 Concept
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Necessity
is the mother of invention. The need to set up an Institute for
Research and Rehabilitation of speech language and cognitive disorders
was also evolved out of “necessity”. We all perceive the world
around us through our sense organs, through cognition we process that information into ideas, thoughts
feelings and emotions; through speech and language we exchange
our ideas with our fellow beings, and through memory and cognitive
process we retain and use the information at a future date. Whenever
these unique functions of the brain are lost or have not developed
fully in an individual, it will have profound impact, not only
on the family and the society.
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The affected person becomes disabled, desperate and dependent.
The disability interferes with his/her independent living and
seriously affects his/her interactions with other members of the
family and society, leading to loss of self-esteem and dignity.
The number if people with these disabilities are many among us
and are found in all societies irrespective of their caste, creed,
age, gender, and socio economic status. It is imperative on the
part of any civilized society to provide appropriate measures
to these individuals to minimize the impact of the disabilities.
Their plight calls for special attention.
Since the faculties of speech, language and cognitive have unique
interfaces in many human activities. These disorders also demand
multidisciplinary intervention at multi-functional level. Unfortunately
till to date, there is not a single organization in our country
that champions their cause. True, the Government of India has
taken major steps for the welfare of the disabled, but these measures
have generally been geared to meet the needs of only those people
with congenital or developmental disability such as hearing, visual
or physical impairment or mental retardation but not cognitive
and communicative defects.
Scientists and health policy makers can no longer fail to address
this important issue, because the problems associated with these
new morbidities are central to the health and well being of vast
number of people in our country. They should be recognized as
key challenges to public health and be granted new priority among
those institutions concerned with human disabilities and handicaps.
Unless we act now, the unprecedented gains over the past 50 years
in reducing infant and child mortality and increasing life expectancy
will be in jeopardy of being offset by a steady growth in the
population with cognitive and communicative disorders. It is against
this backdrop, that this “Institute for Communicative and Cognitive
Neurosciences”, first of its kind in India, has been established
in Kerala, a state which has many ‘firsts’ to its credit in the
field of health.
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| ICCONS-
From Blue Print To Birth |
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Life
begins much before the actual birth. So is the case with Institute
for Communicative and Cognitive Neuro Sciences (ICCONS). A series
of events, one leading to the other in rapid succession, culminated
in the birth of ICCONS.
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From
Special Clinic To Survey
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The
event in this process was the ‘Behavioral Neurology Clinic at
Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology’,
Thiruvananthapuram. This clinic has been conducting studies
on children and adults with speech and language disorders and
cognitive defects since 1992. Surprised by the steadily increasing
number of children attending the clinic, the clinicians undertook
a field survey to understand the dimension of the problem of
these children in the community. The results of the survey have
shown that as high as 10 percent of school going children in
Kerala has one or the other type of communicative or cognitive
defects that seriously affected their performance at school.
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Alarmed by this research report, the parents, public and local
administrative authorities who all helped in the conduct of
this research , put pressure on the investigators to explore
possible remedial solutions to the problem they have
unravelled.
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From
Survey To Society
With
a sense of deep concern and commitment the investigators and
representatives from the ministries of Health and Education,
Govt. of Kerala formed a charitable society in the name of “Society
for Rehabilitation of Cognitive and Communicative Disorders”
(SRCCD), which was registered in February 1998 under the Travancore-Cochin
Literacy, Scientific and Charitable Societies Act of 1955. The
Hon’ble Ministers for Health and Education are the Patrons of
the Society, as the issues engaging its attention do not fit
neatly into disciplinary boundaries of health or education,
but cut across their boundaries. The main objective of the Society
is to provide a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, professional
rehabilitation service under one umbrella for the benefit of
people with cognitive and communicative defects in our country,
particularly in Kerala. To reach the vast number of the affected
people, adequate professionally
trained manpower is a prerequisite. Creation of such a workforce
who will take on responsibility of delivering a good and quality
service is also a key objective of the society. To fulfill this
obligation, the society underlines the need to set up training
institutions in the state, which will encourage and equip professional
and other personnel to take on the responsibility.
The society also aims at high quality research that will focus
on the importance of studies in regional languages and the
need to synchronize the research activities by professionals
belonging to various
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The ICCONS lit on by Chairman Prof. K.Mohandas
(Director of SCTIMST)
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| disciplines, by overcoming barriers of their
disciplinary boundaries and other factors, which hamper the advancement
of good research. Building an awareness among the medical and
other professionals as well as public about their individual role
in providing quality service and the personal and professional
benefits to be gained from doing so is another important objective
of this society. |
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