First Lady Samina Alvi on Thursday stressing the importance of rehabilitation services said their scope need 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 and Kashmir. Begum Alvi said rehabilitation services play an important role in health sector and help the people, return to normal lives who have suffered illness, accident or disability. She mentioned that although the scope of rehabilitation services was not limited to persons with disabilities, however could be extended to accommodate them.
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 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.
