Organizational and operational capabilities of specialist centres for children with psychomotor disability in Abidjan.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the organizational and operational capabilities of specialized centres for children with psychomotor disability in Abidjan, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive study was carried out from February to May, 2006 at the various specialized centres for children with psychomotor disability that exist in the district of Abidjan. The procedure comprised a clinical description of the disabled children admitted to these centres and an assessment of the centres' organization and operational capabilities. RESULTS AND COMMENTS: Six specialist centres for children with psychomotor disability were identified, namely the Infant Guidance Centre, the Awakening and Stimulation Centre for disabled Children, the "Sainte-Magdeleine" Centre, the Medical and Training Institute, the "Page Blanche" institute and the "Colombes Notre Dame de la Paix" Centre. Among the children, 97.15% were day patients, 66.37% were mentally challenged, 30.96% had psychomotor impairment and 2.66% had motor impairments. The level of organization varied but the centres nevertheless had operational administrative, medical and paramedical staff, despite the absence of certain specialties. However, the lack of personnel, equipment and infrastructure is hindering the delivery of adequate services to the children. CONCLUSION: In Abidjan District, reception centres for children with psychomotor impairments are essentially privately run. Organizational and operational performances were suboptimal, with a low carer-to-patient ratio. Reinforcement of the centres' operational capabilities appears to be necessary.

Quality of life assessment of handicapped students integrated into the ordinary higher education system.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of life of handicapped students integrated into the ordinary higher education system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Over a seven-month period in the academic year 2000-2001, we performed a descriptive, cross-sectional, analytical survey of 203 handicapped students registered in universities and high schools in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The first part of the survey questionnaire concerned the students' social-demographic and clinical characteristics and the second part consisted of a quality of life assessment in terms of building and teaching accessibility and socioeconomic aspects. Quality of life was evaluated on a six-step scale, as per the life satisfaction questionnaire of Bränholm and Fugl-Meyer. RESULTS: A number of the handicapped students (60.6%) received financial support from their families. Several students (89.2 and 10.8%) presented motor and sensory handicaps, respectively. A number of respondents (63.5%) considered that building accessibility was dissatisfactory. A number of the surveyed students (73.89%) were at university. Teaching accessibility was judged to be satisfactory by motor-handicapped subjects and dissatisfactory by sensory handicapped persons. A number of the surveyed students (26.6%) spent between 25 to 50% of their monthly income on handicap-related expenses and 19.7% of the survey population even spent more than 50% of their income in this respect. The surveyed students' considered their overall quality of life to be dissatisfactory. CONCLUSION: Improving handicapped students' quality of life requires an appropriate legislative environment and adequate financial support in order to incite educational institutions to accept these students' needs and their specific characteristics.