SIHI Ghana at University of Ghana

School of Public Health, University of Ghana: Our mission is to initiate and promote social innovations in Ghana and West Africa through research, training, practice, advocacy and community empowerment to address challenges in health care delivery, whilst improving quality of care. Our vision is to integrate social innovations into health care delivery to increase Universal Health Coverage, and progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

The School of Public Health (SPH) at the University of Ghana was established in 1994, in response to a growing demand for a cadre of public health practitioners who will provide leadership in reforms in the country and beyond. SPH’s training provides competencies to health professionals so they can perform effectively at district, regional and national levels within governmental, quasi-governmental, non-governmental and private organisations. Over the years, the school has introduced new programmes as an effort at meeting the specialised skills needed for the transformation of the health sector. The philosophy of the school is ‘School of Public Health Without Walls’.

SPH believes that well-trained public health personnel will offer technical leadership in critical disciplines such as population, family and reproductive health, health informatics and e-health, environmental hazards and related-diseases, occupational health, epidemiology and disease control, social and behavioural sciences, health policy planning and management, as well as training research and planning and in the implementation of disease control programmes such as malaria, AIDs, non-communicable diseases and neglected tropical diseases.

The mission of SPH is to train public health practitioners who will be leaders and change agents for health development in Ghana in particular and in the wider African context. The vision is to promote knowledge and be lead advocates for needed public health reforms in the country.

OUR FOCUS

Guided by our core values of leadership, collaboration, innovation, passion and engagement, we aim towards the following objectives:

OUR ACTIVITIES

IDENTIFY AND RESEARCH

We aim to search, Identify and research into social innovations that affect the quality of health delivery in Ghana. We also seek, document, study and research into new innovations that will positively impact the healthcare delivery in the country. Our first crowdsourcing of social innovations at the University of Ghana was conducted in July 2020. We received 13 submissions from faculty members and students. Both faculty and students were excited about this initiative as it provided an opportunity for them to share their innovation solutions with a wider audience. Site visits and case studies for shortlisted innovations followed the crowdsourcing call.

In December 2020, we launched a nationwide call for social innovations where we received 12 submissions. These were subjected to in-house and external review processes in March 2021.

In July 2021, we organised a national dissemination and launch to recognise innovators from our two calls. This event was held at the University of Ghana. It was attended onsite by 30 people (restricted because of COVID-19) which included five innovators, researchers, policy makers and implementers, multinational development partners (UNICEF, WHO), and non-governmental organizations. Partners from the SIHI Network as well as local and global partners joined the event virtually. The event provided a platform to sensitize people about social innovations in health, recognise innovation, and link them to partners and institutions that could provide financial support for scale-up in line with SIHI Ghana’s goal.

Case study research

The team conducted a case study of one of the innovations recognize during the nationwide crowdsourcing call. The is a Non-governmental Organisation (MindIT Mental Health Services) founded in 2017 by Dr Atsu Latey, a Medical Practitioner. This innovation engenders Universal Health Coverage and promotes social inclusion by facilitating the provision of affordable and accessible mental healthcare to Ghanaians. In this project, people are sensitized to use a nationwide toll-free short code, * 713 * 66 #. This project leveraged on the high mobile penetration in Ghana. The service is also available in three local languages (Akan, Ewe, and Ga).

RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY DISSEMINATION

We received a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant from the Health Effectiveness Campaign Coalition (a global taskforce for global health) to conduct an innovative study which would help transition the point mass distribution of the Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Bednet Campaign into Ghana’s Primary Health Care System (Community-based Health Planning and Services Strategy. Through this research a nine-member team named Community Health Advocacy Team was formed in six communities across two regions (Volta and Eastern) in Ghana. The team planned and carried out social and behavioural change communication in the communities to encourage people to regularly sleep under bednet. These activities are in line with the hub’s overall goal of championing the creation and sharing of social innovations to help address existing health problems. All members of the hub participated in the study and community dissemination of the findings of the study which took place on 17-18 May 2022 (in Eastern region) and 23-24 of May 2022 (in volta region). The manuscript produced from this research has been accepted for publication in BMJ Open as part of SIHI BMJ Innovations Collection.

PROPOSALS FOR RESEARCH GRANTS

One of the key activities of the hub is to look for external funding for research through writing of proposals for grants. To achieve this, the team is collaborating with UNICEF and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to develop a proposal to be submitted to Medical Research Grant (MRC) in United Kingdom. This proposal is intended to train postgraduate students in implementation research in the area of child health. The plan is to incorporate social innovations in health into the training package for awardees of such scholarship scheme. The full draft is ready and being reviewed by partner institutions.

ADVOCACY AND AGENDA SETTING

We offer advocacy and initiate processes to make social innovation in health a national discourse for researchers, policymakers, and implementers.

PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH ON MALARIA PREVENTION AND CONTROL

We held a meeting in Accra in late 2022 with 20 selected stakeholders to discuss the adoption of the findings of its participatory research on malaria prevention and control. The meeting was attended by National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) Manager Dr. Keziah Malm, Deputy Programme Manager Incharge of Monitoring and Evaluation Dr. Nana Yaw Peprah, two Deputy Regional Directors of Public Health, two District Directors of Health, and other key partners in malaria control.

ABOUT US

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Phyllis is senior lecturer and the head of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon. Phyllis is the coordinator of the WHO/TDR African Regional Training Centre. She is an expert in health communication, and has extensive experience in teaching, research and in the provision of extension services in areas relevant to public health. She teaches and conducts social science research on gender, sex, maternal health, and HIV and AIDS within developing world contexts. Phyllis is the country leader for the SIHI Ghana hub.

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Emmanuel is a senior lecturer in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences of the School of Public Health in the University of Ghana. He is a trained clinical psychologist with immense experience in teaching, research and service. His area of research includes family health and social support systems, family initiatives on psychological well-being, adolescent mental health and growth.

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Kwabena joined the faculty of the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences of the School of Public Health in the University of Ghana as research fellow in 2006. He has a PhD in Public Health and has assisted in a number of research and consultancy activities undertaken by the School of Public Health that have contributed to improve existing or introduced new public health interventions.

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Phillip is a lecturer in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences of the School of Public Health in the University of Ghana. His research focus areas include social and behavioural aspects of communicable and non-communicable diseases, and implementation research.