International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | August 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 8 Page 3799 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Senadheera VV et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2021 Aug;8(8):3799-3804 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN2394-6032 | eISSN2394-6040 Original Research Article People with physical disabilities in Sri Lanka are in need for the service of community physiotherapists Vindya Vimani Senadheera*, Kavinda Tharani Malwanage, Sithravelayuthan Mayooran, Abdul Majeed Mohomad Rikas, Agampodi Liyanage Indrajith Prasanna INTRODUCTION The world health organization (WHO) defines disabilities as, ‘an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participatory restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. WHO reports that there are more than 1 billion people around the world live with disabilities; and 80% of them are from low-income countries, many from the WHO South-East Asia region. 1 The world report on disability states that rate of disability prevalence in Sri Lanka is 12.9% based on the World Health Survey. 2 The ‘health for all’ Alma Ata was declared in 1978 through which WHO initiated community based rehabilitation (CBR) to give people with disabilities access to ABSTRACT Background: Physiotherapists have long been recognized as important providers of services for people with disability. In Sri Lanka the concept of community physiotherapy has not emerged yet. The present study aimed to identify the need for ‘community physiotherapy service’ in Kandy district, Sri Lanka. Methods: A community service projection community based rehabilitation, of three years was conducted by the department of physiotherapy, faculty of allied health sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2017-2019 in collaboration with department of social service and social welfare of Kandy district secretariat, Sri Lanka. Results: One hundred and seventy participants with physical disabilities were included in the study 94 (55.29%) were males (mean age; 33.57 (SD ±23.17) and 76 (44.71%) were females (mean age; 33.14 (SD ±24.98). The pediatric population was 41.76% (N=71) followed by 38.82% of adults (N=66) and 19.41% of elderly patients (N=33) of the total population. The highest number of PWD had pediatric conditions (39.41%), followed by musculoskeletal (31.76%), neurological (15.88%), geriatric (8.82%) and cardio-respiratory (4.12%) conditions. The majority (55.88%) of all the people with disabilities who visited the clinics were in need for further physiotherapy consultation and follow up. Conclusions: In Kandy district of Sri Lanka alone, number of people with physical disabilities who are in need of continuous physiotherapy follow ups is high compared to services already available. Conducting a successful community-based rehabilitation program in Sri Lanka as a whole, require having a specialized health care practitioner to the primary health care team; ‘a community physiotherapist’. Keywords: Community, Disabilities, Rehabilitation, Physiotherapy Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka Received: 13 June 2021 Accepted: 15 July 2021 *Correspondence: Dr. Vindya Vimani Senadheera, E-mail: vindyasenadheera@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20213005