Executive Summary

This report provides an overview of the state of HIV/AIDS in Accra and Cape Coast, Ghana, where HIV rates are on the rise, despite new prevention and control methods. Ghana has a low-level HIV epidemic with a 1.7% prevalence rate (Ali et. al, 2019). The key populations that are most impacted by HIV/AIDS are adolescent girls and young women under the age of 15 years (.9%), female sex workers and their clients (6.9%), men who have sex with men (18.1%), people in prisons and other closed settings (2.3%), people who inject drugs, people who identify as transgender, and serodiscordant couples, which is when one partner is HIV-negative and the other is HIV-positive (Ali et. al, 2019). These prevalence rates are disproportionately higher than the national average. Limited education and access to healthcare are major barriers to care and are the main focus of the projects worked on.

Child Family Health International (CFHI), is a non-profit, global health education organization that has partnerships with many health organizations in Ghana. The two that will be discussed later in the report include the Princess Marie Louise Children’s Hospital (PMLCH) and Planned Parenthood Organization in Ghana (PPAG). Accra is the capital and is a large city, while Cape Coast is much smaller in population size and more rural. Identifying social determinants of health (SDOH), such as education and economic stability, helped shape the project and barriers to address.

This Graduate Project had five specific goals, with several objectives that were met to address specific foundational and community competencies. These included planning and management to promote health, communication, describing factors that influence the process by which people learn, and designing goals and objectives that guide health promotion and evaluation plans. Two deliverables were developed and reviewed by the site supervisor. The first one was the development of a Grant Proposal Draft, which was a comprehensive project and funding proposal to cater for the needs and expectations to improve the HIV/AIDS Special Clinic at a local hospital. The second project was an Injectable PrEP PowerPoint Presentation for policymakers to review on whether the new Injectable Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) should be implemented as a new HIV prevention method in Ghana.

This Graduate Report also includes an integrative analysis that reflects on knowledge acquired throughout the internship within the context of the competency areas including evidence-based approaches, health systems, planning and management, policy, leadership, communication, interprofessional practices, and systems thinking. Some recommendations include leveraging additional partnerships, especially local organizations, providing hands-on approaches to receive quantitative and qualitative data in real time among community members, and engaging in additional professional development training sessions.