Counseling

Rehabilitation counseling is a systematic process which assists persons with physical, mental, developmental, cognitive and emotional disabilities to achieve their personal, career and independent living goals in the most integrated settings possible through the application of the counseling process. This process involves goal setting, communication and beneficial growth or change through self-advocacy, psychological, vocational, social and behavioral interventions.

Counseling is, first and foremost, required for the parents of persons with disability. It helps them to understand the right kind of care and attention that is to be given to their ward at different stages of development. They are also made aware about when to reduce over protection of their ward, so that he/she develops self confident and moves towards independent living.

Regular counseling helps the person with disability remain motivated to learn new skills, do productive work and grow confident. Counseling and motivation also helps in learning team work, office discipline and work ethics, leading to attaining self-confidence.

Therapy

Speech therapists, Occupational therapists and physiotherapists share common aims in working with people with disabilities. Collectively, they seek to improve the lives of people with disability by:

• Minimizing and preventing impairment
• Facilitating access to and participation in daily life
• Improving educational and occupational outcomes
• Improving general well-being and quality of life
• Educating others about impairments, intervention and management.

Different types of therapies are important to enable persons with disabilities to improve their communication and co-ordination in all activities. Therapists also suggest some modifications to be made in the equipments in order to help the individuals work better. Different types of disabilities, age group, and level of understanding is taken into consideration while planning therapy on a regular basis. Speech therapy is useful to both adults as well as children in order to develop and improve their communication.

Early Childhood Intervention

Early childhood intervention is a support and educational system for very young children (two to 10 years) and their parents and is not limited to children with disabilities. The mission of Early Childhood Intervention is to assure that families who have at-risk children in this age range receive resources and supports that assist them in maximizing their child’s physical, cognitive, and social/emotional development while respecting the diversity of families and communities.

In the context of children with special needs, based on our action plan formulated after the initial assessment as described in “Assessment”, parents are trained to help the child in daily activities such as bathing, dressing, etc. Reviews are conducted after regular intervals to watch the developments and make necessary corrections. It is a combination of home assignments and hands on training at the centre, with therapists and teachers.

Pre – school education is also imparted with special care needed for different types of disabilities. The entire process is aimed at preparing the child for integrated education or to identify the best alternative special school and refer for the same.

Pre – Vocational and Vocational Skills Training

These skills serve as the most important part in development of young trainees with disabilities, towards growing up, independent living and self sustenance. Special educators with vocational skills are given an orientation about managing people with disabilities from all age groups. They are also advised to keep in mind their age, capability and level of motivation while training them in specific skills. They are trained individually as well as in small groups according to their abilities. They are taught the importance of personal hygiene. Efforts are made at an early stage to prepare them to work in groups in the sheltered workshop later. The trainees are trained in different skills continuously so that they get a chance to make variety of products. Training program teaches them the importance of occupation, team work, work discipline and ethics.

Fruitful Occupation:

Every adult should have a fruitful occupation according to his/her capabilities and qualifications.

• Placements/Mainstream Employment: Individuals with disabilities who are capable of working in a competitive environment are placed in different large scale and small scale companies, as per their skills and qualifications.
• Self–Employment: An individual with disabilities can start his/her own business with the support of the family members or can take care of existing family business.
• Group – employment: A group of disabled people with complementary capabilities can come together and start a business with the help of their families.
• Employed in Sheltered Atmosphere: Those people who need to work under supervision can work in sheltered atmosphere. They can work in daycare workshops and participate in making and packing different products.

Life Care:

Life care is of two types –

• Respite Life Care: Beneficiaries who require respite life care stay at the life care centers temporarily. If a beneficiary’s family is unable to take care of him/her due to some unavoidable reasons, he/she is brought into respite life care.
• Residential Life Care: Beneficiaries are taken care of for life long. They are provided with residential facilities, food, personal care and hygiene, medical care, relaxation, etc. The above facilities are mainly for the beneficiaries who don’t have them at home, due to demise of their parents, etc.