The Helping Hands: rehabilitation equipment exchange project through social networking

Abstract

Disabilities occur when an individual is unable to participate in his or her normal day-to-day activities due to impairment that he or she has. World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability. This number is increasing due to an ageing population with spread of chronic diseases, as well as improvements in measurement of disability through research. World Report by WHO pointed out that disability increases globally, mainly due to stigma and discrimination; lack of adequate health care and rehabilitation services; and inaccessible transport, buildings and information. Therefore, to overcome this, WHO recommends governments and non-government organisations to provide people with disabilities access to all mainstream services, invest in specific programmes for those people with disabilities who are in need, and adopt a national disability strategy and plan of action. Community based rehabilitation is highly recommended by WHO to provide disabled individuals the accessibility they need to live a normal life, enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities (PWD) and their families by ensuring inclusion and participation. According to WHO, "CBR is implemented through the combined efforts of PWD, their families, organizations and communities, relevant government and non-government health, education, vocational, social and other services". One of the important tasks of CBR, is providing assistive technology to PWD. Assistive devices are essential as they significantly improve accessibility and optimise skills in daily living. However, assistive devices are costly and some are used for short period of time, as PWD need may change accordingly to the condition and impairment. This current project was initiated by members of the community through a social network, Facebook. Group of friends with children of special needs discussed the possibility of exchanging rehabilitation equipments. These equipment have not been used as their children have grown up, or their condition had improved or deteriorated causing the change in need. The Helping Hands was developed to reach out to families and PWD by providing new or used rehabilitation equipments (either by loan or through purchasing of equipment) to optimise their participation in daily living and subsequently improve their quality of life. At the moment, there are eight pieces of equipment in this group's collection. Number and demand of equipment is slowly increasing with the expansion of the outreach projects. The group is currently in the process of registering as a society. This will enable the group to obtain more funding and apply for grants to sustain, extend and widen the scope of the project.