Publish date: 19 June 2024
Occupational Therapist Laura Tyndall swapped the North West for West Africa recently when she spent two weeks volunteering in Ghana, first at a community hospital in a fishing village, followed by a week at the main mental health hospital in the capital, Accra.
Shadowing doctors and psychiatrists, Laura was able to witness first hand how mental health is treated in a culture very different from the NHS.
She says, “One of the most memorable days was being tasked with finding clients who had been prescribed medications by the hospital. This was quite the task in a village with no road or place names, and the only address you have is, ‘Up the hill from the hardware shop!’
The hospital had capacity for 600 patients and excellent staff ratios meant each patient was cared for by three nurses. Unlike the UK, conditions such as enuresis, epilepsy and even migraine were all treated under the umbrella of mental health.
Laura says, “It was a privilege to spend time in a health system within a different cultural context to my own. And I was fascinated to learn how different social factors influence, the ‘Nature versus Nurture’ debate and the role of traditional versus contemporary medicine. I’m very grateful for the experience that was offered by the friendly people I met in Ghana and I’d recommend volunteering to anyone.
Would you be interested in following in Laura’s footsteps?
Information is widely available online from organisations who can help arrange international placements. Laura’s top tips:
- Make sure your visa is in place
- You need to be medically fit and be up to date with all necessary vaccinations for the country you are planning to visit
- You’ll also need to be prepared to live in quite basic accommodation and be prepared to deal with extreme heat
- Expect to be working somewhere where English is not the first language
- Be prepared for some things not to go to plan and learn to adapt around it.