Disability and Rehabilitation: Kep, Cambodia
A 30 year history of violent civil conflict has left Cambodia with a
significant number of people with disabilities. In response,
the
government of Cambodia has set long-term goals to develop, implement
and manage a national strategy for the prevention of disability and for
the rehabilitation of the disabled, based on an integrated
participatory and decentralised approach to service delivery. Although
these actions for Cambodia’s disabled population are
promising,
service coverage remains fragmented and uncoordinated throughout the
many regions of Cambodia, with little data available on the disability
prevalence of rural regions throughout the country. This is
particularly true for Krong Kaeb (the Kep municipality).
The city of Kep is located on the Gulf of Siam, bordering Kampot
province to the west and Vietnam to the east, is a relatively small
administrative area with a population of approximately 34 000 people
scattered among 18 villages. Despite its size, all levels the health
care system are present, with one referral hospital and three health
centers, along with a central health administrative office. It is
currently unknown what proportion of the Kep population is disabled or
in need of rehabilitation services.
The purpose of this project is to provide
government and
non-government decision makers with evidence-based information to
implement appropriate programmes for the disabled people of the Kep
municipality. In turn, this will provide appropriate disability
interventions and services that are sustainable and community
specific. Furthermore, this project will assist the promotion
of
the rights of peoples with disabilities to live as equal citizens
within the community, to enjoy health and well being, to participate
fully in education, social, cultural, religious, economic and political
activities.
Objectives:
1) To gather, produce and disseminate
information from the residents of Kep regarding:
• Current rehabilitation
services and resources
available to the Kep municipality and the surrounding area (includes
the provinces of Takeo, Kampot and Krong Preah Sihanouk, in addition to
the capital city of Phnom Penh)
• Prevalence of physical,
sensory and intellectual disabilities
• Attitudes, values and beliefs
regarding disability
• Community opinion regarding
how best to provide rehabilitation services
2) To recommend appropriate disability interventions and services based
on the results of purpose 1, which will benefit the disabled community
of Kep (and their families), the Kep community at large, the Kep
municipal government, the Cambodian Ministry of Health and national and
international non-government organisations working with disabled
Cambodians.
This project will be undertaken in partnership with the Centre for
International Health (University of Toronto) that is currently
developing a Primary Health Care model in the Kep municipality.
In order to achieve the above objectives, the Cambodian Working Group
of the ICDR proposes to send one Physiotherapist (PT) and one
Occupational Therapist (OT) to the Kep region to conduct the needs
assessment. In addition to the information gathering, it will
be
necessary to conduct several community workshops regarding disability
and rehabilitation in order to provide preliminary intervention to
those Kep residents in need of rehabilitation. The exact nature of
these workshops will be established in-country by the rehabilitation
team (PT and OT).
Estimated Time Frame to complete the above project: 8 weeks
Estimated Budget to complete the above project: $15 000 CAD
It is hoped that this project will provide a foundation of disability
intervention that is sustainable and specific to the Kep community and
that it may also be modelled by other remote regions of Cambodia facing
similar challenges.
