Sundargarh: Disability is not a curse if proper care is taken for the rehabilitation of the affected people. Appropriate treatment and support go a long way in rehabilitation of the disabled persons. Exemplary work is being done by the integrated physiotherapy units (IPU) and therapeutic centres opened by the administration in this district.
More than 20 such centres have been opened in various blocks of this district and also in Rourkela. The centres are playing a major role in rehabilitating the people by providing necessary counselling and various other services. Funds for the centre are being provided by the District Mineral Foundation. The centres are helping out people of all ages suffering from disability problems. The centres are assisting children from birth to 18 years of age with various disabilities such as developmental delay, speech delay, juvenile scoliosis, spine and back pain and paralysis. They are also coming to the aid of senior citizens with physical therapy for sprains, back pain and general weaknesses.
All these centres have a physiotherapist, a special educator and a driver. Each centre also has an e-rickshaw so that people needing physiotherapy can travel to the venue easily and free of cost. All these physiotherapy centres have district teams to support them. The district team consists of a senior physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, a speech therapist and a psychologist. The teams visit the 20 centres twice a month to provide specialised care to the service seekers.
There are management teams also consisting of two project assistants and a manager. The teams hold meetings at the village level to sensitise people about the utility of the physiotherapy centres. This effort of the district administration is truly commendable as physiotherapy is often neglected limiting recovery of the persons affected by various ailments.
Nowhere in Odisha, such centres have come up at the block level. This has made physiotherapy accessible and affordable to the citizens of Sundargarh district. There are a number of examples as to how people have benefitted from such centres. Forty-two-year-old Manoj Kumar Barik of Hemgiri block was suffering from acute pain starting from his spine down to his right leg. He could not even walk properly. He approached the integrated physiotherapy unit and therapeutic centre in Hemgiri block. After undergoing treatment for 14 days he again started to walk in a proper manner without any pain.
Similarly, 68-year-old Madhusudan Naik of Budelkani was suffering from a frozen shoulder and could not raise his right hand. He was treated at the physiotherapy centre in Sadar block. Various types of muscle stretching exercises helped him so much that he can now use the same hand freely. IPU centres were introduced in this district in a phased manner.
In the first phase, 10 centres were opened in December 2021, while another 10 started in September 2022. More than two lakh therapeutic sessions have been conducted so far in these centres and around 46,790 persons have benefitted from the treatment.