THRISSUR: In an innovative initiative, a KSRTC low-floor AC bus has been converted into a rehab unit which will provide therapy services to disabled people at their locality.
Christened as ‘Rehab Express’, the initiative has been launched by the national institute of physical medicine and rehabilitation (NIPMR), in association with the social security mission.
The ‘Rehab Express’ has facilities for physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and prosthetic assessment. Services of an expert team, comprising doctors and therapists, will be available at the unit, said NIPMR executive director C Chandra Babu.
The mobile unit will visit areas where facilities for therapy are not available. If patients in a particular area require repeated therapy, it will visit those areas in a prefixed schedule, Babu said.
Flagging off the ‘Rehab Express’ at a function held at NIPMR on Friday, minister for higher education and social justice R Bindu said that all the medical colleges in the state would be equipped to detect disabilities in children in the foetal stage itself.
The government’s aim was to make Kerala the best disabled-friendly state in the country, she said.
Babu said the Rehab Express would function in a camp mode in different locations. The facility will be able to address the challenges of 50 disabled people per day during each camp, stretching up to 15 days.
