Shamla Maharaj in 2008. Guardian File Photo

Persons suffering with Cerebral Palsy (CP) would receive more support says Minister of the People and Caroni Central MP Dr Glen Ramadharsingh. Ramadharsingh spoke with the Guardian following a meeting with just over one dozen persons suffering with CP and their relatives at the social development offices at Camden Road, Couva. Ramadharsingh said yesterday’s meeting arose following a discussion he had with the parent of a child who suffers from CP. He said the parent complained bitterly about the treatment she received from his ministry when the PNM was in power.

Ramadharsingh said persons with CP told him they were not getting the disability grant and were not being treated with empathy and sympathy by his staff at several social welfare offices across T&T. Ramadharsingh said his ministry would be looking at strengthening organisations directly involved with assisting persons with CP. Ramadharsingh said the goal was to have persons with CP receive support from a base point where doctors would be available. He said by doing so persons with CP, in the long run, would not be at the whim and fancy of the politicians and would only depend on his ministry for grants. Ramadharsingh said he was in the process of getting official statistics on the number and condition of people with CP in T&T.

UWI graduate with CP responds

Shamla Maharaj, 25, a CP sufferer and an undergraduate BSc degree double major in agribusiness management from UWI, said the Government could step in with proper ways to deal with employees by having their line managers assess how persons with CP and their parents were treated. In a telephone interview, Maharaj said educating and training individuals on how to deal with “CP people” will allow for better understanding of the individual because every CP child was different and thus required different attention on how care was given. She said having doctors available was also good. She added: “But CP is not something that can be cured and is only so much a doctor can do.”

Maharaj said Ramadharsingh focused on dealing with infants with the disability. He said: “What about young children and young adults.
The previous Government was working on a policy of inclusion and this was done by collaborating with persons with disability.” Maharaj said the disability grant needed equal if not more attention than the old age pension. Maharaj said the Social Development Ministry needed to embark on educating the public about persons with CP and by extension disabilities. “Equal opportunities can be given and provided from simple things, as access due to infrastructural design,” he added.

What is CP

CP is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development, chiefly in the various areas of body movement. It is caused by damage to the motor control centres of the developing brain and can occur during pregnancy, during childbirth or after birth, up to about age three. The motor disorders of cerebral palsy are often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, perception, cognition, communication and behaviour, by epilepsy, and by secondary musculoskeletal problems. Of the many types and sub-types of CP, none of them have a known cure. Usually, medical intervention is limited to the treatment and prevention of complications arising from CP's effects.