WHO supported the training of 10 primary health-care workers in the Kakheti region of Georgia on the provision of walking aids, using WHO’s Training in Priority Assistive Products (TAP). TAP aims to equip community-level personnel working in any context to safely and effectively provide a range of simple assistive products. The 3-day course was run in partnership with Ken Walker International University of Georgia.
WHO estimates that, globally, over 1 billion people need 1 or more assistive products. The majority of them are older people, people with disabilities and people with noncommunicable diseases. Function declines in multiple areas as people age, including among those with disabilities or illnesses, and the need for assistive products increases accordingly.
Assistive products include wheelchairs, hearing aids, crutches, shower chairs and spectacles. Such products enable people to live healthy, productive, independent and dignified lives. They also help to reduce the need for long-term care and the work of caregivers. Without assistive products, people may suffer exclusion and be at risk of isolation and poverty.
Ensuring effective provision of assistive products
Last year, a household survey found a high need for assistive technology in Georgia. Out of 6865 respondents, 37% expressed a need for at least 1 assistive product, but more than half of them did not have the products they needed. The unmet need was also high for relatively simple assistive products such as crutches or walkers.
Trained personnel are essential to ensure the effective provision of assistive products. Proper assessment, fitting, user training and follow-up are essential. Without these 4 key steps, assistive products are often of no benefit or are abandoned, and may even cause physical harm and extra health-care or welfare costs. Training supports existing primary health care to expand its scope of practice to effectively provide a range of basic assistive products.
“A qualified team from WHO and Ken Walker Clinic provided us with so many needed skills and competencies in order to improve our patients’ lives and their well-being. This kind of training needs to be intensified and scaled up to include more health professionals,” said Khatuna Agladze, a primary health-care professional from the Kakheti region.
This training is part of a pilot initiative to test a 1-stop assistive technology service provision model, which aims to increase access to a variety of assistive products.