A Cross-sectional Survey of Rehabilitation Service Provision for Children with Brain Injury in Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose: Rehabilitation services in Malaysia are provided by both governmental and non-governmental agencies but there are challenges, such as the lack of integration between agencies, and accessibility barriers to services especially for the population of urban poor and people in the rural areas. With the help of a survey, this project aimed to gain a better understanding of rehabilitation services provided for children with brain injury within the state of Selangor and Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
Method: A list of 205 organisations that provide rehabilitation services for children with neurological injuries was compiled. The researchers attempted to verify the services by visiting the facilities or via telephone or email communication if visits were not possible.
Results: The researchers were able to verify 83% of the organisations identified. There are 40 hospitals and 17 service providers for acute and / or chronic physical rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities of all ages, including children.
Conclusion: Findings showed the unequal distribution of rehabilitation service provision by districts. Service providers were concentrated in the urban areas. Setting up new healthcare facilities is one of the solutions but the costs for development, construction, and manpower could be high. An alternative solution is proposed, namely, the use of a home-based virtual rehabilitation programme.
Full text article
Authors
Copyright (c) 2018 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License By-NC-ND 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
