Improving rehabilitation services for people with spinal cord injury in Western Nepal

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

Spinal cord injury rehabilitation is a major unmet need in Nepal. In Nepal, most cases are caused by falls from heights, chiefly from trees (from which poor farmers cut fodder for their stock) and building sites. Road traffic accidents are an increasing cause of SCI. There are currently only three centres in the whole country offering rehabilitation services to people with spinal cord injuries – two of the three are in Kathmandu. GPHRC provides services to the Western Development Region and through four INF clinics to the Mid-Western Development Region - a total population of around 8.5 million people. At present large proportion of SCI patients present for rehabilitation with pressure sores. These patients require admissions up to 6 months as the pressure sore needs to heal before rehabilitation can commence. Patients admitted without pressure sores can complete the rehabilitation within 6-8 weeks. The project “Improving rehabilitation services for people with spinal cord injury in western Nepal” will be implemented by International Nepal Fellowship Nepal’s (INF/Nepal) Green Pastures Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre (GPHRC) in collaboration with government and private hospitals in Pokhara, Nepal and INF’s Partnership for Rehabilitation (PFR) which supports community-based rehabilitation services in the Western Region of Nepal. This project has three major objectives:1. To reduce the incidence of secondary complications in new cases of spinal cord injury (SCI) by providing health education and essential equipment to patients in primary (trauma) care 2. To provide better quality rehabilitation services to SCI clients through building a appropriately designed 12 bed SCI ward block at GPHRC 3. To reduce the incidence of infections and pressure sores in SCI patients after their return home and thereby reduce the rate of re-admission and improve their quality of life