The Ministry of Community Development has put in place a set of additional precautionary measures and measures to deal with people of determination in light of the infection with the Corona virus (COFED-19), to help their families and their caregivers to overcome the challenges surrounding them, and support them morally to continue coordinating their daily lives safely, as identified seven strategies To support autistic children.
The Ministry, through the Department of Welfare and Rehabilitation of People of Determination, directed instructions and procedural steps that allow parents to help their children with intellectual disabilities to cope with the reality of staying at home, and set a set of strategies to specifically support people with autism during their period in the home quarantine.
The director of the Department of Welfare and Rehabilitation of People of Determination in the Ministry, Wafa Hamad bin Suleiman, stressed the importance of taking additional precautionary measures in dealing with people of determination, under the current circumstances, by virtue of the presence of many challenges related to the behaviors, needs and requirements of people of determination, including the person with a physical disability , Who may find it difficult to perform basic hygiene measures, such as constant access to laundries, or he may face physical difficulty in rubbing his hands, and the expected difficulty in achieving the principle of physical distance from others, given the need for caregivers.
Among the challenges are also the need for people of determination to touch things, especially by those with visual impairment, in order to obtain information from the surrounding environment, and the need to use support tools that may be vulnerable to the virus, such as a wheelchair, a white cane, a walker, etc., in addition to There are barriers in obtaining public health information, which must be available in appropriate formats such as sign language, or phonogram.
She indicated that some people of determination may suffer from health conditions such as weak immune and respiratory systems, cerebral palsy, and sclerosis under treatment, and there are other challenges such as difficulty in accessing health care places, optimal communication with medical service providers, and difficulty in understanding or remembering prevention measures And followed by people with intellectual disabilities.
She explained that the Ministry has identified seven strategies for the people to achieve optimal support for people with autism during the period of home quarantine, namely: helping them to understand what is going on around them in a simple manner, giving them an opportunity to express what is going on in their minds, and follow the appropriate calming skills with them, and preserving as much as possible the routine activities Daily for them, and trying to gradually build new routine activities to adapt to the current reality, encourage communication with others from a distance, and note any change in behavior.
The Ministry has put in place instructions to help children with intellectual disabilities cope with staying at home, including the need to explain to the child in a simplified manner about the current situation, the reason for staying at home, and not to overexpose the child to daily news about the virus so as not to raise its stress, and try to organize the child's daily time Between entertainment, study, play, homework, read stories and watch TV.
She stressed the need to maintain sleep times and meals, to encourage the child to participate in simple household tasks, to communicate with colleagues, friends and teachers, and to assign him daily tasks, no matter how simple, and to encourage them, such as arranging bed and bringing food. In its instructions to help children with intellectual disabilities during the current circumstances, the Ministry stressed the need for more daily activities for the child's home life, such as prayer, drawing, clay, and photo stories, with the importance of the child's participation in play on a daily basis, and trying to identify the emotional state of the child and his participation His feelings.