active· Health

Improving treatment care and rehabilitation services for people with spinal cord injury in Western Nepal

Spinal cord injury treatment care and rehabilitation remain major unmet needs in Nepal. Many cases of SCI are caused by falls from heights from trees (from which farmers cut fodder for their stock) and building sites. Road traffic accidents have become the leading cause of SCI in recent years. Moreover in 2015 two devastating earthquakes hit Nepal followed by hundreds of aftershocks. Estimates of injured vary between 22000-100000 many of them also having SCI.The International Nepal Fellowship (INF) owned Gr een Pastures Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre (GPHRC) in Pokhara remains the only health facility outside Kathmandu Valley that is specialized in providing rehabilitation services to people with SCI. GPHRC provides services to the Western Development Reg ion and through four INF clinics also to the Mid-Western Development Region - a total population of around 8.5 million people; in Pokhara and its surrounding areas 14 million. In the continuation phase the activities to improve rehabilitation services for people affected by SCI that were started in 2013-2016 project will partly remain the same. In addition GPHRC will start admitting SCI patients also in the acute phase straight after the trauma has happened. In many cases there is still a remarkable delay b etween acute trauma care and beginning rehabilitation. Too often delay leads to secondary complications (esp. pressure sores) that could be avoided with appropriate care. The hospital aims at becoming a holistic treatment and care centre for SCI patients c overing acute phase trauma treatment and care (incl. operative fixation) physical and mental rehabilitation education of patients and carers home assesments and modifications prior to discharge income generating activities for the injured follow-up and in some cases scholarships for the children of SCI patients to ensure that they can continue to go to school even after injury of the main bread winner of the family. The project will be implemented by International Nepal Fellowship Nepal?s (INF/Nepal) Green Pastures Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre (GPHRC) in collaboration with INF?s Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programme.