What is Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR)?

CBR works to grant equal rights and opportunities to every member of a community, including those with disabilities. It focuses on utilizing local resources, advocacy, education and involvement from community members to provide support and promote inclusivity for people with disabilities. At The Inspiration Center, our medical staff works closely with our social worker and Rehabilitation Field Officers to advocate for the wellbeing of children with disabilities. RFOs go into the community and visit children in their homes to provide treatment and accessibility of care throughout the country.

Rehabilitation Field Officers (RFOs)

Rehabilitation Field Officers (RFOs) are sent into the community and into the homes of children living with disabilities to assist the family in learning how to best support their child with disabilities and to help that child reach his or her developmental milestones. This includes sharing exercises designed to promote muscle strengthening needed to perform basic tasks to encourage independence, teaching proper feeding/nutritional practices and providing referrals as needed.

Securing school support is also an important part of our RFOs job. They work with schools to ensure a child with disabilities can enroll and have his or her needs met. Our RFOs collaborate with teachers to develop individualized learning plans that offer equal opportunities for success for all children.

The services and guidance RFOs provide is holistic; in addition to the child, the RFOs work with the entire family, the community, health organizations, and educational and vocational services.

TIC currently has RFOs in Orange Walk, Toledo, Cayo and Belize.

Our Comprehensive and Holistic Treatment Plan

We follow a CBR Matrix, a comprehensive and holistic approach to treating a child. We combine the Medical and Community Based Rehabilitation Models of Care. This means we use both medical practices (medicine, diagnostic tests and physical examinations) and holistic treatment practices (ensuring proper education, livelihood, development of social skills and empowerment).

The CBR matrix gives an overall visual representation of CBR. It consists of five key components (health, education, etc), each divided into five key elements. Each of these elements has a dedicated chapter in the guidelines. These guidelines were created following the International Consultation to Review Community-Based Rehabilitation, held in Helsinki, Finland in 2003. (http://www.miusa.org)