Ptolemy Reid Rehab Centre rallies despite challenges

Mar 23, 2014 News

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By Romila Boodram
Despite experiencing a shortage of teachers, especially those trained in special needs, officials at the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre are satisfied with the work being done by the staffers at the centre.

This is according to Anand Mangru, the institution’s Principal.
Mangru, during a recent interview with this newspaper, stressed that there is a need for qualified information technology teachers and those trained in special needs.
Special needs education is the practice of educating those particular students in a way that addresses their individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individual planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, accessible setting, and other intervention designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and community, than would be available if the students were only given access to a typical classroom education.
The principal also stressed that his teachers put in their all, and the obvious need for teachers does not affect the children.
“We have teachers who would do their best and sometimes assist in different areas. We don’t have trained Information Technology teachers to teach the children, but other teachers who know about computers would help out,” Mangru stated.
The Centre was originally established in January 1967, by the Ministry of Health, to provide rehabilitative services for those children who had suffered residual paralysis following the 1960 and 1964 poliomyelitis epidemics.
Poliomyelitis is a highly contagious viral infection that can lead to paralysis, breathing

problems, or even death.
With control of this disease and therefore the subsequent reduction of these types of cases, the Centre developed into an organization providing comprehensive programmes in rehabilitation for children with various types of physical and other developmental disabilities.
In 1991, in an effort to improve resource acquisition so as to expand and provide quality service more effectively and efficiently, the Centre was de-linked from the Ministry of Health and is now managed by a voluntary Management Committee.  The government provides an annual subvention and professional staff, while the Board raises funds both locally and externally to finance its operations.
In the early 1990s, in order to address the needs of the clientele – that were of the adolescent and the young adult age – vocational rehabilitation was introduced.  In 1998, the Centre was also able to implement its Audiology Service for persons with hearing impairments and disabilities.
In 2009, the Centre collaborated with the Guyana Greenheart Society to offer accommodation for their therapy centre for children with Autism.
The Centre is capable of providing services for up to thirty residents while the out-patient clinics register in excess of 100 new patients annually.  The Centre has a policy of, whenever possible, employing and training persons with disabilities, and at present in the areas of nursing, security, special education, clerical section, persons with disabilities are represented.
Cynthia Massay, rehabilitative officer at the centre, in a recent interview with this publication explained that there are always continuous programmes at the centre as in a regular school.
“We had Mashramani celebrations, Christmas celebrations and celebrations for all the holidays. What we try to do is have the students do all the activities as in the regular schools. Next month we have our kite flying,” Massay had said.

There are different sections at the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre. There is the rehab therapy area where the young children essentially first come into contact with what is available at the facility.
“This is where the children who have been diagnosed with congenital conditions are referred to or brought in because they are not developing the way they should,” Massay explained.
At the rehab therapy area, the children undergo physical, speech, and occupational therapy. “They can come from six months and younger. The ages vary. It depends on how they progress,” the rehabilitative officer stressed.
There is also the Day Care/ Dormitory area where parents bring in their children and pick them up after work.
“The regular day cares don’t cater for children with disability. While the children are here they will undergo intervention to stimulate them in their development,” Massay explained.
She also added that there are about six persons who live at the centre because they were abandoned by their families.
According to Massay, what was once called the special education sector is now known as the Harold B. Davis Special School. It was named after the first chairman of the centre’s Board of Directors.
“The special school has levels one, two and three, depending on their age and their ability, so you might have a child who is five years old and is in level one because that’s the level the child is at and you might have a 10-year-old who is functioning like a two-year-old,” Massay pointed out.
There is also the vocational training for those who would have passed level three at the Harold B. Davis Special School.
“It is where the young adults will undergo training to make them as independent as possible. They will have skill training, planting in containers and cooking. The idea is they are now becoming adults and they should be independent,” Massay emphasized.
The rehab specialist also stressed that there will soon be a Peace Corps volunteer at the centre to assist the special needs school with developing a curriculum.

“This person is going to come and assist us with developing a curriculum for the school and also work with our teachers. Our teachers are trained teachers, but they are not qualified in special needs,” Massay noted.
The mission of the centre is to provide a national service for all children who need long-term physical rehabilitation care and the main objective is to provide on a daily basis a range of rehabilitative service, including physiotherapy, special education, speech therapy and occupational therapy, to meet the needs of the clients.

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