Health Services And Education Of The Multiply Handicapped In Special Schools Of Nyando District, Kenya

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to investigate on the problem, the researcher identified Nyando District from which he objectively selected the special schools as the research environment. The study was guided by research objectives which included determining the health problems of the Multiply Handicapped; to identify therapeutic, medical and nutritional services provided to these learners with Multiple Handicap. To gather more information on the issue related literature was reviewed on areas such as health problems, therapeutic and medical services. Primary and secondary literature sources were used. Some pieces of information were surfed from the web. In data collection, survey was adopted as the research design. This was used because a large group of respondents was targeted. Questionnaires were then developed, tested for validity, reliability. They were dispatched to the respondents who gave their views by answering the question items. The data collected were analyzed and presented quantitatively in form of tables, figures and graphs. Other data were presented qualitatively in descriptive form. The main findings included concomitant existence of health problems, inadequate provision of therapeutic, medical and nutritional services. It was also established that inadequate provision of these services impact greatly in the education of learners with Multiple Handicaps. In order to intervene for the above issues, the researcher made some recommendations valuable to service providers and relevant stake holders involved with learners who are multiply challenged. The recommendations included provision of adequate therapeutic services, establishment of sickbays geared towards adequate provision of medical services, provision of balance diet, timely diagnosis and early intervention to check conditions which could precipitate the disabling conditions.