By Loveth Obiora,
Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) on Tuesday 17th to Thursday 19th November , 2020 in Abuja organized a three day training workshop on disability inclusive service delivery for healthcare service providers, as part of activities under her “making it work” project funded by Oxfam Voice Nigeria.
The executive director, DRAC Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu in her opening speech appreciated the health workers in attendance. She emphasized that Persons With Disabilities(PWDs) are an integral part of the society so it is important to understand the challenges they face in the society especially in health care services, and when they can’t access those services it becomes discrimination. She also said that just as disabilities are diverse, so also are the challenges they experience, for instance, the experience of a blind woman trying to access healthcare will be quite different from that of a deaf girl; this is why DRAC is working with service providers to understand the challenges PWDs face especially women and girls because they are most neglected and face multiple challenges in the entire healthcare continuum.
Speaking further, she said that the three day training workshop, they would be looking at the concept of disability inclusion and disability inclusive service delivery, how it should be practiced and the role of service providers in ensuring that PWDs especially women and girls comprehensive access to healthcare services.
Dr.C.C Ugboko from Federal Ministry of Health in his goodwill message appreciated DRAC, the health workers. He said that being in the workshop was for fulfilling his role as a health worker and the duty he owes PWDs. He stated that UN convention on rights of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD) recognized that every member country should put in place policies that will enhance health care service delivery for PWDs especially women and girls. This prompted the Federal Ministry of Health in 2017 to work with DRAC to develop the national policy on sexual and reproductive health rights for PWDs with emphasis on women and girls. The policy has enjoyed wide dissemination even down to state levels and was optimistic that this training would help in disseminating the policy as well as the knowledge they would gain. He stated that the Federal ministry of health is looking forward to continued collaboration with DRAC and other civil society organizations in providing technical aid so that issues of PWDs would be properly taken care of.
The Executive Secretary of National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Mr. James Lalu in his goodwill message appreciated the health workers and informed them that the program is important for PWDs because health is wealth. He urged them to see a PWD as a person and not the disability in them. He also said that inclusion start from the heart because the attitude of the health workers makes it impossible for most PWDs to access the health care services. He informed them that PWDs have been experiencing challenges in the society and he expressed hope that at the end of the training, the health sector will embark on training of health workers in urban and rural communities in order to extend the education to other health workers in matters affecting PWDs.
Other goodwill messages came from the Executive Secretary Health and Human Services secretariat, the General manager Hospitals Management Board and the Director, FCT Primary Healthcare development Agency.
The Executive Director, DRAC Dr. Irene during her technical presentations, outlined the definition of disability where she differentiated between impairment and disability; she also used case studies to buttress the learning points. She further spoke about the types of disability, statistics, models, barriers and legal frameworks and some states that have passed the disability law, appropriate terminologies /etiquette and National Policy on Sexual and Reproductive health right of persons with disabilities with emphasis on women and girls.
On the second day of the workshop, participants were taken through the sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls with disabilities, the challenges of women and girls with disabilities in the society, understanding the meaning of disability inclusion, disability inclusive service delivery (DISD), the key element of DISD, practical approaches to DISD and the roles of DISD. Participants also role-played scenarios on how to make their services disability inclusive.
Finally, on day three, participants were grouped into 3 groups to work on practical ideas for improving health service delivery for PWDs especially women and girls with disabilities. The ideas were judged on the 2 criteria of simplicity and ease of implementation. Group 2 won with an idea titled “Establishment of disability inclusive service delivery in Nyanya general hospital”. This group was able to meet the criteria and got the highest number of votes which won them a modification fund of 1.5 million naira to help implement their ideas for making their facility a model disability inclusive healthcare facility. The idea is expected to be executed between December 2020 to March 2021.
In closing participants vowed to take the message down to their facilities and collaborate with DRAC to make their services inclusive.
Participants at the training included doctors and nurses from the SRHR units of general hospitals and primary healthcare centers across the six area councils of FCT.
Some pictures of the event:
