Expert on disabled

Press, 4 August 1979, Page 22

Expert on disabled

Co-ordination of voluntary organisations working for the physically disabled was vital, said an Australian authority on rehabilitation, Sir Dennis Paterson in Christchurch. Sir Dennis is in New Zea-; land as the Otago Savings: Bank visiting professor and J keynote speaker at a rehabilitation conference which will begin in Dunedin onj August 7. He is president of the South Australian ; Crippled Children Associ- ■ ation and senior orthopaedic' surgeon at the Royal Ade-! (aide Children's Hospital. He said that until a few years ago he had been ap- ! palled at the hotch-potch j nature of voluntary organ-' isations working for the dis-1 abled.

Economic restraints in Australia and New Zealand would force a more efficient

use of money and time given by the public.

! Some accountability was necessary if the work of voluntary groups was not to be dissipated. He predicted that a Govi eminent advisory body I would be set up to co-ordi- ■ nate the work of voluntary groups. I Sir Dennis, who received his knighthood in 1976 for outstanding service to medicine, was the prime mover behind the establishment in 'Adelaide of the first co-ordi-i nated rehabilitation unit for I physically disabled children in Australia or New Zealand. Known as Regency Park, I the $6.5 million centre praI vides training, residential care, schooling, and medical [treatment for more than 240 ! children aged from two to about 18. The centre, which costs $3

million a year to run, is supported by the Crippled Children Association, state and Federal finance, voluntary organisations. “What we did was close all these unconnected units working with children of all disabilities and bring them together,” said Sir Dennis. Staff from the centre regularly visited ordinary schools to support teachers of pupils who were physically disabled. “Our aim is to achieve a turnover of rehabilitated young people into the community: while we provide a backstop, young disabled people are becoming independent.

“We could never have achieved this, however, without working together in a coordinated manner,” Sir Dennis said.