KUALA LUMPUR: The challenges and difficulties of raising children with disabilities can lead to added pressure on families where they struggle to cope with handling such situations.
Welfare Department director-general, Norazman Othman said children with disabilities need more care and attention compared to normal children because of their added needs, which differ in terms of rehabilitation, recovery as well as integration into society and the community.
Norazman said parents of children with disabilities need to digest the knowledge and the skills to raise and nurture children with disabilities.
Parents and families, he said, can get counseling services at the community welfare office or National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) as well as nearby non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for guidance and advice regarding problems and issues faced in caring for and nurturing children with disabilities.
"The Welfare Department has 193 counsellors stationed at our department offices at various levels.
"However, parents unable to take care of children with disabilities can send these kids to a welfare department institution as a very last resort, to ensure that the welfare of the child is prioritised and preserved.
"The government, through the department, provides specialised care services for the disabled at welfare institutions such as Taman Sinar Harapan (TSH), which has been gazetted as an institution that provides care, protection and rehabilitation for those in the disabled category with learning difficulties," he told Berita Harian.
Norazman was commenting on a case where three young siblings in Perlis, two of them tied and chained at the leg by their mother, were found by members of the public.
Kangar district police chief, Assistant Commissioner Yusharifuddin Mohd Yusof, said the two who were chained, aged between 13 and 16, were disabled while the other was not.
Preliminary information suggested that the woman had resorted to doing so to curb their movements.
They have since been admitted to hospital in Kangar for treatment, and have been handed over to the Perlis Welfare Department for care and protection.
Norazman said that there are seven TSHs across the country that offer childcare services for disabled children of various categories.
"Apart from the TSH, which is managed and run by the Welfare Department, there are also NGOs that provide care for children with special needs.
"This NGO provides care and rehabilitation, recovery services for the PwD (Persons with Disabilities) community to accommodate the lack of services and institutions provided by the government, especially the Welfare Department towards the well-being of the disabled," he said.
He said that the Welfare Department provides Community Rehabilitation Programmes (PDK) for rehabilitation, recovery and learning opportunities to the PwD community from an early age.
Norazman also reminded everyone involved in caring for disabled children on the key role player by parents and families.
"The rehabilitation process will continue, starting from the place where rehabilitation takes place right until when the children with disabilities are at home," he said.