“Need for Crippled Children Society”

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 19

“Need for Crippled Children Society”

The need for the New Zealand Crippled Children Society was as great today as it was when it was founded 35 years ago, said Mr J. E. Greenslade, of Palmerston North, at the biennial conference of the society. More than 8000 crippled children and adolescents were registered with the society, he said. The type and scope of services provided had changed greatly since 1935, but the total demand for assistance was undiminished and likely to continue for as far ahead as the society could see.

Because of improved medical techniques and the early recognition of basic abnormalities, more crippled children survived the birth period, he said. The infant mortality of the physically handicapped had been dramatically reduced. “There are few disabilities that cannot be assisted or modified by one or a combination of the techniques from the great and growing armoury of medical weapons against congenital physical handicaps,” he said.

The outlook for the handicapped child and its chance of occupying a place in society was brighter than ever before.

Improved and more widely available techniques and a wealth of experience had resulted in a relative simplification of the more common congenital deformities such as harelip, cleft palate, club foot, and dislocation of the hip. These cases now tended to be off the society’s books by the age of eight or nine. In their place had come a second group, the needs of which were much more complex. These were the multiply handicapped group, which included conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and congenital amputees of the thalidomide type.

Mr Greenslade said an important basic task for the society was to provide a link between the needs of the child and the help available. If this was not done it would be fairly certain that many crippled children would miss the help of State and public institutions. It was no more than common sense that a handicapped person who could be helped and equipped to make a contribution to the community, and pay his share of its costs, was a more valuable person than one who was relegated to being a life-long dependant on aid, however charitably it was given.