The African Health Foundation supports Rose Ananse Memorial Hospice Care (RAMHC), a registered charity located in Kumasi, a city in the Ashanti region of Ghana.
The Hospice provides emotional, psychological, physical and spiritual support to terminally ill patients in its catchment area. It works in close collaboration with the doctors and staff of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi and the Ministry of Health in Ghana. It also offers seminars and courses to health practitioners and other stakeholders and organisations in order to improve the quality of life for patients and their families - working with Ghana Baptist University College and Oxford Brookes University.
RAMHC seeks to provide care givers with a local point of contact, arrange community visits from trained staff, provide emotional support, and help with basic palliative care education. This provides relief to care givers to enable them to better support patients. The Hospice helps to reduce stress for patients, families and care givers – as well as reducing pressure on local hospitals and health services. Pain is often a primary issue to deal with for both the patient and their families, which RAMHC seeks to address through effective palliative care. This method of handling chronic illness is currently missing in Ghana.
End of life care in Ghana
Chronic and terminal diseases are on the increase in Ghana where many patients are not seen by the medical profession until they are at the very end of their life, even though most need support from a much earlier stage. Relatives are often under severe emotional pressure, and do not have the knowledge or resources to assist patients. In these circumstances care givers often transport patients, many in great discomfort, to a local hospital for assistance. But hospitals and local health services are usually under-resourced and ill equipped to provide the right level of care.
In 2015 the Economist Intelligence Unit published findings from a study of end of life care in 80 countries. For Ghana, EIU’s assessmentfound that “a range of structural flaws hinders the affordability and accessibility of Ghana’s palliative care services” specifically citing lack of research, coordination, workforce, training opportunities, funding, psycho-social support and public understanding.
Proper, community-based support is urgently needed to address the end of life care crisis in Ghana - and to ensure that families have the ability to cope with death with dignity and free from pain.
