‘They are one of us’: How disability training affects health workers' attitudes and actions towards disabled people in Ghana

Introduction

Health workers negative attitudes and stigma are often reported as one of the greatest barriers for disabled people to access healthcare. Interventions have been developed in response, and preliminary results often show promising effect on changing health workers' negative attitudes. However, this does not include longer-term, qualitative follow up to explore how health workers change their behaviour post-intervention.

Methods

This qualitative study examined trainees perspectives on a disability training implemented in Ghana in 2017 and 2021. Interview participants had taken part in at least one training session in the Northern, Savannah, or Greater Accra Region. Semi-structured interviews (n = 32) were conducted, transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically.

Results

Five key themes were identified relating to i) individual and ii) community and system level change. These included: 1) Awareness raising to address stigma and human rights; 2) Prioritisation and positive discrimination; and 3) healthcare workers can be empowered to challenge social norms; 4) Disability training should reach the broader community and 5) Accessibility interventions should compliment training.

Discussion

There are several positive features of providing disability training to health workers and expanding the scope of the intervention to focus on other community leaders and features of an accessible health system. While this helps demonstrate the need to expand disability training for health workers, further research is needed to demonstrate disabled peoples' perspectives on the changes they experience in their care after health workers’ training.