WHO wheelchair provision guidelines aim to improve timely access to appropriate products
Important wheelchair provision guidelines have been published that aim to support improved access to appropriate wheelchairs for all those in need, including children, older people, individuals with reduced mobility, and those with chronic health conditions.
Entitled ‘Wheelchair provision guidelines’, the guidelines were developed by World Health Organization (WHO), the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO), and the International Society of Wheelchair Professionals (ISWP). The document can be downloaded for free here.
The guidance is aimed at those with a role in planning, delivery, monitoring, and evaluation of wheelchair provision. This includes policymakers, wheelchair service staff, and wheelchair user representative organisations.
WHO says the guidelines are relevant for all countries and apply to all wheelchair users and types of wheelchairs. They outline that the best outcomes in wheelchair access occur when wheelchair users have the benefit of an individual process of assessment, fitting, training, and follow up, provided by trained staff.
The document intends to ensure that wheelchair users have timely access through wheelchair services that are people-centred and responsive to their needs.
In the foreword, the guidelines recognise the importance wheelchairs. It says that as one of the most commonly used pieces of assistive technology, wheelchairs provide mobility, postural support, and freedom to those who cannot walk or have difficulty walking. They facilitate social inclusion, job opportunities, the opportunity to explore places, access to vital health and care services, an active lifestyle, and overall improved independence and dignity.
However, WHO, ISPO, and ISWP created the guidelines in recognition that there is a “significant” global unmet need and inequity of access to quality, appropriate wheelchairs.
“Multiple barriers exist, resulting in wheelchair users either not having a wheelchair, or accessing one without trained guidance, potentially receiving an inappropriate wheelchair with the associated risks,” the document adds. “And yet, there is a large and growing need for appropriate wheelchairs.”
WHO estimates that around 80 million people (about one percent of the world’s population) are likely to require a wheelchair to assist their mobility, with this number projected to grow due to the ageing population.
The guidelines are intended to support the development and strengthening of health and other systems and services that will ensure wheelchair users everywhere have the opportunity for timely access to, and support to use, a wheelchair that meets their individual needs.
Continues the document: “These guidelines focus primarily on the area of provision. They offer service and system level recommendations and implementation guidance towards optimising wheelchair service models, delivering wheelchair service activities, ensuring training for all personnel that play a role in wheelchair provision, strengthening systems to monitor and evaluate wheelchair provision, and encouraging a supportive policy environment.”
WHO, ISPO, and ISWP make a series of system- and service-level recommendations to improve wheelchair provision.
Some of the headline service-level recommendations include ensuring wheelchair provision is done on an individual assessment and selection process; wheelchairs should be fitted to each person based on the individual assessment; and appropriate wheelchair training should be provided to both users and those who assist them to facilitate maximum use.
Some of the key system-level recommendations are making sure that wheelchair provision roles are performed by people who have role-specific competencies and that wheelchair provision performance should be measured and evaluated to inform ongoing strengthening of people-centred, equitable access to appropriate wheelchairs.