Caxito - Training and guiding parents on how to replicate the procedures carried out at the hospital at home could be one of the keys to the success of the neurodevelopmental disorders screening campaign underway at Bengo General Hospital.
Training is planned for parents so that they can know how to deal with their children and have greater peace of mind, explained the director-general of Bengo General Hospital, Geovani Malega.
‘Parents often don't know what to do, their children don't speak, they don't walk, they don't interact, so they end up shutting them up at home when they go to work, when there is therapy so that the children can become more autonomous and the parents can stop suffering from this pathology in their children,’ Malega said.
Line Duarte, a neurodevelopment expert, with master's degree in ABA therapy, said both the clinical and school have a responsibility towards these children, since the idea is to train school professionals to accept children with neurodevelopmental disorders to enable the hospital’s treatment to be replicated in schools and within the family for positive results to be achieved.
‘There's no point in spending two or three hours doing interventions if the parents and teachers do not support when they get home or to school. Then the child becomes aggressive and there are no results,’ she explained.
Line Duarte explained that the aim is to provide assistance to roughly 1,300 families over the three days of the campaign, but if more families turn up they will be attended to.
"We have a multidisciplinary team, it won't just be the ABA applicators, but the whole hospital team, we're only talking about ten technicians initially, with a tendency to double, and we have around 80 professionals, so we have a lot," said the specialist.
Line Duarte emphasized that the screening is not just for children who have never had therapy, but also for those parents who feel they haven't had a response along the way.
The expert stressed that neurodevelopmental treatment in the country is very expensive, but this is not only the case in Angola, as specialists are very rare, both in the private and public sectors.
ABA therapy (Applied Behavior Analysis) is a therapeutic method that consists of an approach based on scientific principles of behavior that aims to modify behavior, teach skills and promote the autonomy of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. CJ/PA/DAN/AMP
