Many places are still not disabled-friendly
Published on: Friday, May 10, 2019
KOTA KINABALU: While the city has made improvements to cater to the needs of people with disability, there is still room for upgrading, said Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s (QEH) Rehabilitation Medicine Department Head Dr Syahiskandar Sybil Shah.
During the recent spinal cord injury (SCI) support group event, he said, the participants had brought up issues of lack of disabled people and wheelchair-friendly recreational places, including at shopping malls and mosques.
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“Other issues regarding accessibilities are designated disabled people park lots which are not wide enough especially if the driver and passengers are all wheelchair bound,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
“And some places despite having rams for wheelchair users are simply too steep making it impossible to access.”
However, the participants also expressed their gratitude that lately there are more park lots in the city that are disabled people-friendly.
This shows that the local authorities are listening to their plights and that improvements have been made, he said.
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Mayor Datuk Nordin Siman who also attended the event, assured them that the community and city truly supports them but that it will take time for the city to be fully accessible to the disabled community.
On the event, Syahiskandar said the event was co-organised by QEH Rehabilitation Medicine Department together with Jesselton Medical Centre (JMC) and Sabah Rehabilitation Medicine Club (KPRS).
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The event was part of the community rehabilitation programme, which is to get the patients to meet other SCI patients as well as to motivate and be motivated by their peers with similar situation.
Some 13 patients with their families participated in the event of which three were incomplete tetraplegia and the rest a mixture of complete and incomplete paraplegia patients.
“Of the number, three are still receiving active spine rehabilitation in QEH’s rehabilitation ward.
“The programme also aims to raise awareness among the participants as well as the public of the many issues faced by SCI patients,” he said.
Syahiskandar said that very little is published on the demographics or epidemiological patterns of SCI in Malaysia.
However, a recent estimate showed that annual incidence of SCI is approximately 54 cases per one million people in the United States or about 17,700 new SCI cases each year.
“The leading cause of SCI would be motor vehicle accident, fall from height and industrial accidents.
“Other non-traumatic causes would be tumour, infection, autoimmune and others.
“SCI is damaged to the spinal cord that cause temporary or permanent changes in its function.
“Complications of SCI are loss of muscle function causing limbs weakness, inability to control bowel and bladder function, neuropathic pain, sensory loss, pressure ulcers, sexual dysfunction, autonomic dysreflexia and others.
“Patient also suffer from emotional toil due to SCI increasing the risk of depression, suicide and body image problem.”
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