“IMPACT OF COMMUNITY BASED REHABILITATION (CBR) PROGRAM UPON PARENTS HAVING CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY IN BANGALORE”

Abstract

ABSTRACT Cerebral palsy (CP) is one of the most common causes of neurological impairment in children, and can be associated with lifelong disability (Pakula et al., 2009). Caring for a child with a disability affects the role of both parents, but the daily lives of mothers are often more affected, because they are usually the primary caregivers for the child. The estimated incidence of CP in India is around 3/1000 live births (Vyas et al., 2013). Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) program aims to provide rehabilitation, reduce poverty, equalize opportunities and promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities in their communities and does this through a comprehensive and multi-sectorial approach that is aligned with the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD) (WHO, 2015). Our aim of the study is to find the impact of CBR program on parent’s life and to identify the challenges experienced by parents in raising their children with cerebral palsy at Bangalore area in India. With the above aim and objective a cross sectional, descriptive study design was used to collect a sample of 100 parents of children with cerebral palsy; GMFCS level IV and V. These information were collected from various communities of Bangalore, Davanegere and Bijapur, India where APD services are available. Face to face interview was conducted with study subjects. Data were analyzed by SPSS using descriptive and inferential statistics to identify the impact of CBR program upon parents and have tried to establish association between various components of CBR matrix. It has been observed that there is a positive impact of CBR program on parent’s health, knowledge, social lives and empowerment. A binary logistic regression was done to find out the relationship between health, knowledge, social lives and assistive device uses. It was found that there is a strong association between health and knowledge (p=.001); health and social lives (p<.001); knowledge and social lives (p<.001); GMFCS and assistive device (p=.004) at 95% CI. The odds ratios between them are greater than 1 and shows high effectiveness of CBR program upon parents too. Key words: Cerebral Palsy; CBR; Rehabilitation; GMFCS.