Staff Reporter :
In a roundtable conference speakers said that more than 2 crores of people in Bangladesh are suffering from different types of disabilities but there are only 246 occupational therapists in the treatment and rehabilitation of this huge population.
It means there is only one doctor for every 64,000 patients which is very insufficient compared to the demand, said the speakers. This situation requires creating for adequate posts for therapists and the provision of higher education for them, added the speakers.
The roundtable conference was organized on October 31 last by BELA Health & Education Foundation, a rehabilitation healthcare proving organization, on the occasion of ‘World Occupational Therapy Day 2020’.
Each year, 27 October is celebrated nationally and internationally as the World Occupational Therapy Day.
Md Ashraf ali khan khasru, State Minister for the Ministry of Social Welfare, was present at the conference as the chief guest and Professor Dr Mohammad Golam Rabbani, Chairperson of the Neuro-Development Disability Protection Trustee Board, was present as a special guest.
State Minister Md Ashraf ali khan khasru said, “Disability is not any sickness. They also are the members of the mainstream in our society. The government is working so that the disabled persons could keep their role for the development of the society.”
Valerie Ann Taylor, Founder and Coordinator of Centre for the Rehabilitation for the Paralysed (CRP), presided over the conference virtually and Dr Shamim Ahammed, Executive Member of the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Council, conducted it. Dr Md Zulkernayen, Associate Professor of CRP and Dr Roksana Akter, Executive Director of BELA Health & Education Foundation placed a presentation in the conference. Professor Dr Peter Bontje of Tokyo Metropolitan University, Professor Dr Mark Kovic of Midwestern University in Australia, Mary Ann Waddell, Chairperson of Occupational Therapists’ Frontiers in UK and Md Ehsunul Ambia, Supervisor of Occupational Therapist Seniors Day Program in Canada, joined the meeting virtually.
