GHANA - ICPCN’S NATIONWIDE PALLIATIVE CARE TRAINING SERVICE
As part of a new initiative with long standing partners ICPCN we will be supporting the continued development of a children’s palliative care services in Ghana and West Africa.
The capacity building programme was set up in 2024 after an initial seed grant from the UK, and already in the first year the project has established training measures in colleges across Ghana for 120 health professionals, monthly interactive webinars (which have in total had nearly 2,000 participants), 26 clinical placements in Ghana and the UK as well as reviewing specialist trainings. They have established links to colleges and clinics across the country, including the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives to provide in-country specialist training on children’s palliative care.
ICPCN describes how in Ghana: the need for CPC education, mentorship and the development of a community of practice were clearly identified as priorities for health professionals working across the health system at community, district, regional and national levels. This also needs to be available across the country, not centralised in Accra. To date, there is only one specialist CPC consultant in Ghana, based at KATH.
On their website ICPCN describes how: there is a growing recognition of the worldwide unmet need for children’s palliative care (CPC) with over 21 million children globally needing access to palliative care, and 8 million needing specialised care.
The need for, along with accessibility to, palliative care for children varies around the world, and there is a growing recognition of the worldwide unmet need for children’s palliative care (CPC), with only between 5-10% having access to such care. Whilst a focus on the reduction in child mortality is appropriate, it is also essential that we address the unmet palliative care need to ensure that children around the world are not suffering from needless pain and other symptoms, with family members lacking the care and support that they need.
ICPCN identified a great need for capacity building of palliative services in the health-care system in Ghana. Through speaking with a number of health professionals they identified issues such as funding and an understand of palliative care. They made recommendations for the Ministry of Health, hospitals and service providers, researchers, donors and key stakeholders. They identified an aim that was already being pursued which is that: all children in need of palliative care in Ghana will have access to palliative care such that their quality of life will be improved and suffering reduced.
After the successful initial phases 1 and 2 the programme will continue with a grant from Krebsallianz through 2025-2026 and another donor. The aim of this phase will be to build strong foundations for the sustainable development of CPC across Ghana, developing a model that can be transferred to other countries and build a hub for CPC in West Africa.
ICPCN intends to extend the project through a number of objectives, 1. by making the webinars accessible to more health professionals, 2. integrate interdisciplinary training into clinics across Ghana by providing a “training of trainer’s”, 3. ensuring the sustainability of the project, programme as well as develop a module specifically on CPC, 4. Work closely with the Ghanian Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to support the strategic national plan and 5. Share experiences and disseminate findings via social media, ehospice platform, newsletters and their websites as well as publish two peer-reviewed journal articles to share within the scientific community.
