A state of the art Rehabilitation Department, in the compound of the New Amsterdam Hospital, is slated for its official opening today and according to Director of Rehabilitation Services, Mrs. Barbara Lawrence, it is a model for Guyana.

A view of the Rehabilitation Department in New Amsterdam.

She said, “The new facility is a model one in that it is one centre that offers all the rehabilitation services as it caters for an entire region. This is something that can be used a model to enhance Guyana’s health care.”

The centre’s opening is one of a week of activities to commemorate Rehabilitation Week, themed ‘Rehab: Evidence Based Action’.

To this end, the Rehabilitation Department Director noted that the introduction of the centre has countless benefits to the region’s people in need of the services.

“The primary benefit is that, with the expansion of services, health care will be bettered,” she posited.

Lawrence also expressed her appreciation to the National Insurance Scheme branch in New Amsterdam which, for over 20 years, housed the services of the Rehabilitation Department.

Rehabilitation Assistant demonstrating the use of equipment at the centre.

She said that the centre emphasises the pivotal role rehabilitation plays in the health sector and also fulfills the goal of rehabilitation service.

Rehabilitation Services’ goal is to ensure that persons with impairments and disabilities function to the maximum of their potential, which is to regain partial or full independence after illness or injury, reintegrating into society.

Rehabilitation Services include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and speech language therapy, all of which are being offered at the Region Six (East Berbice/ Corentyne) centre.

This is the provision of treatment to persons who may have some muscular or bone problem and may have muscle weakness, pain or swelling.

Treatment is by physical means, using heat, exercise for increasing muscle strength, endurance and range of emotion.

Physiotherapists assess motor skills and help those with movement difficulties. Their aim is to assess and then provide an exercise programme tailored to the individual’s needs.

In cases of cerebral palsy, the physiotherapist can plan and demonstrate a programme of exercises that will help to improve range of movement of joints that can be carried out by parents and care givers in the home or at school.

Occupational Therapy
Another service, occupational therapy, is the use a range of equipment and techniques to assist patients in activities ranging from dressing themselves, cooking, eating, or even using the computer. The aim is to ensure that patients can function effectively at home, work or leisure.

The occupational therapists are concerned with the practical skills needed for everyday living. They particularly assess children’s fine and gross motor control in relation to their ability to feed, wash and dress themselves, appropriate to their age.

Speech Therapy
With speech therapy, patient who have or are suspected of having speech, language, voice or fluency, or swallowing disorders are treated.

Speech therapists are concerned with all aspects of communication. They assess children’s hearing, speech and language, and check mouth and tongue movements. They prepare individual programmes of activities and exercises for children to help them acquire language and use speech, and they welcome teacher involvement in these programmes, since the exercises usually need to be done at least daily.

Children with cleft lip/palate, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment or a stammer are particularly helped by speech therapy.

Staff Support
To undertake these tasks, the Rehabilitation Department is manned by capable health workers, who include support staff, Ms. Tresha Sancho, an audiological practitioner; and Ms. Faith Campbell and Ms. Trevelyn Rowe, Rehabilitation Assistants.

Rehabilitation Assistants are a cadre of rehabilitation health workers specific to Guyana.

They are trained in various areas of rehabilitation over an 18 month period.

On completion of training, they can function in different settings within rehabilitation services, such as hospitals, health centres, schools and in some cases, in industry.

The Rehabilitation Assistant combines all of the above to provide a holistic approach to treatment.

In an invited comment, Rehabilitation Assistant Campbell explained that people visiting the centre do so based on referrals and as a result of public awareness raised by the centre.

The centre conducts its own screening process to determine and finalise the logistics surrounding what treatment is needed for the individual.

Afterwards the patient would return to the centre on designated days to receive treatment and retrieve a piece of their lives each time.

She noted that Counselling is also a part of the centre’s operations to encourage persons to address whatever their disability is, be it arthritis, recovery from a stroke or any other situation that puts them at a disadvantage.

To date, Campbell said, “The people’s response to the centre and its services has been very good.”