Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy Facts

Cerebral palsy, children, therapy, treatment

With Cerebral Palsy the damaged parts of the brain do not recover but the symptoms can be improved.
Symptoms often include:

What causes Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral palsy results from a brain injury at the time of birth or during infancy. Premature birth, lack of obstetric care, and rampant malaria combine to produce a much higher incidence of children with cerebral palsy in developing countries.

Children with cerebral palsy develop a stiffness in their muscles and lose their coordination. They often suffer some degree of mental disability.

How CBM helps

If rehabilitation and therapy for cerebral palsy is provided early enough, it can make a vital difference. CBM’s Community Care Workers travel to towns, villages and slums, find children with cerebral palsy and develop local support and rehabilitation groups.

This means parents can get the help their children desperately need and find companionship and support with other parents. Often, the provision of a simple, locally-made CP chair gets these children sitting and looking around and their mental development takes a miraculous leap forward. CBM is instrumental in helping many CP children get enrolled in a public school, where they have the opportunity to receive an education. In many cases, their bodies may suffer deformities but their minds are still very alert.

How You Can Help

Cerebral Palsy therapy, treatment, children
A child with cerebral palsy receives rehabilitation and physical therapy.

Here’s my gift to help CBM provide vital equipment and resources to help save the lives of the neediest people in the world.

Prevention & Treatment

While all cerebral palsy cannot be prevented, safe pregnancy, birth and childhood may reduce the numbers of children with cerebral palsy in a community.

Children with cerebral palsy may face challenges in movement and posture, sensation, cognition, communication or behavior. They also may experience seizures.

For children with cerebral palsy, individual rehabilitation plans are developed by joint efforts with the child, family, healthcare provider and CBM’s community based rehabilitation service. These plans, which can help the child have a more active life and lead to a productive future, are based upon mutual respect, empowered parents and open sharing of information. Regular therapies and treatments can help to minimize the difficulty of walking and being active. Home support, education and physiotherapy can ease the burden of this disability. Parents can learn exercises so they can help their child to improve his or her efficiency to walk, talk, and learn. In additional, helpful appliances such as cerebral palsy chairs, walking aids, foot splints, orthopedic shoes, and wheelchairs also may help with mobility. Surgery is occasionally necessary to correct joint contractures.

A Sample of Related CBM Projects

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