Linden Rehabilitation Services Department targets earlier detection of related issues

With the observance of Rehab Week 2019, Lindeners were encouraged to take better advantage of services offered through the Rehabilitation Department of the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC).

The week of activities which concluded on Saturday was observed under the theme, “Rebuilding lives everyday with better awareness, action and accessibility”.
As part of the activities, the LHC Rehabilitation Department hosted numerous activities aimed at heightening awareness of its services with calls being made to support earlier detection of related issues.
The activities included screening for hearing and posture defects in school children, a radio sensitisation programme and a manual handling sensitisation seminar.
The department has also planned a number of sensitisation activities at various clinics in Linden.
Superintendent of physiotherapy, Gloria Garraway, who also manages the Rehabilitation Services within Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), said a lot of persons in the community are unaware of the services offered by the hospital’s Rehabilitation Department as she stressed that many are only referred to access the services when their ailments are at the chronic stages.
She outlined that services offered include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and audiology. Garraway said the department is presently working to have more patients referred to access the services.
“We want the public out there to know of the service, so if they have any problems, they can access the services we offer at the hospital. A lot of the patients in order to come to us they need to be referred by a doctor and we don’t really have that much specialists at the hospital so a lot of the medical doctors, their first option is analgesics – the tablets…So I still think that a lot of patients who need our services are not being referred”, Garraway said.
She explained that this has a lot to do with education and sensitisation of patients and doctors. According to Garraway, the department has hosted sensitisation sessions with doctors, informing them of services offered, however, she said the rapid change in doctors also results in fewer referrals. As such, she said the department is trying its best to educate the newer batch of doctors in this regard.
In the area of physiotherapy, the department targets persons who experience pain, strains, sprains and swelling as well as patients with disabilities. Garraway noted that patients can also request to access rehabilitation services when they see the doctor or they can feel free to simply walk into the department and seek advice. Persons who suffer from neurological problems such as head injuries and audiological issues such as trouble hearing are also seen.
“It’s basically rehabilitation, so whatever disability or problem you have we rehabilitate you. If you have pains in the joints, if you twist your ankle…”, Garraway pointed out.
The other aspect of the department’s function is speech and language therapy. Presently there is an ongoing initiative whereby a speech and language therapist visits nursery schools to screen students who are identified by teachers. In this regard, Garraway stressed the importance of early identification of issues affecting children.
“We’re able to detect persons with speech defects like stuttering, children who are not speaking at a certain age. In most cases, they come to us when it’s time to go off to primary school which is pretty late. If we know of the defects they have early, we can help the family and teachers in nursery schools to solve the problems earlier”, she noted.
The students are also screened for issues with hearing and postural defects.
“Because we would find every now and then children come more, per se from high schools, they come with postural [problems] – the lateral curvature of the spine, so we would want to detect that early so we would be able to advise them what to do”, she explained.
Garraway pointed out that postural defects in students may be caused by slouching, heavy haversacks as well as poor sitting and standing methods as she noted that earlier detection can prevent the development of structural issues.
“Every now and then we see some children who we would consider [to suffer from] structural [problems] which means the actual spine has already started curving and we’re not really able to straighten it. So, if we can identify this in the children earlier when it’s more a postural issue it’s better for those children”, she noted.
Persons with disabilities who are patients benefit from equipment such as wheelchairs and walking aids. Garraway noted that amputees, patients who have suffered a stroke and those with cerebral palsy also benefit from services offered.
“When they come here we try to make them as independent as possible with the disability”, she noted.
The department sees an average of 30 to 40 new patients per month. The services are also available at sister hospitals within the region including the Upper Demerara Hospital (UDH) and Kwakwani Hospital. Garraway noted that the LHC has developed over the years from offering physiotherapy services which started in the 1970s to now offering additional overall rehabilitation services.