Cerebral Palsy: Health Experts Meet in Lagos

By Lara Samuel

For the third time this year, health administrators, educators, researchers and advocates from within and outside the country will come together to brainstorm on cerebral palsy.

The meeting, aimed at providing effective management regime for persons with cerebral palsy in Nigeria according to a statement issued in Lagos by the founder of Benola Cerebral Palsy, Air Vice Marshal Femi Gbadebo (Rtd), would hold on Thursday, September 26, 2013, at Peninsula Hotel, Lekki.

Among those scheduled to attend the meeting on October 26 and 27 are Professor Afolabi Lesi, Consultant Paediatrician and Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Dr Emeka
Ejeliogu, Consultant Neurologist, Department of Paediatric Neurology, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, among others.

“Having gathered enough data on the state of Cerebral Palsy in Nigeria, Benola is now ready to move to the next stage in the preparation of the Roadmap for the management Regime of Cerebral Palsy in Nigeria, through a process that will involve another Roundtable Meeting. At the end of the meeting, a writing team will be appointed to ensure that a draft copy is ready by December 2013.

“It is expected that following a period of further consultations, the finished document, A Roadmap for Early Detection and effective Management Regime for Cerebral Palsy in Nigeria, will be ready for presentation to the Nigerian public in the 1st quarter of 2014,” the statement said.

At its first Public Presentation on 26th February 2013, The
Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Benola: A Cerebral Palsy Initiative, AVM Femi Gbadebo OFR, stated that one of the primary objectives of the initiative was to help determine an effective management regime for Cerebral Palsy in Nigeria

“Over the past nine months, there is an ample evidence to show that the initiative has been working hard to do just that, having held numerous one on one contacts with medical experts and members of the academia.

The Federal and state governments were also not left out in these consultations as Benola also incorporated their representatives in the workshops and brainstorming sessions which they held within the period, like  the Roundtable meeting of Experts in April 2013 and the
First National Cerebral Palsy Family Forum of 20 July 2013, a forum that resulted from Benola’s interactions and counselling sessions, through e-mail, telephone and direct contact, with over 150 concerned parents and care-givers from all over Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, high profile persons, including state leaders, ministers, diplomats, high-ranking officials from world organizations and Chief Executive Officers of international corporations will attend the Benola Cocktail Party.

“It is a gathering of Cerebral Palsy patients, families, providers, administrators, educators, researchers, advocates and funders,” AVM Femi Gbadebo (rtd) said in a statement in Lagos.

The Cocktail Party and Partners/Sponsors Recognition Night scheduled to hold on Wednesday, October 2, 2013 at Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island is to mark World Cerebral Palsy Day, a day when Benola will join hundreds of other like-minded organizations and over 14 million people world-wide to celebrate those living with Cerebral
Palsy.

The event is also expected to provide a discussion forum for policy makers and innovative thinkers on the treatment of cerebral palsy.

Source: Daily Times Nigeria