Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The goal today is to help children with developmental disabilities participate in life
by playing with other children, attending school and being a valued member of the
family and community. This requires that the right blend of technologies, supports, and
accommodations are provided in light of the student's needs and strengths (Scherer 2005).
In-school interventions may include physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy,
and the administration of medications that control seizures, relax muscle spasms, and
alleviate pain. This may also include braces and other orthotic devices, communication
aids such as computers with voice output, and a wide variety of additional products
designed to minimize functional limitations and allow the achievement of academic goals
and participation in the full academic curriculum.
Although students with developmental disabilities have educational and physical
challenges, their potential is unlimited. The key is to identify abilities and strengths and
strengthen them while managing limitations and match students with the opportunities
and supports necessary to achieve lives of productivity and quality.
Treating Degenerative Disabilities
The situation is somewhat different at the other end of the life span for those individuals
who have a degenerative cause of disability. Until recently, when an aging person was
observed putting things in the wrong places and then forgetting where they put them,
not performing personal care activities, and saying and doing inappropriate things, then
that individual likely moved in with adult children or other relatives to be cared for and
monitored. That still occurs today, but just as frequently the individual's primary care
physician may recommend the family consider assisted living or a nursing home.
In some ways we have situations, the reverse of what they were traditionally. The
families of infants and children with developmental disabilities now assume a major
portion of caregiving because placing their child in an institution would be seen by today's
society as an irresponsible act. At the same time options for caregivers of aging persons
with dementia increasingly include placement in specialized facilities, which, in spite of
efforts to lower the staff-patient ratio and create an attractive and homey atmosphere, are
institutions for all practical purposes.
Treating an Acquired Disability
Once the person is stabilized medically, he or she may receive medical rehabilitation
designed to strengthen remaining capabilities and compensate for those that have been
lost. Psychosocial issues (financial, family, housing, or school/work) are viewed with
the objective of returning the individual to prior roles and community participation
(Scherer 2012).
Rehabilitation centers can be embedded within a larger medical centre or in a free-
standing rehabilitation facility. Rehabilitation encompasses not only the therapy provided
but also everything else that occurs on the unit, including nursing care, monitoring of
behavior, nutritional assessment and planning, and nonpharmacological strategies and
techniques employed to foster the optimal environment for recovery. As a result, therapy
for the patient occurs 24 hours per day on the unit and provides the opportunity to carry
over treatment, strategies, and training all day long and observe the recovery process
more closely to adjust to a patient's needs more effectively. Even the physical structure
and environment of the unit itself is often used to facilitate management of the patients.
