Experiences of identifying pre-school children with disabilities in resource limited settings - an account from Malawi, Pakistan and Uganda

Abstract

Although access to effective medical care for acutely sick children has improved globally, the number of children sur-viving but who may not be thriving due to disability, is increasing. This study aimed to understand the views of health professionals, educators and caregivers of pre-school children with disabilities in Malawi, Pakistan and Uganda regarding early identification, referral and support. Using applied thematic analysis, we identified themes relating to; limited ‘demand’ by caregivers for services; different local beliefs and community perceptions regarding the causes of childhood disability. Themes relating to ‘supply’ of services included inability to respond to community needs, and inad-equate training among professionals for identification and referral. Stepwise, approaches provided to the families, com-munity health worker and higher-level services could include training for community and primary care health workers on basic identification techniques and enhanced awareness for families and communities on the importance of early iden-tification of children with disabilities.© 2023 the author(s). Published by informa UK limited, trading as taylor & Francis GroupCONTACTPaul lynch paul.lynch@glasgow.ac.ukhttps://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2023.2181769this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license (http://creative-commons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. KEYWORDS Malawi; Uganda; Pakistan; neurodevelopmental disabilities; early identification; childhood disability; local beliefs