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Prevention of Disabilities

Our experience in the last 24 years in training these children, has led us to take the first step in the prevention of disabilities. In this context MNC has set up a research and planning cell to work towards the prevention of disabilities.

As a first step towards this, parents at the centre are counseled by a team of Special Educators, Psychologists, Medical doctors and Nutritionists. This counseling creates an awareness in them in planning safe pregnancies and delivery. This is an ongoing assignment for MNC. In continuation with this counseling, an orientation course spread over nine months is also being conducted for parents on the nature, cause and management of mental retardation.

With these inputs, the parents have been, in due course, trained to give awareness programmes at several public organizations on care during antenatal, natal and post natal periods, early detection of disabilities and the importance of Early Intervention. Prevention has gradually emerged as an integral component in the parental training programme.

An Early Intervention Programme

  1. Parental education and counseling
  2. Counseling of families in slum areas and semi urban areas
  3. Prevention camps in key areas of Tamil Nadu
  4. Public awareness programmes
  5. Forming support groups of parents to reinforce the programme in their colonies and beyond
The programme for prevention of disabilities is disseminated to the public at large through the above activities.

Prevention Programme

The prevention programme encompasses the following areas:

  • Facilitating access of parents to genetic counseling
  • Guiding mothers in taking appropriate prenatal care for safe delivery. Advising them on personal hygiene and health to prevent infections during pregnancy.
  • Forming parent support groups to access information on the current trends in the field of medicine and advise on the
    • Adverse effects of taking un-prescribed medicines during pregnancy.
    • Resorting to ill advised methods to terminate unwanted pregnancies and
    • In the management of their children with associated conditions and disorders.
  • Planning and organizing social and recreational activities with parental involvement, thereby enhancing their self esteem and building up their self confidence to take decisions regarding their child in all aspects including their future so as to prevent them from being a burden on society and to be able to lead a dignified quality life.
In order to implement in practice the educational inputs given to the parents on prevention, the following activities have been conducted at MNC -
  • Experts in the field of genetics from the Government Women and Children's Hospital and the Institute of Child Health are invited to interact with the parents on a regular basis. Specific cases requiring advanced genetic counseling and investigations are referred to the specialists.
  • Antenatal care clinics within the reach of parents (economically and geographically) have been identified and parents have been referred to them. Gynecologists, pediatricians and other specialists in this field are invited to the centre to address the mothers on the importance of immunization, registering at hospitals on time and on appropriate antenatal care.

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