PLWDs in settlements to get service

CHESHIRE Disabilities Services are reaching out into settlement communities to help people living with disabilities (PLWD) who are unable to access medical services due to their severe conditions.
Coordinator of Cheshire Disabilities physiotherapy service Merolyn Tuwasa said that some of them could not afford hospital bills and with their severe conditions, they could not access the public health services.
She said they provided physiotherapy, basic care and medication to NCD settlements and Motuan communities in Central.
“Our aim is to involve the guardian, parent and caregiver so they can learn from what we are doing and they can help the PLWD because they look after them daily,” she said.
Tuwasa said they visited three days in a week under the community-based rehabilitation community outreach programme.
She said that the challenges included limited assistive devices in the country to issue them.
She said they also opened physiotherapist at the centre to help clients once a week.
“For those clients who can’t afford the hospital bills, we go and provide services to them in their homes once in a week, every Thursday,” she said.
Tuwasa said they received referral from all the hospitals within the city area, urban clinics, Port Moresby General Hospital and private clinics. She said clinics in other provinces also sought their advice on how to look after PLWDs.
Tuwasa said that accessibility was one of the challenges that they had so most persons living with disability could not access government services.
She said more awareness was needed for the public to accept them. She said in term of education, most PLWDs could not go as far as universities because of lack of assistive devices that could enable them to attend schools.