*3.3.5 The financial burden on a child with CP health care*

The study showed that the majority of the respondents are not able to access healthcare for their wards with CP as they spend a greater part of their income on *Access to Healthcare Services Among Children with Cerebral Palsy in the Greater Accra Region… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106684*

their child's health. Participants agreed that the healthcare needs of children with CP are a lot and most expensive. They stated that specialized services like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and special nutrition help to manage children with CP but these services are expensive and sometimes they find it difficult to access (**Figure 2**). However, some participants also specified that because of the expensive nature of specialized services they tend to do basic physiotherapy for their wards in their homes since they cannot keep up with the services in the hospitals. Participants were unanimous on how they spend so much money on both primary and secondary healthcare services for their children with CP and this discourages them from accessing healthcare services for their children with CP. Parents of children with CP all agreed that income level may influence access to healthcare services in either a positive or negative way depending on the kind of job a parent has (**Table 2**). The study revealed that access to healthcare services for children with CP is higher among parents with a higher income than those with a lower income. Some participants also stated that the kind of job one does determine the level of income.

#### **3.4 Transportation**

The study revealed that parents of children with CP do experience transportation problems and that discourages them from accessing healthcare services for their children with CP. All participants agreed that transportation is another factor that influences access to healthcare services. The majority of the participants stated that their means of transportation to the hospital is public transport (trotro, taxi, uber). All participants mentioned that transportation problems include access to public transport, transportation cost, and stigmatization in public transport.

Concerning access to public transport majority of the respondents agreed that most public transport designs are not accessible and friendly to children with CP. This makes it difficult for them to access public transport to a health facility. It was also revealed in this study that all respondents agreed there is no designated space for persons with disabilities inside public transport. This makes them feel very uncomfortable when using public transport to a health facility. Findings from this study showed that respondents who use public transport do not frequently access healthcare services for their children with CP as they are discouraged from all the hustle and frustration, they face from accessing public transport.

Some of the participants asserted that transportation cost to the closest health facility is expensive and, in most cases, uber or taxi drivers do not want to render services to them due to their children with disabilities. Participants also believed that commercial drivers (uber and taxi) charge them a higher cost because of their children with disabilities. The study found that passengers, conductors (mate), and commercial drivers (trotro) do stigmatize parents of children with CP when boarding a car to a health facility. Study participants specified that passengers do not want to sit by them with the belief that they will end up having a child with a disability and also bus conductors (mate) and commercial drivers (trotro) also ask them to pay for the entire seat or else they will not pick them up. This discourages parents from accessing healthcare for their children with CP.

Also, some respondents mentioned that stigmatization from passengers, bus conductors, and drivers do put them off sometimes and not access healthcare for their child with CP.
