Hold My Hand aims to develop a sustainable and expandable model to improve rehabilitation services and home-based care for persons with severe disabilities in Binh Dinh and Quang Nam provinces.

DELIVER HOME-BASED CARE FOR PERSONS WITH SEVERE DISABILITIES

The project will provide home-based care for about one thousand persons with severe disabilities, who are barely able to perform their daily life functions. Trained caregivers, usually family members, will support persons with severe disabilities to perform basic life functions such as eating, bathing, using the toilet, and communicating. In addition, caregivers will support persons with disabilities to participate in social activities.

STRENGTHEN INTERDISCIPLINARY REHABILITATION SERVICE UNITS

Ten provincial and district hospitals in Binh Dinh provinces will benefit from strengthened interdisciplinary rehabilitation service centers with improved capacity to provide Occupational therapy (OT) and Speech/Language therapy (ST). The project will provide essential OT and ST equipment for rehabilitation to those hospitals and work with them to develop and issue standard operating procedures on rehabilitation care. In addition, the project will strengthen the skills of local staff at all levels in Binh Dinh and Quang Nam provinces to use the Health Disability Information System, a database of the demographic and information on the needs of persons with disabilities. This database is used to inform project planning and policy advocacy.

EXPECTED RESULTS

The project will use an interdisciplinary approach to build a sustainable model that will support rehabilitation services to meet the multi-faceted needs of persons with severe disabilities. The continuum of care will be provided at hospitals, in the community, and at the homes of persons with severe disabilities. Over three years of the project’s life, 2,000 persons with disabilities are expected to receive interdisciplinary rehabilitation services and 600 persons with disabilities will directly receive home-based care. The project will strengthen 10 small interdisciplinary rehabilitation service centers by building ST and OT capacity at provincial and district hospitals in Binh Dinh province.