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English History
In order to understand why EX-Center was started, we must go all the way back to the Thalidomide disaster in the beginning of the 1960s.
Then the care of Thalidomide-affected children in Sweden was concentrated at Eugeniahemmet, a part of Karolinska Hospital in Solna. Doctors, physical therapists, and occupational therapists worked there in close cooperation with prosthetists. A position was also created there for a national medical social worker, to support the children’s parents. Many of the Thalidomide-affected children came to Eugeniahemmet from all over Sweden for various lengths of time to have prostheses fitted, learn to use them, and receive other physical therapy. Great funds of knowledge and experience were gathered about this group at Eugeniahemmet and Karolinska for about two decades. At the end of the 1970s medical care was decentralised in Sweden, and the special knowledge that had been gathered was disseminated or even lost.
We have long been aware that people with rare and less-known functional disabilities often have great difficulties due to shortcomings in the care and social support for different groups of people with functional disabilities. People with multiple limb disabilities belong to one of these small groups which do not have their needs met in a satisfactory way. People in the healthcare system who have never met anyone with these multiple limb disabilities lack knowledge about the very special set of problems involved, and therefore cannot offer sufficient help and support.
At the end of the 1980s, participants in the Swedish Thalidomide Society, NGO sent out clear signals of great injustices being done, as did the few people in the healthcare system who still worked with rehabilitation of people with multiple limb disabilities. The complaints varied, depending on what part of the country the patients lived in, and how much support and help was offered just there. In order to deal with the problem, it was necessary to centralise the care for this group again. This was done so that the knowledge that had been collected over a long period by a very few individuals in the healthcare system, as well as among the users, could come into its own right, and so that the new problems that appear with time could be met in an adequate way.
In 1993 the Red Cross Hospital and the Swedish Thalidomide Society, NGO started the collaborative project called EX-Center. It was funded with the help of resources from the State Inheritance Fund, and with a stimulation package for 1994-97, from the National Swedish Board of Health and Welfare and the Swedish Institute of Assistive Technology (then called the Swedish Institute for Disabled Persons). EX-Center is located at the Red Cross Hospital, which is a small rehabilitation hospital in Solna, with pleasant surroundings.
We have long been aware that people with rare and less-known functional disabilities often have great difficulties due to shortcomings in the care and social support for different groups of people with functional disabilities. People with multiple limb disabilities belong to one of these small groups which do not have their needs met in a satisfactory way. People in the healthcare system who have never met anyone with these multiple limb disabilities lack knowledge about the very special set of problems involved, and therefore cannot offer sufficient help and support.
At the end of the 1980s, participants in the Swedish Thalidomide Society, NGO sent out clear signals of great injustices being done, as did the few people in the healthcare system who still worked with rehabilitation of people with multiple limb disabilities. The complaints varied, depending on what part of the country the patients lived in, and how much support and help was offered just there. In order to deal with the problem, it was necessary to centralise the care for this group again. This was done so that the knowledge that had been collected over a long period by a very few individuals in the healthcare system, as well as among the users, could come into its own right, and so that the new problems that appear with time could be met in an adequate way.
In 1993 the Red Cross Hospital and the Swedish Thalidomide Society, NGO started the collaborative project called EX-Center. It was funded with the help of resources from the State Inheritance Fund, and with a stimulation package for 1994-97, from the National Swedish Board of Health and Welfare and the Swedish Institute of Assistive Technology (then called the Swedish Institute for Disabled Persons). EX-Center is located at the Red Cross Hospital, which is a small rehabilitation hospital in Solna, with pleasant surroundings.
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