ABU DHABI// A new programme will help families and those working with youngsters with special needs make crucial decisions about their lives.
The Masar – Arabic for pathway – scheme was announced by the Zayed Higher Organisation for Humanitarian Care and Special Needs at the centre in Al Mafraq on Tuesday.
“It is largely creating a road map for the process of educating students in the centre,” said Mohammed Al Hameli, secretary general of the organisation and deputy chairman of its board.
He said the programme – which is claimed to be the first of its kind in the Arab World – is outlined in a procedural guide that would affect more than 1,000 people of different ages at the organisation’s centres around Abu Dhabi emirate.
The guide also sends a message to centre staff “to be cooperative in terms of family, teachers, physicians who have been involved” in planning with each individual, Mr Al Hameli said.
Centre staff take different approaches when working with families to make decisions such as whether their children can attend regular schools, marry, have children or find employment.
“We want them to work in one vision, focusing on each case,” said Mahmoud Al Shathely, assessment and programmes adviser at the organisation.
Staff would work with families and others involved in the person’s life, like teachers and doctors, to assess the youngster’s long-term “pathway” and re-evaluate the plan every three to five hears, Mr Al Shathely said.
Starting when the child is five, after at least a year of assessment, they will evaluate the type and severity of each person’s disability to plan for life decisions.
The programme helps the planning process for each individual start earlier for decisions such as vocational training, which at present is not usually decided until the age of 15, when the rehabilitation training for children at the centres ends.
The procedural guide outlines the process in 70 pages, discussing phases such as enrolment, medical examination, early intervention for infants, assessment and diagnosis and education integration.
Mr Al Shathely said he hopes the programme can help families, who often struggle with decisions or lack knowledge about disabilities. Marriages can break up when parents blame each other, while special needs people are sometimes allowed to marry without knowing their disability is hereditary.
The plan is to be used at the organisation’s centres in Abu Dhabi emirate, but Mr Al Hameli said the organisation could soon work with facilities in other emirates to standardise the evaluation process throughout the UAE.
Work on the programme started three years ago, with team members drawing on experiences from their own native countries. The team, led by Mr Al Shathely, a Jordanian, had three main members and more than 20 supporting members.
They researched similar programmes in the UK, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, the US and Singapore, he said.
Mr Al Shathely said it was vital for the families of disabled people to be able to contribute to their lives.
“There is no pathway for a student without his family,” he said.
The President, Sheikh Khalifa, established the organisation in 2009 as an umbrella organisation for social services and special-needs institutions.
It has 12 centres throughout Abu Dhabi that provide care such as training, education, rehabilitation, psychological care, family counselling and activities.
lcarroll@thenational.ae
