More Alignment Between Education And Health Needed For Children With Disabilities

Physiotherapy New Zealand (PNZ) is using World Physiotherapy Day to highlight the need for education and health services to be more aligned for children with disabilities.

Chairperson of PNZ’s Paediatric Special Interest Group, Merryn Robertson says whānau of disabled children often have difficulty navigating both services.

“It’s hard for families to know where to go to for advice and who to take advice from and there is often a lack of communication between providers. We need to find ways to make it easier for children with disabilities to access both education and health services in order to improve their wellbeing, mobility and quality of life.

“For children under five years old, their support comes from the Ministry of Health and once they start school their care comes under the education system. It’s a very complex system to navigate particularly as children with high needs still need support from health professionals.

“It would be great to see more collaboration between health and education and greater clarification on the pathways for families. It was particularly challenging during Covid where requirements for schools and health settings were not only different but sometimes conflicting,” said Merryn Robertson.

Vice President of World Physiotherapy, Australian paediatric physiotherapist Melissa Locke says it’s a similar situation in Australia. She is visiting New Zealand this week for PNZ’s biennial Physiotherapy Conference.

“Covid restrictions in Australia have been particularly difficult for families and highlighted some of the issues. Masks weren’t mandatory in schools and families were very fearful for their disabled children, so consequently kept them home. Those patients who were highly immunocompromised stopped going to hospital appointments to reduce the risk of coming into contact with those unvaccinated.

“Many hospital services were cancelled because of staff with Covid and while telehealth was offered, it is of limited value for people with complex disabilities. As a result, loss of function and mobility occurred quickly which meant an increase in the cost of care to remediate the loss of function and in some cases, death,” said Melissa Locke.

Melissa Locke is speaking at Physiotherapy Conference 2022 being held in Rotorua this week.

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