Moorthy Shobana Devi, Chockalingam Manigandan, Kamalakannan Sureshkumar
Department for Child Development, Smart Sensory Kids, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
School of Health Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway: Galway, Ireland.
Glob J Intellect Dev Disabil. 2021 Jul 6;8(4):555743. doi: 10.19080/GJIDD.2021.08.555743.
Persons with Disabilities (PWD) experience unmet needs related to health, rehabilitation, education, livelihood, social participation, and empowerment, particularly those living in a resource-poor context such as in the Indian context. The same applies to Children with Disabilities (CWD) as well. Given the pandemic restrictions imposed by the government of India, the provision of therapeutic rehabilitation services for PWDs and CWDs has come to a deadlock. Therefore, the PWDs and the parents of CWDs are substantially impacted by the double contextual burden of demand and access to rehabilitation services in India. However, there has been some light at the end of this dark tunnel provided by the existing telecommunication strategies. Both parents/caregivers and rehabilitation service providers started to find a way out of this situation on their own in India by optimizing their skills and resources for telerehabilitation. However, adopting this strategy requires evidence. Hence a critical Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the telerehabilitation strategy for empowering PWDs and CWDs in an Indian context is warranted and is of immense public health importance. A narrative review was conducted. Telerehabilitation has several strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Telecommunication resources, Access to Rehabilitation services, Parent's and consumer acceptance, Service efficiency, and data documentation could be considered as strengths; Skills, Competencies, Opportunity cost, Resource intensiveness, Evidence for Effectiveness, Comprehensibility could be considered as weaknesses; Therapy innovations, Evidence generation, System strengthening and Capacity Building could be considered as opportunities; Patient Safety, Ethical Integrity, Data security, and Professional practice insecurity could be considered as potential Threats to Telerehabilitation. Telerehabilitation has considerable scope for providing meaningful therapeutic experience and hastens the process of rehabilitation of CWDs in the current context. The SWOT and its implications must be kept in mind to ensure that CWDs receive the best quality continuum of care in the present context with utmost ethical and evidence-based considerations. This could bridge the gaps in access to rehabilitation services with sustainable solutions than patchy temporary solutions that are not sustainable.
残疾人在健康、康复、教育、生计、社会参与和赋权等方面存在未得到满足的需求，尤其是那些生活在资源匮乏环境中的人，比如印度的情况。残疾儿童也同样如此。鉴于印度政府实施的疫情限制措施，为残疾人和残疾儿童提供治疗性康复服务陷入了僵局。因此，残疾人和残疾儿童的父母在印度受到了需求和获得康复服务这一双重背景负担的重大影响。然而，现有的电信策略为这条黑暗隧道带来了一线曙光。在印度，父母/照顾者和康复服务提供者都开始通过优化他们的远程康复技能和资源来自行寻找摆脱这种局面的方法。然而，采用这一策略需要证据。因此，对在印度背景下增强残疾人和残疾儿童权能的远程康复策略进行关键的优势、劣势、机会和威胁（SWOT）分析是必要的，且具有巨大的公共卫生重要性。进行了一项叙述性综述。远程康复有几个优势、劣势、机会和威胁。电信资源、获得康复服务的机会、家长和消费者的接受度、服务效率以及数据记录可被视为优势；技能、能力、机会成本、资源密集度、有效性证据、可理解性可被视为劣势；治疗创新、证据生成、系统强化和能力建设可被视为机会；患者安全、道德诚信、数据安全和专业实践不安全感可被视为远程康复的潜在威胁。在当前背景下，远程康复在提供有意义的治疗体验以及加速残疾儿童康复进程方面有相当大的空间。必须牢记SWOT及其影响，以确保残疾儿童在当前背景下能在最大程度的道德和基于证据的考虑下获得最佳质量的连续护理。这可以用可持续的解决方案填补康复服务获取方面的差距，而不是采用不可持续的零散临时解决方案。
