In order to improve their access to health and wellness services and promote their maximum potential for physical, social, emotional and intellectual health, the Department of Health (DOH) last week led the first Public Health Convention on the Health and Wellness of persons with disabilities (PWDs).
“Disability occurs in persons regardless of race or social status,” Acting Health Secretary Janette Loreto-Garin said, adding that they should have equal access to health and wellness services to help them attain their maximum potential and become productive members of society.
This year’s theme: “Increasing Access to Health and Wellness”, hopes to provide information on the current actions and interventions being done to improve the health and wellness of PWDs.
Globally, over 1 billion people, or approximately 15 percent of the world’s population, have some form of disability. Also, about 80 percent of the world’s PWDs live in low-income countries, wherein the majority are poor and cannot access basic health services (WHO, World Disability Report 2011).
In the Philippines based on the 2010 household population of 92.1 million, about 1.4 million Filipinos or roughly 1.57 percent are suffering from disability (National Statistics Office, 2010 Census of Population and Housing).
Data also show that about 3 percent of the population has some form of difficulty in functioning, such as, in seeing even when wearing eyeglasses, hearing even with hearing aid, walking or climbing steps, remembering or concentrating, and communicating (NSO, 2010 Census of Population and Housing).
According to Garin, there are many factors, which contribute to the increasing number of PWDs. Some of these factors are population aging, increasing incidence of acute and chronic illnesses, and traumatic injuries resulting to disabilities.
The Health and Wellness Program for PWDs (DOH, 2014), has adopted a framework aimed at ensuring improvement in the access of PWDs to a disability-inclusive health services. The said framework has three action areas namely: a) improving access; b) strengthening rehabilitation services; c) strengthening data collection and utilization.
Presently, the DOH program for PWDs include registration of PWDs, and training of primary health facilities to provide disability-inclusive health and rehabilitation services to PWDs. “Let every Filipino be an asset to nation-building. Let us give PWDs equal health and wellness services,” Garin concluded.