(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and health sector partners including Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Primary Healthcare Corpo-ration (PHCC) and Sidra Medicine this week celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD).
Celebrated annually on December 3, this year it is being marked under the theme of 'leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world'.
The National Lead of the National Health Strategy 2018-2022 'Health and Wellbeing for People with Special Needs' pri-ority area at the MOPH, and Director of the Audiology and Balance Unit at HMC, Dr. Khalid Abdul Hadi, said that this year, the healthcare system unites to raise awareness around the challenges, barriers and oppor-tunities for people who live with disabilities, in the context of a global pandemic.“COVID-19 reinforced the importance of establishing easy access to services for people with disabilities.
Particularly, vulnerable segment of the pop-ulation encompasses a variety of conditions and impairments. Those with disabilities have faced many barriers throughout the pandemic,” he said.“We must all recognise that people who live with disabilities are among the most affected pop-ulations amid the COVID pan-demic and work collectively to ensure that they are recognized, included and supported.”Dr. Abdul Hadi said work is ongoing through the National Health Strategy to improve the early detection of disability, promote diagnostic procedures and referrals to services, and continue to develop early inter-vention programs and support services.
Dr. Sadriya Al Kohji, National Lead of the National Health Strategy 2018-2022 'Healthy Children and Adoles-cents' priority area at MOPH, and Assistant Director of Med-icine for Child and Adolescent Health at PHCC, said“PHCC is keen to support and empower people with disabilities. We always strive to design regu-lated, high-quality health services which are appropriate for individuals with disabilities, to provide them with the nec-essary support based on their health needs.
“In an effort to support and empower parents of autistic children, PHCC provides a Com-munity Support Program (Early Bird), which is a training program for parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The program works to improve and develop the parent-child relationship and facilitate ways of communi-cation between them and their children diagnosed with autism in their natural environment.”
Dr. Lisa Thornton, Division Chief of Rehabilitative Medicine at Sidra Medicine, said:“All children deserve the oppor-tunity to reach their full potential and rehabilitation shows children what they are really capable of. As a hospital that has a strong rehabilitation program for children with dis-abilities, we are proud to support International Day of Persons with Disabilities.'
Qatar was one of the first states in the world to ratify the convention of the rights of persons with disabilities in 2008 and continues to develop services and support in this area. Since then, Qatar has made remarkable and significant strides for promoting and pro-tecting their rights, their inte-gration in the society as well as involving them in the devel-opment process in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030, which stipulates the achievement of equality and justice for all.
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