action group for needs-based provision
of disability aids and therapeutic products
Increasingly, families encounter rejections, stumbling blocks and barriers when trying to provide their children with urgently needed disability aids and therapies: be it that application forms are being sent back and forth between different cost bearers or that the Medizinische Dienst (medical service of the health insurance companies) is involved which, more often than not, reviews and rejects the prescription of aids by Sozialpädiatrische Zentren (social-paediatric centres) or consultants known to the families solely based on the records. This has disastrous consequences for children with disabilities because they need highly customised support that addresses their needs in each stage of their development. Behind every rejected application for aid provision there is a child who will now not be able to develop crucial skills and abilities.
If this then compounded by a gigantic wave of red tape rolling over the already stressed family and all those, who worked on needs assessments and the choice of the appropriate aid, and by having to submit numerous appeals and justifications in writing, then the situation becomes almost inhuman. Here, our political institutions could be really helpful by speeding up the processes involved. A quick and non-bureaucratic provision of disability aids would enable more young people with physical and multiple disabilities to develop age-appropriately. rehaKIND has contributed significantly to the petition “Put an end to health insurers’ obstruction in the care of severely disabled children/adults”, which in the end was signed by more than 55,000 people. From this, an action group has formed which has been joined by many supporters from the medical and therapeutic professions, all orthopaedic medical societies, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozialpädiatrie und Jugendmedizin (German society for social-paediatrics and adolescent medicine) and above all thousands of members of large self-help associations such as the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Muskelkranke (German muscular dystrophy association), the Kindernetzwerk (children’s network), the Bundesverband Kinderhospiz (German association of children’s hospices) together with many celebrities. The action group’s aim is to ensure that children are provided with disability aids and therapeutic products in a timely fashion. In a talk with politicians of the Green Party and the CDU (christian democratic party) the action group was given the assurance that their key objective was to be reflected in a health policy 100-day plan after the elections.
Become a part of the action group
Contact
You would like to support the action group morally? A short, informal E-mail is enough. Do you have ideas or contacts through which could help our cause to get heard in politics and media? We are looking forward to hearing from you.