According to the IDF Diabetes Atlas 2nd Ed., Ghana has a diabetes prevalence of 3.3% of adults. Health care capacity to address the problem is, however, limited.Typically, diabetes care is available at the regional level. This implies that people with diabetes or people suspecting that they may have diabetes have to travel significant distances to access care.Also, the patient load in the few clinics is heavy, affecting the time available for counselling and treating individual patients and limiting the time allocated for diabetes education.The project seeks to raise awareness of diabetes and improve diabetes care in the Volta region of Ghana.
The project's overall goal is to help community members take on the responsibility to improve their own health and that of their family and community.In total, 20 diabetes care centres will be established in the target communities of the Volta region, with an average of 5 centres per year. The diabetes care centres will be set up outside the public health system, with ownership of the centres resting with the communities. The centres will be managed by community steering committees called Anti Diabetes Clubs.To ensure the link to and coordination with the public health system, the centres will submit quarterly reports to the District Health Management teams of the Ministry of Health.The centres will be staffed by community care providers (CCPs) recruited from the target communities. Typically, the staff would be retired health workers and nurses. Initially, each centre would have 3 CCPs attached. This number will be increased as the need arises.The role of the diabetes care centres is to:• Raise awareness of diabetes, risk factors and prevention• Provide care to people with diabetes• Offer diabetes and blood pressure screening• Counsel and educate people with diabetes, their relatives and risk groups• Conduct home visits• Refer complicated cases to district or regional hospitalsThe proximity of care is expected to enable early detection of diabetes. Also, the centres will improve the management of existing diabetes cases and thereby limit the number of severe complications.Revolving funds will be set up to ensure a continuous and reliable supply of essential drugs. The project assists the revolving funds with the initial capital, allowing them to procure the first batch of drugs. After that, they will be self-sustainable.
• 20 diabetes care centres were established• Outreach activities were implemented, and people with diabetes and the general population were reached across the Volta region, including through 180 community-level campaigns targeting towns and villages • Approximately 250,000 people were reached through these community-level campaigns during which risk-based screenings were undertaken to detect possible cases of diabetes and hypertension, they were then referred to the care centres for the proper diagnostic procedures and follow up