6^th International Conference on
Neuroscience and Neurological Disorders

Biography:

Andrea Patterson is the Country Director of Relief International in Turkey. She is a humanitarian response worker with over 12 years of professional work experience in managing complex program portfolios at post conflict and humanitarian response settings. She has been working in assistance for Syrian refugees in a variety of countries, overseeing innovative programmatic activities and improving the lives of refugees. She holds a  Master of Science in Public Health, a Master of Arts in Human Security and Peacebuilding, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

Abstract:

Background: Turkey hosts more Syrian refugees than any other country. As of Sep 2019, 3.6 million Syrian refugees were registered with the Government of Turkey (UNHCR). A large number of the refugees have settled in Turkey’s southeastern provinces of Åžanliurfa, Hatay, Kilis, and Gaziantep. The 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) reports that 45% of surveyed persons injured during the Syria crisis are expected to sustain a permanent impairment (e.g. amputation, spinal cord injury, brain injury). According to NHO 2017, 53% of injuries were due to explosive weapons. Relief International is supporting the National Syrian Project for Prosthetic Limbs in Reyhanli (Turkey) in terms of organizational capacity building funded by ECHO. Responding to the critical, lifesaving rehabilitation needs among all refugees eligible for services by the Government of Turkey. The center is providing prosthetic devices to refugees with lower limb amputations with capacity of 20-25 devices monthly. Nearly 80% of the beneficiaries are war-related injuries, out of them 18% are females.

Post rehabilitation impact on Syrian refuges with lower limb amputation is seeking to collect and analysis of information provides a gathered from the beneficiaries through surveys and focus group discussions that includes quantity and quality indicators that aim to monitor the functional improvements by using functional Independence Measure and Amputee Mobility Predictor during assessment, discharge and follow up session after 45 days of discharge date.

Methodology: The methodology for this assessment is based on a mixed method design, which includes qualitative and quantitative tools. The tools utilized to assess and measure beneficiaries’ improvement. The universe sample is the beneficiaries who received full prosthesis device in the first quarter of 2019 and sample was 16 beneficiaries (with confidentiality interval 95% and margin of error 5%, and using random sampling), but unfortunately survey team reached only 11 beneficiaries.

Results: RI plans to present the results of the post donation analysis and monitoring survey. Results showed that all the surveyed beneficiaries reported they were ready to use the prosthetic devices and the majority of beneficiaries (82%) using donated prosthetic devices after discharge, and 78% of the respondents reported improvements in walking. On the other hand, 73% of the surveyed beneficiaries said that their prosthetic devices did not match their expectations, and 82% of the beneficiaries had some kind of problem with their devices after discharge.

Conclusions: RI will utilize the finding of the survey to adapt the technical and programmatic support to physical rehabilitation centers supported by RI to improve in performance, and to share this experience with other physical rehabilitation centers in Turkey.