State To Lower Assistive Equipment Costs For PWDs Under New Scheme

The Ministry of Health wants to give people with disabilities more access to suitable rehabilitation services at all lower-level establishments.

This follows the Thursday launch of the 2022–2026 rehabilitative services and assistive technologies strategy by the Ministry of Health and partners. An individual’s functioning and independence are maintained or enhanced by assistive products, which benefits their wellbeing.

Examples of assistive equipment include hearing aids, wheelchairs, communication aids, spectacles, prostheses, pill organizers, and memory aids. In order to enhance access and lower the cost of purchasing assistive devices for PWDs, the policy also aims to, among other things, subsidize the price of goods connected with certain disabilities.

According to the results of the 2019 Census, 2.2 percent (or 0.9 million) of Kenyans aged five or older have a disability that frequently necessitates medical attention. According to Health PS Peter Tum, “the number of people experiencing disability is rising due to an increase in chronic health conditions and population aging.

According to him, some health disorders linked to disabilities lead to poor health and necessitate substantial medical attention, while others do not. To address the issues with categorizing people with impairments, the ministry has released the Disability Medical Evaluation and Categorization Guidelines (PWDs).

The difficulties included the lack of universal or established criteria for identifying the presence of a handicap and classifying it.