Article of the Week

Grandmothers provide the healing touch

According to a study held in Kolkata, grandmothers can be helpful in providing children with cerebral palsy an improved quality of life. A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Cerebral palsy, Kolkata and the Wales College of Medicine, UK, suggested that children with cerebral palsy need to have this therapy for long hours daily.

Though physiotherapists do provide trained treatment, it's only for a certain time. It's therefore left to the parents and family members, like grandmothers, to continue with the treatment and rehabilitation.

In most cases, however, both parents remain busy with their jobs and hardly find the time to help their children affected by cerebral palsy. The researchers wrote in the medical journal that grandmothers, who are in the house throughout the day, could help in this regard. Grandmothers can also escort children to and from schools, and thus build a bond that helps the afflicted children to lead a good life.

Cerebral palsy occurs when part of the brain is damaged or has not developed properly, according to a statement by the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy. This may happen before birth or in early childhood. In some people, cerebral palsy is barely noticeable while others could be more severely affected.

Dr Summan Datta Kanjilal, former associate professor of pediatric medicine at the Kolkata National Medical College Hospital, explained that cerebral palsy affects motor skills, which delays activities like smiling, sitting, crawling and walking.

Afflicted children also have speech and hearing problems. She added that most of the time, cerebral palsy manifests itself before the child is one year old. In severe cases, the disease can be diagnosed even before the child is three months old. Some children may become impassive or even mentally retarded.

Functional Problems

For the research, Dr Tessa Hamblin from the Indian Institute of Cerebral palsy, Dr Iris Musa from the Wales College of Medicine and their colleagues studied the families of 20 affected children living in Kolkata's slums. The researchers wrote that the most common problem felt by the families was that the child was unable to walk. In addition, they often mentioned a functional problem with feeding and activities related to the toilet.

Researchers, however, warn that cerebral palsy has no cure and proper motivation and therapy are the only ways to manage the disease. Dr Agnimita Giri Sarkar, a paediatrician at the Life Line Hospital said that every child with cerebral palsy needed physiotherapy.

This helps the effected side of the body to function optimally and also boosts the functions of the non-affected side. The children may also need speech therapy and should be taught regular activities like going to the toilet, brushing, dressing, self feeding and so on.

Dr Sarkar added that proper education was also required to help lead a good social life. Playing at home could be an important way to treat these children because this can improve both their physical and mental abilities.

Dr Debasis Bas, associate professor of Neurology at NRS Medical College and Hospital, agreed that family members could help. He said that treatment of cerebral palsy was basically symptomatic. Rehabilitation therapy is the mainstay of treatment and it's done in the form of physiotherapy, speech therapy and other vocational therapies. Home-based care is an important means of rehabilitation.

Training Needed

The authors of the study also say that the treatment needs to take place over long periods and should be the dominant activity each day in order for the intervention programmes to be effective. Dr Hamblin says that grandmothers can be involved in the routine activities of the child, such as feeding, movement, education and so on.

They can play with the child and help him or her receive proper therapy. She added that this project has shown that it's possible to use the resilience and resourcefulness of the family to help the child to become part of his or her community, attend school and so become equipped for the future.

However, grandmothers and other family members should properly learn the necessary techniques from trained therapists before they use them with cerebral palsy-affected children.

Dr Kanjilal cautioned that any therapy provided by persons who were not properly trained could be dangerous. So before implementing family-based rehabilitation in cerebral palsy children, proper training to family members should be provided.

Source: Granny's healing hand. The Telegraph, Kolkata, 22 May 2006.