QINGHAI, CHINA - People with disability living in rural areas face significant barriers in accessing health services. The WHO Collaborating Centre for Rehabilitation at The Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation is supporting people with disabilities to fulfil their potential and live meaningful and active lives in their own communities. The centre supports access to appropriate rehabilitation services in county hospitals and in communities.
The centre trains local community workers on home visit skills, rehabilitation skills and the concept of community-based rehabilitation. The centre also facilitates referrals between community and provincial-level rehabilitation services. The centre further procures and provides assistive devices and livelihood training to local community workers, including home modifications to fit the needs of people with disability.
The story of Mr Ding Yong Shun shows how the centre's work is making a difference. Mr Ding is an artist and enjoys working on his computer. He has limited mobility and was confined to a bed made of cardboard with a hole for his toilet needs. When the hole was not in use, it was covered with another layer of cardboard and blankets. These were sometimes soiled and were changed infrequently.
The WHO collaborating centre trained local community workers to teach Mr Ding's family members care-giving skills and also requested the workers to make regular home visits to monitor the progress. The centre also provided a medical nursing bed to Mr Ding and taught him self-care and sought resources and channels to help Mr Ding sell his drawings.
Through these interventions, Mr Ding has gained more confidence and is now earning an income for his family. Mr Ding and his family now have more chances to interact with other people, including community workers. Together, Mr Ding, his family and the community workers can better understand support needs. Community workers are also more confident after the training and their rehabilitation knowledge and skills have improved. They are now eager to work better to help people with disability more. The centre has also established communication and supporting mechanisms between community workers and hospital rehabilitation staff to ensure ongoing follow-up and support.