On December,1st at the Ambassador Hotel Bangkok, the committee of Special Olympics Thailand and Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health by Rajanukul Institute held a seminar “Special Olympic Thailand Healthy Communities Project” which was supported by Golisano Foundation and UNICEF Thailand. The opening ceremony was performed by Dr.Pranom Cometieng, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health. She revealed that Thailand was one of the only two countries that were selected to show their outstanding performances in the meeting of Special Olympics International, Los Angeles in July 2015.The Special Olympics Thailand had developed the IDD Health care system project 3 years ago and implemented it in 6 pilot schools in 6 provinces : Bangkok, Lopburi, Suphanburi, Chiang Mai, Ubonratchathani, and Phuket. After 3 years of working, we found that the Epilepsy was the most often chronic disease in these children, while the most common psychiatric disorder was Autistics followed by ADHD. Down’s syndrome, a genetic disorder that resulted in most intellectual disability, was found to increase in number from the year 2014. Every party was ready to move on settling the health care system for IDD children sustainably by the model “By the Community For the Community” in the next 20 areas across the country.
Dr.Pranom Cometieng, Deputy Permanent Secretary, said that intellectual disabled condition was one of the seven types of disabilities that occurred to 1.3% of Thai people or about 1 million people in Thailand. However, there were only 114,237 intellectual disabled people registered for disability or 11.42% of all types of disabilities: besides, there were only 6.25% could reach services. This was consistent with the situation of people with disabilities reported by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in the year 2009 which indicated that people with intellectual disability had the most difficulties in accessing every type of the services including education. Moreover, they also had more health problems than normal people such as presenting epilepsy and dermatitis etc. Therefore, implementation of this project was a key component that makes social realization with the importance of people with intellectual health care. In order to accomplish this goal, there must be intensive cooperation among Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, NGOs, local organizations, families, and all society through development of knowledge and technology in screening, assessment, support health issue and development of role model area in screening, evaluation, referring and building network of all local stakeholders. The results will physically and mentally benefit the IDD people equal or more than ordinary people. Ministry of Pubic Health had a policy on integrating human development across the life span. For this reason, the target in the year 2016 is more than 80% of disabled people could access health services.
Mr.Pichai Rajabhat Pantharee, the UNICEF Representative for Thailand, as a project sponsor, had revealed the importance of this project to drive Thai disabled children development. All children have equal right to follow their dreams and grow up as a potential member of society, but often we found that they didn’t get the same opportunity as other children. They have to face many challenges in order to access basic rights such as right to have good health, right to be educated, right to be protected from harm, and right to participate in society. These issues are what UNICEF featured as a priority not only in Thailand, but also all over the world. The UNICEF felt proud to have an opportunity to work with the Special Olympics Thailand and Rajanukul Institute in implementation the health examination project which was done for thousand disabled children in Thailand, and strengthening cooperation between public health officials, teachers, parents, and community members. He felt especially gratifying that the Department of Mental Health had picked this pilot project to be implemented in more 14 special education schools in next year. “This was a major success of the past 3 year’s collaboration”, he said.
Dr.Naris Chaiyasoot, the Chairman of Special Olympics Thailand, had mentioned about the role of Thailand in the world that Thailand was one of the selected countries among the 33 countries of Special Olympics International to do the pilot project to find the proper protocol of medical and public health services for IDD people in different areas in the world. This project was officially launched by former US President Bill Clinton in the Clinton Global Initiatives meeting in 2012. From the past work and the following expansion to other 14 areas in Thailand made the Special Olympics Thailand to be selected as one of the 2 countries to present this outstanding performance in Special Olympics International meeting in Los Angeles in July 2015. The success of this project in the past 3 years was due to the cooperation and courtesy of various organizations which he would like to thank all involved sectors here.
In terms of policies and strategies to take care of the IDD people health sustainably, Dr.Panpimol Vipulakorn, Deputy Director General of Department of Mental Health, said that the development of health care system of IDD children has been continued throughout the three-year pilot project in 6 pilot schools in Bangkok, Lopburi, Suphanburi, Chiang Mai, Ubonratchathani, and Phuket. It was founded that in the year 2014 and 2015, there were 1,357 and 1,253 students received health evaluation respectively. Among them, 11% had chronic diseases of which most common found was epilepsy. Among the psychiatric diseases, the most frequency was autism followed by ADHD. Down’s Syndrome was the genetic disease that resulted in intellectual disability the most, which was found 14.6% in 2014 and 18.5% in 2015. Ninety percent of Down’s students were not checked for thyroid function regularly. The result of this project reflected some necessary work to do for intellectual disabled students which are 1.To foster the strengthening of holistic health promotion and disease prevention system in special education schools. 2. To establish health care systems in schools and proper referring mechanism that is suitable for the children and families limitation and 3.All agencies involved should discuss, plan and evaluate the result together.
It is an important policy of the Department of Mental Health to improve quality of life of the intellectual and developmental disabled as well as the autistic people to be rehabilitated in the social aspect through health care network. The trial would be progressed in 14 special schools through the coordination of public health units and local education organizations. The model “By the Community For the Community” which is a collaboration among parents, teachers, health personnel, and local involved agencies will be used in order to run the sustainable operation. Besides, the Bureau of Special Education and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities also expressed approval the cooperation between these two organizations. By focusing on improving the quality of education and creating educational opportunities, all Thai people could learn for all of their lives which makes every Thai people of all ages to be qualified for physical, mental, and intellectual condition. This needs participation of all sectors to create opportunities for these groups of disabled people to access the health services.
The seminar on “Special Olympic Thailand Healthy Communities Project” was held to present the operation results of the community network system in promoting health care, preventing diseases and making health care surveillance in these groups of disabled people. Moreover, it also indicated the direction of intellectual disabled people’s health care in the future to ensure sustainable continuity.
