Hospitals team up to offer rehab for children
Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital said it has teamed up with local universities and the Shanghai Yangzhi Rehabilitation Hospital to launch clinics for language and sports rehabilitation, and training on stammering, learning difficulties and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to offer more timely and professional diagnosis and treatment, the hospital said in the lead-up to Children's Day on Thursday.
The hospital is nicknamed "Shanghai's cradle" as it delivers 25,000 to 30,000 babies each year, the largest number among all city hospitals.
"Among such a large quantity of newborn babies, there is a certain group of premature and high-risk babies who need early screening, scientific education and intervention," said Dr Ying Hao, vice-president of Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital.
The hospital has carried out testing, prevention, screening and treatment on children's language developmental disorders and has established a comprehensive intervention network in order to achieve early and effective diagnosis and treatment.
A professional at Shanghai Maternity and Infant Hospital offers training to a girl with language difficulties.
There are 3.29 million children younger than 6-years-old with language disorders in China. They have difficulty in being involved in society due to the issue. Proper rehabilitation and training is extremely important for their language and intelligence development.
China is the country with the largest demand on rehabilitation, however there is a severe shortage of medical professionals and public awareness of the issue is low.
The national government issued a plan to have six rehabilitation physicians and 10 rehabilitation therapists for every 100,000 people by 2022 and 10 rehab physicians and eight therapists for every 100,000 people by 2025.
There is a shortfall of more than 100,000 professionals under that plan.
It is important to enhance public education on the importance of rehabilitation and develop more interesting and easy-to-understand education programs for the public, experts told a summit organized by the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine over the weekend.
The summit organized 122 online educational programs on new media platforms, attracting 5 million views. Experts gave lectures on sports rehabilitation, neurological rehabilitation, children's rehab, cancer rehab, traditional Chinese medicine-based rehab, supportive techniques on rehab and scientific education on rehabilitation.
During the summit, the association honored winners for excellent performance in scientific education. A total of 33 educational works from Shanghai won the honor.
