in five regions (Ashanti, Central, Greater Accra, Upper East and Western) to ensure the human rights of people accessing mental health care.

We worked with  the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection to develop a roadmap for the implementation of the commitments made at the 2022 Global Disability Summit. This inclusive process brought together key stakeholders, including people with disabilities and mental health conditions, leading to the integration of key actions in the annual workplans and budgets of over 150 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies by mid-2023.

In 2020, we supported 271 self-help groups (SHGs) to re-open and operate safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. In following years, we worked closely with 32 of these groups, where 60% of the members were women, to train them in rights-based advocacy, facilitation and leadership skills, record-keeping, safeguarding, and COVID-19 protocols. This enabled the SHGs to operate safely, and enhanced their ability to engage with local government.

As part of the programme’s strategy to improve access to mental healthcare services, we facilitated the implementation of pilot district mental health care plans in Asunafo North, Bongo, and Anloga districts. We trained 84 healthcare workers from 15 health facilities and 87 Community Health Volunteers to detect and manage mental health conditions.

A pivotal aspect of the programme involved awarding grants to civil society organisations. These grants amplified their efforts in advocating for the rights of individuals with disabilities, fostering their participation in decision making processes, and social and behaviour change activities.

Overall we awarded 20 grants, providing funding and capacity building support. These grants provided COVID-19 psychosocial resilience support, helped to reduce stigma and discrimination against people with disabilities and mental health conditions, and strengthened the capacity of grassroots organisations.

The programme undertook and shared a number of important studies that contribute to the evidence base and inform policy and practice on the effectiveness of disability and mental health programmes and interventions. These include publications on situational analysis in pilot districts, healthcare facility baseline survey, research priorities, and papers with MHA on the supply of psychotropic medicines and an investment case for mental health.

For International Women’s Day 2022, the programme created this documentary that delves into the experiences of four Ghanaian women with disabilities, and what biases they want to be broken to minimise the hardships that women with disabilities have to contend with in this unequal world.