Community-Based Rehabilitation Overview

Study Notes

Good Behavior is Heaviest

Good behavior is the heaviest thing that can be placed on the balance of a believing slave on the Day of Judgment.

Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR)

Objectives:
- Understand the concept of community-based rehabilitation
- Learn the objectives of CBR programs
Definition (Page 6):
- CBR is community action ensuring people with disabilities have equal rights and opportunities.
- Includes equal access to healthcare, education, skills training, employment, family life, social mobility, and political empowerment.
Definition (Page 8):
- CBR is a strategy within community development for rehabilitation, equalization of opportunities, poverty reduction, and social inclusion of people with disabilities.
- Implemented through combined efforts of disabled people, families, communities, and appropriate health, education, vocational, and social services.
What is CBR? (Page 9):
- A primary health care initiative and comprehensive social model for addressing rehabilitation care in a community setting.
- Emphasizes community participation, empowering the community to direct their own rehabilitation care, reinforcing human rights of persons with disabilities, and using existing community resources.
What is CBR? (Page 10):
- Extends the biomedical model of disability to incorporate social concerns.
- Addresses exclusion of people with disabilities from mainstream education and discrimination in health services.
- Development driven by participation from stakeholders in disability activism and people with disabilities.
CBR Matrix (Page 12):
- Five major dimensions of rehabilitation: health, education, livelihood, social, and empowerment.
Components Needed for CBR Program (Page 17):
- An action area with an apparent need
- A receptive community
- A resourceful and creative outside agency
- People with disabilities needing services
Steps of CBR (Page 18):
- Identification of people needing rehabilitation services
- Assessment of disabilities and needs
- Providing basic services (PHC) like drugs, dressing, materials, protective footwear, counseling, and training in self-care
- Referral to village health committee
- Access to secondary/tertiary care centers
- Support for socio-economic rehabilitation
- Reviewing meetings of stakeholders for progress discussion
- Coordination with social welfare departments
Challenges of CBR (Page 20):
- Lack of understanding of the concept
- Rapid turn-over of civil servants/finance prioritization
- Acceptance of CBR as a valid intervention
- Poor management/planning of CBR
Additional Challenges (Page 21):
- Inter-ministerial rivalry (lack of communication)
- Lack of evidence-based facts
- Lack of coordination between government and NGOs
- Weak structure of social welfare departments at the community level
CBR Programs-Common Elements (Page 15):
- National level support for resource coordination and policies
- Human rights-based approach
- Voluntary community participation
- Motivated community health workers
Intended Outcomes (Page 16):
- Increased individual and community knowledge of disabilities
- Community involvement in their own rehabilitation care
- Collaborative delivery of rehabilitation by various sectors of society.
- Reduced discrimination based on disability in healthcare and other factors like gender.
- Improved access to rehabilitation services
- Increased community participation in education, work, and community life