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Access to therapy is a major stumbling block for children with special needs, especially for children who have coordination issues. Some older children with special needs, or children unable to visit the village centres, receive no intervention at all.

To help these children access therapy and care, Satya Special School started providing therapy through Mobile Therapy Units (MTUs).

Mobile Therapy Unit

Mobile Therapy Unit

The MTU, with specialized equipment and staffed by a physiotherapist, speech therapist, and special educator visit remote villages and provide services to children who are unable to visit any of our centres.

Many of the children are older, and have not received any therapy since birth. If a child served by the MTU shows enough improvement, they graduate to our centres: either our village rehabilitation centres or our urban centres.

Rural rehabilitation is a much-needed service and the MTU can easily be replicated in rural India.

Satya’s MTU received the 2018 World CP Day Award for medical intervention.

Statistics

2018

MTU received

World Cerebral Palsy Day Award

44

villages

reached by each MTU

1200

kilometres

travelled by one Mobile Therapy Unit in a month

News & Events
Success stories

No News and Events

Slow but steady; Darshan

Wins are small but significant in the special needs space. When the MTU team first saw Darshan in 2019, when he was two years old, he was lying down for most of the time, and non-communicative. Now, three years later, when the team calls on him at his home, he squeals in delight. “When the MTU team leaves, he becomes sad for some time,” says his father, D. Mahendran, a daily wage earner. S. Suryakumari, speech therapist, says that Darshan’s journey is heart-warming for many reasons: the boy who spent most his time lying down is now able to sit without support, and is able to communicate using basic sounds. Also, his older brother, also a special needs child and an MTU student, passed away at the age of eight. The MTU team has also spent a lot of time counselling the parents and raising their awareness about rehabilitation. “We are working with all our energy for Darshan,” says Suryakumari. “After the MTU, we are trying to get Darshan to our Seliamedu centre, where he can access more frequent therapy.”

Sprightly young; Shankari

Sankari is a sprightly young girl. Born in 2014, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and mild intellectual disability. For years, she would move only with her buttock and would lean on one side of her body. The MTU reached her when she was four years old. With an extra complication of a tube in her throat because of her wheezing, we started intensive speech therapy, physiotherapy and special education as well. We also got her custom-fitted Knee Ankle Foot (KAFO) orthotics for better movement. At seven years of age, Sankari is able to stand comfortably and walk a bit. She is also able to speak better, being able to make ‘zha’ and ‘la’ sounds comfortably. Integration into mainstream school is already a possibility for Sankari!

MOBILE UNIT