Italian Association Amici di Raoul Follereau (AIFO)

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Brief Introduction

"New Paradigm of Medical care for Persons with Disabilities and Persons with Chronic Conditions" initiative is promoted jointly by Disability & Rehabilitation team of World Health Organisation (WHO/DAR) and Italian Association Amici di Raoul Follereau (AIFO/Italy) in collaboration with Disabled People International (DPI).

This initiative is inspired by the concept of the paradigm shift in organisation of health care services recommended in the WHO publication Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions (ICCC, WHO, 2002, pdf, 4.3 MB). Other developments that have stimulated this initiative include UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, UN, Dec. 2006, pdf, 450 KB) and the understandings of Human Rights Approach that bring together medical and social models of disability.

• Are you part of an organisation of Persons with Disabilities?

• Are you part of a project promoting self-care groups of persons with disabilities?

• Are you a member of a group of persons with a chronic condition?

• Are you part of a health care or rehabilitation team and you are promoting greater involvement of persons with disabilities in their own care?

If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, read the background document and Share your experiences with us! Join the New Paradigm initiative as a partner. We are looking for information on the following areas or Discussion Themes:

• How do you set up self-help groups?

• How do self-help groups identify their health care needs?

• How can self-help groups learn more about their own health care needs?

• Do self-help groups use the knowledge and skills they learn for their own care?

• Do health care professionals recognise the specific role of self-help groups?

• If people play a greater role in their own care, what impact does it have on the health care professionals?

To understand the logic of these Discussion themes, read the Background document of New Paradigm Initiative.

How to Share your experiences with us!

We are looking for experiences of persons involved in self-care initiatives. Our information collection is through a Blog created for this purpose called New Paradigm Blog. On the New Paradigm Blog, information is organised in six discussion themes  explained below. You can comment and share ideas on the Blogs. You can also share your ideas, reports and experiences on any of these as areas by sending an email to sunil.deepakataifo.it. If we have your emails, we shall send you an alert for every update on the New Paradigm blog.  

Persons with chronic conditions and Persons with disabilities

This initiative is focusing on persons who require regular health care for their chronic condition or disability.

Many persons with disabilities do not require any continuing health care support for their disability. For example blind persons or persons with hearing disability, do not require any continuing health care support for their disabilities.

On the other hand, most persons with persons with diabetes, arthritis, spinal cord injury, leprosy, epilepsy, etc. do require regular support from health care and rehabilitation services. This initiative is only for self-help groups of such persons who do require regular and continuing health care support.

6 Discussion Themes (areas) for sharing of information on the New Paradigm Blog: The New Paradigm Blog is organised in six discussion themes, where you can read the views of other persons and organisations and you can leave your comments. If we feel that your comments are significant, they will be added on the blogs as individual entries. You can also send your comments, ideas, reports, experiences by email to sunil.deepakataifo.it (substitute "at" in the email address by "@").

Blog Area 1: How do you set up self-help groups?: Under this area we are looking how persons affected with a chronic condition or persons with disability requiring regular health care support, set up a self-help group. How can you facilitate setting up of self-help groups? How do self-help groups develop over a period of time? How do they deal with conflict?

Blog Area 2: How do self-help groups identify their health care needs? Do persons with a chronic condition or persons with disability have knowledge about their own health care needs? Do persons with long standing condition have more knowledge and skills about their own health care? How can they identify and understand their own health care needs?

Blog Area 3: How can self-help groups learn more about their own health care needs? Are there any self-learning manuals or books? Can health care and social professionals provide knowledge and skills to them about their own health care needs? Is theoretical knowledge enough? 

Blog Area 4: Do self-help groups use the knowledge and skills they learn for their own care?: Are persons actually using the newly learnt skills? What factors help people to be more active in their own care? Are there any areas in which persons require more support from health care professionals?

Blog Area 5: Do health care professionals recognise the specific role of self-help groups? Do experienced self-help groups play a formal role in providing support of health care professionals? What roles can organisations of persons with chronic conditions and organisations of persons with disabilities play?

Blog Area 6: If people play a greater role in their own care, what does it mean for the health care professionals? If persons with chronic conditions or persons with disabilities can play a greater role in their own care, how does it help the health care and social professionals? How does it change the way of working of professionals?

If you have positive or negative experiences to share in any of the six areas explained above, read the New Paradigm Blog and/or  send an email to sunil.deepakataifo.it For better understanding of the discussion areas and rationale of this initiative, please read the Background Document.

Picture: Self-help groups of persons with spinal cord injury and persons with learning disabilities in Piedecuesta, Colombia

Background Information about the initiative

• Origin of the joint initiative by WHO/DAR & AIFO in 2005: Includes information about the first meeting held in Rome in April 2005.

• Information about pilot research projects (during 2005-2007): Includes information about pilot projects that accepted to participate in this initiative and their activities between 2005 to 2007

• Conclusions of the first phase in December 2007: Includes information about a meeting held in Rome in December 2007. Some of the pilot projects participating in the pilot research projects came together for this meeting.

For any questions or feedback, please write to sunil.deepakataifo.it (replace "at" with "@" in the email)