Caring for people with intellectual disability. A household survey in 13 locales in the vicinity of Star Mountain

Abstract

This house-to-house survey of 13 communities in the vicinity of Birzeit was commissioned by Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center with the aim of identifying persons who endure the consequences of disability, with a focus on intellectual disabilities. Start Mountain had conducted focus group discussions in these locales previous to commissioning the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University (ICPH/BZU) to complete the survey. These meetings revealed that representatives of these communities requested specific information about their communities in general, and about persons with disabilities, including intellectual disabilities in particular. This report was completed by ICPH/BZU, an institution which has had a long-standing interest in research and advocacy regarding the needs of people with disability and the fulfillment of their basic human rights. The survey, upon which the report is based, was completed with the cooperation of 3 Star Mountain supervisors who oversaw the details of the field work with ICPH assistance. The report is divided into the following sections:  a general introduction on disability around the world, including a literature review on the complexities of measuring disability;  a section on disability in the occupied Palestinian territory(oPt), which is important to compare national level data with the data obtained in this survey;  a section on the history and current activities of Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center, including the reasons why Star Mountain commissioned this study; 4  a methods section;  a results section divided into persons over and under 3 years of age in these communities;  A conclusions section, which uses the information obtained from the survey to delineate future actions.