By
Julius K. Satsi, GNA
Accra, June 19, GNA – Pharmaceutical giant,
Johnson & Johnson has rolled out series of outreach in schools in Accra
aimed at creating awareness on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD),
which seems largely ignored by many.
At one of the beneficiary schools, Ridge
Church School, Dr Marilyn Marbell, a Medical Director of Missions Paediatrics,
enlightened teachers about the disorder and how they could be managed to bring
out their full potentials.
She explained that ADHD makes a child to lose
his/her ability to pay attention and also makes them hyperactive.
Children suffering from the condition become
impulsive and act without thinking out their intentions.
The education was part of Johnson and Johnson
Ghana Corporate Social Responsibility of ensuring that the knowledge gap on the
condition of ADHD was bridged for every child to achieve their full potential.
She said persistence of the symptoms – inattention,
impulsivity and hyperactivity in a child, causing problem at home and in school
could mean that he/she is suffering from ADHD, adding that, it is prevalent in
male children.
This condition, Dr Marbell said, is easily
diagnosed with children between the ages of one to 12 years, and that 7 out of
every 100 children had ADHD but added that, a research conducted in Kumasi
revealed that 1-5 out of every 100 children suffers the condition.
She noted that the disorder could be inherited
through drinking alcohol or smoking during pregnancy, and after birth brain
injury, Streptococcal infections.
She said it was important to diagnose and pay
attention to children with such a condition as it had the potential to distract
the child’s academic life, preventing them from achieving their full
potentials.
“It can even lead to depression in some of
these children,” she said, adding that, it was important to diagnose the
condition earlier for remedies.
She indicated that if the condition is
identified in a child earlier, it would help to prevent its related
consequences such as school dropout, anxiety, becoming anti-social, which
becomes a challenge to society.
Dr Marbell said the condition could be managed
through behaviour therapy and medication, and that there was no cure for ADHD.
She however, added that 40 per cent of
children with such condition would be well by the time they become adults if
they are diagnosed and managed earlier in life.
She urged them to have special attention for
pupils with the disorder and teach them management skills to help them make
better decisions in life since they had challenges with attention.
She said it was important that government and
other benevolent organisations joined the awareness creation on the condition
to secure the future of the country’s economic outlook.
Most of the teachers present at the
sensitisation programme said they had not heard anything about the condition
but had been noticing symptoms of the ADHD.
Rev Laud Gyampoh, a French Tutor and the
Chaplain of the School in an interview said, there had been some few children
with such conditions in the school, and the challenge he faced with one child
among those they were preparing for Basic Education Certification Examination
was regarded as disobedience on the side of the child, “little did we know that
it was a disorder”.
He commended Johnson and Johnson for the
initiative to create awareness on the subject, which was critical to the
transformation and sustainability of the child, saying, the awareness was going
to help in handling the pupils well.
Dr Fafa Addo Boateng, the Medical Affairs
Manager for Johnson and Johnson Ghana said the company undertook the disease
awareness programme to build the capacity of teachers, to help them identify
signs and symptoms of ADHD in children who possibly have the disorder and
support them to achieve their full potential.
She said Johnson and Johnson as the world’s
number one healthcare company, has mental health as one of its key priority
therapeutic areas. She added that the ongoing disease awareness project started
in 2016 and some schools and teachers in Accra and Kumasi have benefitted from
these sessions.
GNA