Health enhancement strategy launched
A national strategy to enhance health and lifestyle seeking behaviours has been launched in Accra.
It is aimed at improving quality of health promotion services at all levels through effective collaboration and partnerships.
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The National Health Promotion Strategy 2022–2026 also seeks to improve health promotion through an all-inclusive approach that leverages efforts and resources to sustain impact.
Strategy
The strategy was launched by the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service in Accra yesterday on the theme: “Promoting healthcare planning for healthy lives: Where healthcare systems meet healthy behaviours”.
The theme resonates with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3, which charges member states to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”.
The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said the launch of the strategy was a major step towards ensuring a road map to realise the integration of demand generation, behavioural change and health service delivery.
“When effectively planned and implemented, we will see measurable improvement in key health indicators to ensure a healthier society,” he added.
According to him, individual and group behavioural change was a critical element in any health programme and system.
“We know that using modern family planning methods for safe sex has a demonstrable impact on families and communities, as it spaces births and prevents sexually transmitted diseases.
“Healthy eating, diets and the incorporation of nutrient-rich foods can reduce the impact of non-communicable diseases, such as heart diseases, diabetes and obesity. They are also critical to the nutritional needs of children under five who need healthy and nutrient-rich diet to grow and develop,” he said.
Similarly, the minister said, the implementation of public health directives, such as hand-washing with soap under running water, the use of face masks, social distancing and vaccination, was a social and behavioural change intervention that enabled the country to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 and emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
The Director of the Health Promotion Division of the GHS, Dr DaCosta Aboagye, said the strategy also sought to build healthy public policy, create supportive environments, strengthen community action, develop personal skills and reorient health service workers.
USAID support
The USAID Mission Director, Rosen Kimberly, said Health promotion was at the heart of healthy living.
She said it informed people of what they could do to stay healthy and also targeted factors in the community which influenced well being.
“Health promotion also enables people to increase control over and improve their health by giving them the required knowledge, tools and skills they need to make healthy decisions.
“The launch of this new strategy marks years of collaboration and cooperation between Ghana and the development partners, including the USAID and UNICEF. We are proud to have supported the GHS to finalise this strategy over the past year,” Ms Kimberly added.
According to her, about 75 per cent of illnesses in the world could be prevented through health promotion, saying: “As the name implies, the strategy we have launched should guide our next steps, and it is also a tool that will come to life each day, a blueprint for health promotion officers - down at the community level.”
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