By Irfana Husen, Audiologist and Speech Language Therapist, District Disability Rehabilitation Centre, Mysuru

International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) is annually observed on Dec. 3 and the day is about promoting the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities at every level of society and to raise awareness of the situation of such persons.

The District Disability Rehabilitation Centre (DDRC), Mysuru, was started as an outreach activity under the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Department for the Empowerment of Differently-abled and Senior Citizens with Indian Red Cross Society, Mysuru Chapter.

An inclusive response to the COVID-19 pandemic is needed to ensure that children with disabilities are not further left behind in attaining basic skills. Considering this, the DDRC initiated and provided various services like speech therapy, physiotherapy, oromotor exercises, parent counselling, awareness programmes and distribution of aids and appliances.

Speech therapy

The pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions to children’s learning activities. With the majority of centres in Mysuru being closed, many children with disabilities have been forced to continue their learning remotely.

Children with disabilities are less likely to benefit from distance and online learning solutions. Many lack support, internet access and accessible software and learning materials.

During this situation, DDRC staff started online classes (video call / regular calls) and speech therapy sessions were carried out for more than 46 children with disabilities per week. Constant counselling was done to parents on how to encourage children and minimise communication gap.

Through this most children built good rapport with the parents and could get a good response for tele-practice. This programme was recorded and a therapy plan was implemented.

Post-lockdown, many parents were rigid to visit the DDRC for therapy. A good amount of counselling, home visits and continuing tele-practice were done. Awareness programmes on “how to focus on speech therapy during lockdown” were done to parents and family members.

Intervention-inclusive education

Children with special needs need to have different programmes to enrol and retain them in schools. Our goal is to reduce the gap in enrolment, retention, completion rates and achievement level of children with disabilities. Our first step to achieve this was to conduct an awareness programme for special educators.

An orientation  session was given to more than 30 special educators about identifying various disabilities, managing and therapy options for school going children with disabilities. The second step was to plan therapy camps and Taluk-wise camps have been scheduled and the DDRC team is working on it post-pandemic.

Physiotherapy

Special children are prone to fall sick often due to their low immune system. To overcome this, parents should be mentally stable enough to look after their children, so their mental health is a priority. Counselling was given to parents regarding this through tele-practice.

Exercises focused mainly on below 5 years children as these kids will be having more progressive levels. Parents are instructed to follow the exercise taught by a physiotherapist at the centre and many other exercises were taught through diagrams and made videos for the easy following by the parents at home.

Rehabilitation counselling

Rehabilitation counsellors are referred to as disability counsellors because they help people with mental or physical disabilities live independently in a larger community. Counsellors can enhance their understanding and knowledge of issues relevant to the needs of persons with disabilities and their family members by learning about the various forms of personal and social barriers they often encounter.

DDRC faculty Psychologist- cum-Counsellor M. Neelamani played a vital role here. Apart from counselling, she worked with children who have sensory issues by providing activities like gross motor skill training, attention development training, daily activities skill training, fine motor skill training, socialisation skill training, stimulation therapy, reading and writing skill training, oral motor training and eye movement developmental training.

Social welfare activities

DDRC staff completely engaged with medical practitioners to provide vaccination for differently-abled persons. Our team members with Indian Red Cross Society were involved in providing masks, sanitisers and food kits for the tribal areas in Sollepura of H.D. Kote and around 70 families benefited.

Our team also visited remote areas and carried out one to one counselling, trained exercise, speech therapy and oromotor exercises. Approximately 58 children benefited.

Need for jobs

DDRC team took the initiative in providing jobs for 300 persons with disabilities in various private companies and malls, BPO, security agencies and in other NGOs. Job orientation training programmes like computer courses, paper bag making, mobile and electronic gadget repair training, spoken English courses etc., have helped many to get jobs. Over 250 persons have benefited.

Team work

Under Anti Naxal Force, Karkala Beechanahalli Camp, Forest Department, Revenue Department, Education Department, Health Department, Department for Empowerment of Differently-abled and Senior Citizens, District Disability Welfare Officer G. Malini with DDRC staff arranged camps for tribal areas of H.D. Kote.

The places included D.B. Kuppe, Henbeguru, Veeranahosalli, B. Matkere and Koppa. Over 649 persons were assessed for various disabilities and Unique Disability ID (UDID) cards and other aids and appliances were distributed at their places. A total of 21 camps have been organised where 2,709 persons with disabilities were enrolled for UDID cards and 2,190 UDID cards were approved.