Queen's team pioneers interdisciplinary approach to disability, maternal and child health in Bangladesh - Defining the future of Inclusive Global Health

KINGSTON, ON, Sept. 17, 2012 /CNW/ - Every year in developing countries like Bangladesh, roughly 500,000 women die and 1.5 million children become disabled from issues relating to childbearing. In children with disabilities the mortality rate can be 80%.

To combat this, an interdisciplinary team at Queen's University has developed an innovative partnership program which could become a model for dramatically lowering infant and maternal disability rates in developing countries.

The project, known as the Interprofessional Project on Disability, Maternal and Child Health (IPODMCH), is helping to merge the skills and needs of those working in Child and Maternal Health with those working in Disability - two areas that have traditionally had no formal interaction.  The result of this cross-pollination of knowledge is a more unified and inclusive approach to health care and services.

Importantly, the Queen's team is implementing a structure that is sustainable and scalable.  "The training of trainers approach will enable us to reach out to hundreds of health care professionals working in rural communities as well as thousands of community members; this will allow our program's reach to grow exponentially and become self-sustaining long after our role is fulfilled" says Dr. Malcolm Peat, Executive Director of the International Centre for the Advancement of Community Based Rehabilitation (ICACBR) which implements the project.

At the policy level, by creating an understanding of interprofessional practice and improving coordination amongst Maternal/Child and Disability services, the project develops a replicable model for mainstreaming disability and gender into maternal and child health initiatives and contributes to the inclusion of disability into Millennium Development Goals (MDG) globally.

With many organizations aggressively committing to the health of developing nations, the Queen's project will offer a scalable template that could have a dramatic impact on global health.

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For more information and a whiteboard video on the ICACBR & IPODMCH project visit http://insidermedicine.com/queens-global-health-project/
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The IPODMCH project is funded by The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The Bangladesh partner is CRP-Bangladesh (The Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed).

The ICACBR is a part of the School of Rehabilitation Therapy in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen's University.

SOURCE: CEH Inc

http://www.queensu.ca/icacbr/index.html
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