Dubai: Over 400 health-care givers, nurses and physicians working in clinics across several schools, including seven special needs schools, were given training in dealing with various health scenarios concerning students’ health, said a top Dubai Health Authority (DHA) official.
The daylong training was organised by DHA’s schools and education health unit.
Dr Hamid Yahya Hussain, deputy director of Schools and Educational Institutions’ Health Services, told Gulf News: “The most common health issues of special needs children at school are divided into two main categories — mental disorders such as learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, severe neurological disorder and physical disabilities such as lower limb paralysis, blindness and other sensory deficits, and secondly, chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, asthma, thalassaemia and some hereditary disorders. Children suffering from any of these require special care from nurses and physicians and their development needs to be monitored well,” Dr Hussain said.
The workshop focused on equipping the staff with the wherewithal to deal with such situations, which are quite frequent at schools. “The training aimed at upgrading skills and enhancing knowledge of health-care providers at clinics in private schools was part of developing school health services in Dubai in terms of quality and quantity and enabling health care givers to deliver the highest standards of care,” Dr Hussain said.
The scope of a health-care giver at school clinics extends to immunisation, first aid, rehabilitation, treating illnesses on a daily basis, emergency care, treating communicable and non-communicable diseases, conducting screenings such as for visual and hearing impairments, among other responsibilities.
The training was conducted by school health experts, members from the Noor Dubai Foundation, doctors from Dubai Diabetes Centre, experts from the Mental Health Programme, DHA’s public health and safety department and primary health-care sector. School health experts from the UK also took part in the workshop.
Dr Nussaibah Shaker Al Behandy, acting head of School and Educational Institutions Health Unit at the DHA, added that among the salient points discussed at the workshop was the need to tailor the methodology to assist students. “We discussed at length how to support people of determination; this includes students who are grappling with learning disabilities and those who are physically challenged.”
While the role and responsibility of the health-care workers is definitive, Dr Hussain added that it is important to involve parents at every stage of the training.
Bringing together all stakeholders in engineering a balanced child development, DHA’s programme vested similar responsibilities with parents, NGOs, families and governmental organisations.
Dr Hussain hoped that the workshop would lead to a comprehensive quality management plan for students with disability. “We are identifying the problems, addressing the gaps, working at the school level and at the same time, looking at the possibility of referring to secondary or tertiary care too when it comes to certain disabilities,” added Dr Hussain.
He assured stakeholders that all students with any physical or mental disabilities of whatever kind are under close medical, health and rehabilitation care provided through trained teams that include physical and mental rehabilitation specialists, and speech, occupational, creative and vocal therapists.
What parents need to do
Maintain the rehabilitation environment at home as an extension of what is provided at school.
Have a deep understanding of the child’s situation and they need to be able to work on meeting their needs.
Cooperate with health-care providers and supervising doctors for better progress of their child and adhere to a management plan.
Invest more time in caring about the child at home which is likely to significantly improve their performance in school.
Get trained in emergency care and handle the child in case of a situation at home.
What schools need to do
Identify the disabilities in the student and prepare a plan to handle it.
Get regular health screening for students and monitor their development, including immunisation records and other milestones.
Prepare an emergency care plan to deal with health crises such as hypoglycaemia, food allergies and alert authorities for needs of a child with thalassaemia, for instance.
Know when to make 999 calls.
Keep a stock of items such as insulin, EpiPens, and establish direct contact with emergency departments of hospitals.