Ad Adams Ebenezer, Executive Director of Stroke Association Support Network (SASNET) Ghana, shares news of the National Stroke Survivors Day held in Ghana on March 16th 2020 with the theme ‘Leaving No One Behind: calling for access to treatment, rehabilitation and support for people living with stroke in Ghana’.
Recent trends suggest that sub-Saharan Africa now bears the highest burden of stroke worldwide[1] and it is in this context that stroke support organisations such as SASNET Ghana campaign for better stroke services and provide preventive, rehabilitation and recovery support services to stroke survivors and carers.
SASNET Ghana and our partners welcomed the Third National Stroke Survivors Day 2020 with a call to leave no on behind in terms of access to treatment, rehabilitation and support for people living with stroke and their carers. The National Stroke Survivors Day is organised on an annual basis to raise public awareness about the prevention and treatment of stroke and to call for the rights of people living with stroke in Ghana.
Our priority advocacy messages of the day were for the Ghanaian Government to support the financial needs of stroke survivors and their families and to recognise the rights set out in the Global Stroke Bill of Rights. In addition SASNET Ghana highlighted the need for our rehabilitation and recovery activities in the community to be recognised and supported by the Government as part of its commitment to Universal Health Coverage and we called for the launch of the National Non Communicable Disease Strategy for the country.
In 2020 SASNET Ghana launched our programme to support people living with stroke, the Post Discharge Stroke Support (PDSS) programme. The PDSS is an online platform developed in partnership with another stroke support organisation, Stroke Focus. Stroke survivors and caregivers can register on the platform and will be signposted to a local SASNET stroke support group for support. Those that have registered will also receive a regular newsletter and information on topics such as managing fatigue, relationship and emotional challenges.
SASNET Ghana has seen first-hand that that many stroke survivors in Ghana leave hospital with no ongoing support from medical professionals. They arrive back in a community that often has little knowledge of stroke and how to support people managing the range of effects of stroke, including physical, emotional and cognitive.
This is the first programme of its kind in Ghana. SASNET Ghana is encouraging hospitals to signpost stroke survivors to us as they are discharged from hospital. Stroke survivors and carers are encouraged to register on SASNET Ghana’s website.
For more information:
www.care.sasnetghana.org
info@sasnetghana.org
[1] Sarfo et al (2018)
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