First Lady Samina Alvi on Thursday, stressing the importance of rehabilitation services, said their scope needed to be extended to differently-abled persons.
She was speaking at the closing ceremony of the preparation of the Strategic Action Plans for the promotion of rehabilitation services in Pakistan.
The five-year comprehensive and inclusive action plan is being developed by the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination, provincial health departments, World Health Organization, and ReLaB-HS at the levels of federal and provincial governments, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
Begum Alvi said rehabilitation services played an important role in the health sector and helped the people suffering from illness, accident or disability, return to normal lives. She mentioned that the scope of rehabilitation services should be extended to all the people, including the persons with disabilities.
“These services”, she said, “include paying attention to speech and occupational therapy, and vocational rehabilitation, including the provision of assistive technology.
She said differently-abled people constituted 10 to 12 percent of the country’s population and could play a positive role in the society if provided with assistive technology, rehabilitation services and access to mobility.
She emphasized raising awareness in the society to mainstream the differently-abled persons and end their deprivation by providing them equal rights and services.
Samina Alvi termed disability a global public health issue, which, she said, required a positive approach by the society to accommodate such people through skilled education and job opportunities.
She called for a national campaign to make aware the differently-abled persons and their parents about the special job quota at the federal and provincial levels.
She also urged the private sector to provide jobs to such people to make them useful members of the society.
Head of Mission WHO Dr Palitha Mahipala appreciated the First Lady for spearheading national awareness campaigns on breast cancer, and rights of persons with disabilities.
He emphasised the need for embedding the rehabilitation services into the healthcare system and improving the people’s access to them. He said that every person needed rehabilitation services to avoid further complications and recovering quickly after treatment.
WHO’s Technical Advisor Pauline Kleinitz informed the audience that the rehabilitation “optimises function and helps the people perform daily activities, besides improving the quality of life”.
She said that as per estimates, there were 2.4 billion people or one-third world population with health conditions who could benefit from rehabilitation.
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