Proficient physio and care provider Hyacinth Massay is a ‘Special Person’

Dec 02, 2012 News

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“Working at the Rehab Centre and especially with children, has made me a better person. Like I say to some people, when you work with persons with disabilities, you develop this sort of empathy and understanding that you’re there for the grace of God. You could be in that situation overnight.”

By Zena Henry

The quality of selflessness can be rare. Some say it is embedded in the character of those willing and prepared to sacrifice the normal to play a vital role in offering positives in abnormal situations. If that is the case, then unselfish and dedicated would be the ideal expressions to describe expert physiotherapist and care provider Hyacinth ‘Cynthia’ Massay-Thomas.
So passionate is Cynthia about her profession, she has offered up her career, and by extension her life, to working with persons with disabilities and has been instrumental in making available the specified health care needed.

She has been diligent in offering innovative and practicable ideas in enhancing the provision of health care for the disabled – especially at the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre which she has been managing for a number of years.
Hyacinth Massay  was born and grew up in South Cummingsburg, Georgetown. She attended Bedford Methodist and Wedgewood Junior Primary Schools. Having been awarded a government county scholarship, she attended The Bishops’ High School in 1956. While there, she developed a passion for athletics and sports in general. It was this, together with her interest in helping people, which guided her choice of career in physiotherapy.
After completing ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels at Bishops’ in 1963, Massay spent one year teaching English Language and Literature at Central High School. Her desire to join the physiotherapy profession was achieved when her application for the position of physiotherapist trainee at the Georgetown Public Hospital was successful.
One year after that, Massay was granted a Government of Guyana Scholarship, and went to Birmingham, England, where she qualified as a Physiotherapist in 1965. On her return to Guyana she continued work at the hospital.
During a five-year period before returning to England, Cynthia assisted in the expansion of physiotherapy services to Linden and New Amsterdam. Along with two colleagues she formed the Guyana Wheelchair Association which later became the Guyana Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities.
She was also a member of the National Rehabilitation and Education Committee, formed following the International Year for Persons with Disabilities in 1981.
While in London, Massay spent two years working at the Croydon General and May Day Hospitals, then returned to Guyana to take up a position as Senior Physiotherapist and later Rehabilitation Officer at the Polio Rehab Centre, which was renamed the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre (PRRC).
As Rehabilitation Officer, she was responsible for the administration of the facility, which had shifted its focus to providing rehab services for children with physical and developmental disabilities.
Following her acquisition of the post-graduate diploma in Health Management from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, Massay was appointed Director of Rehabilitation Services, Ministry of Health.
She was responsible for the further expansion of rehabilitation, beyond physiotherapy, to include the disciplines of occupational therapy, speech therapy, audiology and drug rehabilitation.
However, PRRC was to become a life-long dedication for the therapist, and after serving as Director of Rehabilitation Services in the Ministry of Health, she returned to manage the institution.
Massay was instrumental in recommending to the Ministry of Health for a change in status of PRRC to that of a non-governmental agency to be managed by a Voluntary Board of Directors. This request was approved in 1992 and the PRRC was to travel on a path of semi–independence, with a voluntary team working for its maximum growth.
With the support of the new management board, Massay was responsible for the development of the Centre to become the only recognized organization in Guyana where such a wide range of quality rehabilitation services are offered, with the aim of ensuring children receive the kind of therapy, education, vocational and life skills allowing them to achieve their maximum potential as meaningful participants in family and community life.

Cynthia serves as a member of the boards of the Family Planning Association of Guyana, and the Veterans Rest Home, and the Step-by-Step Foundation for children with Autism. She was also appointed to the Rights of the Child Commission and also assisted in establishing the National Commission on Disability and the National Policy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which formed the underpinning for the Disability Act which was passed in the National Assembly (2010).
Because of her immersion in disability issues, Massay’s vision for the future focuses on the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs).
Despite these achievements and prestigious contributions, Cynthia Massay remains humble and steadfast at having her vision of equality for disabled persons realized. To her, the most meaningful contribution to the PRRC was being able to have the institute delinked from the Ministry of Health.
She felt that with the detachment, the centre would be able to access funding from external agencies and donors. It was because of that one move, she noted, coupled with the assistance of a very strong management team, the centre was able to accomplish much of the expansion work, growth and development that has occurred.
She highlighted the growth of the classrooms and the variety of disciplines now being taught. Massay related that now the centre has about 54 students in a classroom, while at least 80 children visit the centre’s clinic on a monthly basis. She said there is also a vocational unit at the centre that works with young adults in preparing them for the world of work or provides training in relevant areas.
Coupled with that, Massay informed that there is an orthotic and prosthetic unit called the National Orthotic and Prostatic Appliance Workshop, which caters for persons with disabilities in Guyana who need that type of appliance.
Massay pointed that while persons would assume that a detachment from the Health Ministry is beneficial, she sees the need for what she described as the private-public partnership. It is her belief that the centre would not be in existence without the Government, although she realizes that without the contributions of the external agencies and a number of selfless individuals, the centre would not have extended and grown to its current magnitude.
Massay said that she is passionate about the profession that she has been involved in for the past 30 years. She started off in the early ‘70s at the PRRC which was at the time the Polio Centre. It was then providing rehabilitative services for those children who had suffered residual paralysis following the 1960-1964 polio epidemics.
After breaking off from the centre a few times for travel, Massay said that it was in the earlier 1980s when she really rooted herself to the PRRC. At the time, it was realized that there was a need for someone to directly manage the affairs of the centre, rather than having an official from the City hospital come over to manage the institute.  There, she said, the post of rehabilitation officer was created, and she has been with the centre since then.

Massay said that she always knew that she had an interest with the body and its mobility. In fact her first passion she emphasized was sports and athletics. When she noticed that she had an immense liking for physical education while attending school, she said she was looking for a career that would encompass her passion.
But having the most impact on her choice of career, Massay reflected, was when her uncle had to visit the hospital for therapy after being involved in a vehicular accident. She said he was also into sports and she used to tag along on his hospital visits. It was there, she said, her “discovery” of physiotherapy was made and she later realized that it was a sort of profession where she could combine her interest in sports as well as her interest in working with people who needed physical assistance.
She also related that her interest in children developed from the initial work that she started at the centre. It however developed when she had her own daughter. She said that addition to her life made a tremendous difference and she noticed the need for those disabled children who needed people to work with them and give the assistance they so desperately needed, since they could not operate and develop like the normal child.
“Working at the Rehab Centre and especially with children, has made me a better person. Like I say to some people, when you work with persons with disabilities, you develop this sort of empathy and understanding that you’re there for the grace of God. You could be in that situation overnight.”
“There is more to life than material things and just looking out for one’s self. I have absolutely no regrets. My will to help people and love for sports has put me in a place where I feel right at home and at ease with my contribution to society.”
Massay would, however, like to see a just and barrier-free society that promotes the development of People with Disabilities (PWDs), especially women with disabilities – allowing for their inclusion and equal participation in all areas of society. She firmly believes that a country is measured by the way it treats its PWDs.

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