The Ministry of Health has a new rehabilitation building in New Amsterdam and plans are in train to upgrade rehabilitative services countrywide.
In a press release the ministry outlined a number of activities it is pursuing in this field, as it observed Rehabilitation Week 2009 last week. The ministry said rehabilitation services will be upgraded at the Fort Wellington Hospital and services will be enhanced in Regions five and six. Rehabilitation services are currently available in nine of the ten regions with plans to soon provide this service in Region Eight, the release said.
According to the ministry it also expects seven new professional physiotherapists to join its staff this year after completing training in Cuba. Currently eight physiotherapists and 45 rehabilitation assistants are on staff and they are assisted by personnel from the Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and the Cuban Medical Brigade. The ministry also has an active training programme for rehab assistants and it expects to train another 50 in this profession over the next four years.
Additionally, the ministry said an orthotic technician and a prosthetic technician who were trained in Brazil are attached to the National Orthotic and Prosthetic Appliance Workshop at the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre. The centre provides services such as servicing and repairing hearing aids. The ministry also plans to establish a wheelchair repair shop at the Materials Management Unit where it hopes to hire a number of persons living with disability. It is also working with various partners to expand the teaching of Braille for the blind.
While there are no local professionals in the areas of occupational therapy and speech language therapy these services are provided by locally trained assistants with support from VSO and a Cuban. The ministry said too it expects the University of Guyana to start a BSc programme in rehabilitation for persons to specialize in this areas as well as physiotherapy, from September. The ministry is also negotiating with Dalhousie University in Canada to provide support for this programme.
Additionally, Dr David Samaroo, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Georgetown hospital will soon be attending a course in Sports Medicine in California. The release said the health and sport ministries and the Guyana Olympic Association are collaborating to boost rehabilitation medicine in Guyana.
It also said while a 2002 census found that about 4% of the population lives with disability it believes that the figure is much higher. The census revealed that about 43% of disabled persons are born with the disability and 57% had acquired it during their lifetime. Since then, the ministry has been working with the Disability Commission and the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security to establish a register of Persons Living with Disability.
It said too based on World Health Organisation estimates that about 10% of a population usually lives with some form of disability; the Guyana Census Report 2002 underestimated the disability population.
The ministry said its own estimates put that figure at about 7% of the population and the Disability Commission supports this estimate and has started a comprehensive register which it expects to be completed by year end.
