27 October 2015, 3:02 pm – UST is
bringing its research and community development efforts to Naga City in Camarines Sur to help improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities (PWDs).
The
University signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Santa
Isabel last Sept. 28 to launch collaborative research and community development
programs that would help the city “become more sensitive” to the needs of PWDs.
College
of Rehabilitation Sciences (CRS) Community Development Director Jordan Barbra Nava said the partnership was aimed at helping PWDs become more engaged in society.
“Our
thrust is to have a disabilityinclusive society and stop the discrimination of
PWDs. This means that the PWDs will be treated equally just like normal
people and one way we can do this is to get the PWDs involved in the society,” Nava said in an interview.
Researchers
include CRS Dean Cheryl Peralta and UST Simbahayan Director Mark Abenir, who had led a study on the social wellbeing of adult PWDs in the Philippines.
Joyce
Anne Ponciano, researcher at the UST Center for Health Research and Movement Science, will also do research on PWDs with the help of CRS students.
The
researchers conducted “disability profiling” last May and are working on
an appropriate disability assessment tool.
“We
started with the translation of the World Health Organization (WHO) disability assessment
schedule. We plan on using it to help us with the identification of
disabilities,” Nava said.
The WHO disability assessment schedule is a generic instrument for health and disability used across all diseases.
Prior
to UST’s collaboration with Santa Isabel, the University worked with the Parents’
Advocate for Visually Impaired Children in Naga. Alhex Adrea M. Peralta and Jerome
P. Villanueva
