REHABILITATION is an essential component for patient recovery for them to regain total wellness, experts said on Thursday.
By Kudakwashe Pembere
In an interview with HealthTimes on the sidelines of an Open Day for corporates, St Giles Rehabilitation Centre Medical Director, Dr Abel Mazire said rehabilitation is a component necessary for total recovery. He said there are those who need post-operation care which can be done rehab centres.
Rehabilitation is very important because we will be restoring their function so that they can be able to get back to work. If you don’t get the rehabilitation, you regress and become worse. Someone needs to do basic things like bathing, eating, speaking, walk. The fact that you are not dead doesn’t mean you do not need quality life,” he said.
The facility’s head of physiotherapy department Ms Theresa Chitsike said specialist doctors often refer patients to them for rehabilitation.
“If you go to specialist doctors they will tell you that they will do a procedure but for it to be effective as it should be, you need rehabilitation component.
So you find if you have an operation done people then just go home. But that will then lead to people walking with a limp. And everyone can tell something has happened,” she said. “If you are in good care of a rehabilitation centre you will find that those residual deficits will disappear and somebody is able to walk in such a way that you cannot tell, me who has had a problem undergone physiotherapy and someone who is ok. We make sure that you get as near as the way you were before.”
She said most people had the perception that St Giles dealt with disabled persons only. An invited guest at the Open Day, Calvin said most people debase therapy limiting it to just the physical aspect.
“Visiting St Giles was to get an appreciation of what these guys are doing. We underestimate whatth therapy is about be because it is not limited to the physical aspect yet it also deals with the psychological and neurological side. You then understand what they go through in taking care of the people,” he said.
He also said rehabilitation is something that should be normalised in the Zimbabwean culture.
“Some people think that if you go to rehabilitation, it is a sign of weakness, you are now useless. Yet it is something that is really essential for life.People should appreciate the concept of rehabilitation. It is quite necessary in life,” Calvin said.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe Rugby Union chief executive Mr Sifiso Made said, “It is not often that we think about injuries that are sustained by children and adults. Coming from a sporting background we have come to see what St Giles has to offer.
“For example to me the hydrotherapy pool, the physiotherapy and the fact that they have a school here which looks after children with different disabilities and disadvantages, that for me has been awesome. The fact that there are facilities like this in Zimbabwe where we can send those are disabled for rehabilitation or permanent stay is actually brilliant. The staff is awesome. We need to support St Giles as a community, as a country.”
