The Survey of Needs of People with Disability in the Upper East Region

Location          :Navrongo - Ghana

Investigators  :Dr. Alex Nazzar, Mr. Ayaga Bawah, Dr. Cornelius Debpuur, Dr. Fred Binka
                       Dr. Pierre Ngom, Mr. Phillip Adongo, Mr. Ernest Kanyomse and Mr. Julius Ayuure

Collaboration   :The Department of Social Welfare (Accra)
                       Navrongo Health Research Centre

Funding             :The Norwegian Association of the Disabled (Oslo, Norway)

Period Covered:May 1998

 OBJECTIVES         SUMMARY          RESULTS

OBJECTIVES

This project aims at inquiring into the nature, extent, intensity, character and distribution of disabilities and conditions of work of persons with disabilities in the upper East Region. The objective is to generate some baseline information on the needs of persons with disabilities to facilitate the introduction of the Community Based Rehabilitation Programme as a credible national programme.

SUMMARY

Based on a random two-stage cluster sample of 4,340 compounds representative of the Upper east region and of each of its six districts, the study canvassed 9,275 households with a total population of 46,000 people. Data collection involved a census of all households with standardized algorithms to identify people living with disabilities. These individuals and their household members were in turn interviewed on the duration and type of disability, their daily living skills, their integration within their communities, services available to them, and the mail difficulties faced by their households.

RESULTS

The disability rate for the Upper East region is 5.5%. This rate is the same for ales and females. It is higher in rural areas (5.8%) as compared to urban areas (4.7%) and increases from 1.1% in the 0-5 years age group to 20.8% for people 50 years of age and older. Disability affects child development and growth and difficulties faced by households with people living with disabilities depend partially on the severity of the disability.