Description
This project will ensure that our full range early intervention services are provided to all families of children with visual or multiple disabilities in the City of Prague who request it. The project will focus on support of right child development and guidance to his/her family so the child can live normal life at home and isn’t forced to institutional care. As part of the project, we will strengthen parental competences in order to prevent social exclusion of families. By informing professional health public, each family is informed in time about all support options via our early intervention services and emergency phone and chat line EDA.
Summary of project results
Over a lengthy period the early intervention service in Prague ran at full capacity. The parents of children with visual or multiple impairments had to wait for a long time to access the service. Another long-standing problem that has to be dealt with is an inadequate awareness of healthcare workers’ regarding the early intervention service. There are still some doctors who consider the early intervention service unimportant and of little use and do not recommend our service to the families. Our aim was to improve the level of their understanding of what the aims and methods of an early intervention service are. The project ensured the provision of the full early intervention service to all families living in Prague who are caring for children with visual or multiple impairments, and who requested it. We focus on supporting the child’s development and also supporting the entire family so that children can live their daily lives at home with their parents and relatives and not to be condemned to life in an institution. We strengthen parental skills to prevent the social exclusion of these families. Improving the understanding of healthcare professionals ensured that the families caring for children with impairments would be informed at the proper time about all the possibilities of help and support available to them. Through the project we could provide the early intervention service to 23 families with whom we conducted 100 outreach consultations. We supported 138 families within the framework of parents’ meetings. We produced 20 000 leaflets giving information about the early intervention service and The EDA Help Line that were distributed throughout the Czech Republic. The organisation’s employees completed 18 hours of supervision.
Summary of bilateral results