Mabalacat Association of Persons with Disability

Archive for the ‘Survey: 7% of households have disabled member’ Category

Around 1.2 million households or seven percent of the 16 million households across the country have a disabled member, a survey commissioned by the Department of Health (DOH) showed.

The survey, conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) from June 4 to 29, covered 1,200 households. Majority of the disabilities were reportedly caused by illnesses (62 percent) followed by inborn defects (25 percent) and accident (11 percent).

For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 8.4 million or one out of every 10 Filipinos have some form of disability.

But the SWS survey revealed that only 26 percent or 300,000 households with a disabled member get some form of medical assistance from the government.

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit called on people with disability (PWD) to avail themselves of the government’s rehabilitation services.

“They should seize the opportunity. We have existing facilities run by government agencies that offer rehabilitation services for various disabilities,” Dayrit said.

He noted that while these state-run facilities are limited in number, “counterparts from the private sector are also available for PWD’s rehabilitation needs.”

To determine the exact number, location and needs of PWDs, the DOH has launched a registration program for PWDs last June 19 in coordination with the National Center for the Welfare of Disabled Persons, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Interior and Local Government and the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

The registry is supposed to end today but the DOH has decided to make it a continuing undertaking.

Data from the registration has not been collated yet but a DOH insider revealed that the turnout was low because of poor information campaign about the program. The insider added that the registry has not been even announced on radio or television.

“What we’ll do now is coordinate again with the rural health units so that the registry could be announced even at the barangay level,” the source maintained.