Seminar for ICF certificate renewal

【Patient Activity】The 2018 seminar for ICF certificate renewal for rare disease patientgroups

After the revision of the People withDisabilities Protection Act was implemented in 2007, Taiwan began to introducethe International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)published by the World Health Organization and announced items for evaluationsbased on it. Since July 11, 2012, the 16 disability categories have beenreplaced by the eight major systems under the ICF. The evaluation mechanism ofwelfare service requirements has also included the ICF’s structure and spirit.

There are many complex categories of rarediseases with different disease progress. As a result, the situations of mentaland body disabilities are different. With the imminent renewal of certificates,many patient families and front-line social workers have many questions aboutthe new system and worry about whether their rights will be impacted or not. Tosolve the problems, the foundation and the Taiwan Foundation for Rare Diseasesjointly invited the front-line staffs of rare disease patient staffs to attendthe 2018 Seminar for ICF Certificate Renewal for Rare Disease Patient Groups onAugust 17 (Friday). The seminar, participated by 55 people from 17 groups, aimsto improve the professional knowledge of front-line staffs on the demands anddifficulties of rare disease patients on handicapped evaluations. In thefuture, these rare disease patient groups can join hands to seek more rights forpatients.

Yu-Dai Hung, the chief of the research and planning division of the foundation, introduced the difference between the old and newsystems and the ICF’s spirit based on the development progress of laws. Also,she discussed the procedures of disability and requirement evaluations andpresented the details of the evaluation of rare diseases. Through the practicebased on real cases, front-line staffs are able to provide a preliminaryassessment on the level of disability and help patients understand thedifferent between the levels of old and new systems. The seminar helpsfront-line staffs improve their professional expertise in identifying everycase’s problems and reduce the difficulty of certificate renewal faced bypatents.

Translator: Mei Chiang (ALS)