To create awareness among health professionals and community regarding independence in disabled by multi-disciplinary rehabilitation team, Institute of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Dow University of Health Sciences arranged a program to highlight the importance of World Disabled Day today at Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Karachi.
Dr. A. Moed Kazi of Ziauddin University speaking as a chief guest on the occasion said that World Disabled Day is celebrated in order to highlight the importance and rights of patients with functional limitations. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation desire to let the world know that rehabilitation intervention can make world of difference in lives of disabled sector of society making them independent inspite of disabilities. However, at the local level, there are no specific departments or institutes responsible for persons with disabilities.
Moreover, the belief that persons with disabilities are a social burden and a curse on the families lead to the misunderstanding of disability, thus preventing people from obtaining appropriate information and disability management. Since employment opportunities for persons with disabilities are limited, they are also a financial burden on their families.
Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is doing a lot of work but still we have to go a very long way to achieve our goal, he added.
Dr. Nabeel Soomro, Director, Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation speaking on the occasion said that persons with disabilities in Pakistan are the most marginalized group who faces overwhelming barriers in education, skills development and daily life. They also face multiple social, economic, physical and mental problems hampering their freedom of movement in society. These barriers include stigmatization and misunderstanding of the abilities and aspirations of persons with disabilities.
There is also a pronounced lack of data, rules regulations, rehabilitation centers, mainstreaming and specialized services for persons with disabilities, she added. In Pakistan, no single ministry or federal department deals with issues related to disability. There is only one ministry for social welfare, women development and special education, which partially touches upon person with disabilities issues.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), or Physiatrist is a branch of medicine dealing with functional restoration of physical or mental disability. In Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, diagnosis and treatment of people with different types of disabilities, ranging from sports injuries, low back pain to serious neurological injury such as spinal cord injury stroke and brain injury are carried. Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Dow University of Health Sciences offers multidisciplinary rehabilitation management with physical modalities, prosthesis and orthosis, manual therapies and therapeutic exercise to improve lost functions. Our goal is to design individually tailored program for every disabled with help of multidisciplinary rehabilitation team. Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation team works together as a multidisciplinary team that includes physiatrists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, prosthetists & orthotists, speech therapists, recreational therapists, neuropsychologist, social workers special educators and nurses. The team ensures that patient needs are met and he/she is independent in society inspite of his / her disability.