Global teleRehabilitation Institute

Dr seeking consultation for baby from colleagues via videoconferencing

The Global teleRehabilitation Institute is the consortium capacity building framework program of GlobalPartnersUnited. This GtRI program aims to specifically implement the inclusive early identification and habilitation, early childhood development, health care, education and family support and empowerment tenets of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the 2007 international human rights treaty in force and currently signed by 160 countries and ratified by 160 countries.

In development stages, the GtRI mission is to grow access to screening, identification, inclusive early childhood development, healthcare, primary education and rehabilitation services for infants, toddlers, children and adults. Planning for technology transfer of orthotic and prosthetic devices is a key component of service delivery and capacity building.

GtRI designs and implements cross-sector service delivery systems through blended ICT knowledge sharing, telepractices for consultations and mentoring, twinning higher education institutions and centers, developing both community-based networks and national and regional ‘centers of excellence’ as well as sustainable mentoring fora to supplement related GPU capacity building training, mentoring, and consultation.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Community-based Rehabilitation (CBR) framework is at the heart of our service delivery, workforce training, and overall program development. The goal is for community-based personnel to screen, identify, refer, and (re)habilitate children and adults with disabilities through training and access to digitized and on site resources, expert and peer mentoring, communities of practice, and consultation.

Community-based Rehabilitation

From the World Health Organization (WHO):

"CBR focuses on enhancing the quality of life for people with disabilities and their families, meeting basic needs and ensuring inclusion and participation. CBR is a multi-sectoral approach and has 5 major components: health, education, livelihood, social and empowerment.

CBR was developed in the 1980s, to give people with disabilities access to rehabilitation in their own communities using predominantly local resources. A 2004 joint ILO, UNESCO and WHO paper repositioned CBR as a strategy for rehabilitation, equalization of opportunity, poverty reduction, and social inclusion of people with disabilities.

In 2010, a consultation process was implemented to update the CBR guidelines in concert with the tenets of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol. Approximately 300 organizations and 180 individuals especially from developing countries were involved in providing input to the guidelines update. 'The guidelines provide CBR managers, among others, with practical suggestions on how
to develop or strengthen CBR programmes and ensure that people with disabilities and their family members are able to access the benefits of the health, education, livelihood and social sectors. The guidelines have a strong focus on empowerment through facilitation of the inclusion and participation of disabled people, their family members, and communities in all development and decision-making processes. The guidelines also encourage CBR programmes to be evaluated and further research to be carried out on the effectiveness and efficiency of CBR in diverse contexts.'

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The use of mobile devices in health solutions -- is revolutionizing healthcare delivery in much of the developing world.

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THE M-HEALTH MOMENT
from the mHealth Alliance
May 2010

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Global teleRehabilitation Institute

Community-based Rehabilitation