Keys to reinventing rehabilitation: Telethon 2020

New ways of looking at rehabilitation

Everything indicates that reinventing rehabilitation is a necessity today and will be in the future. This 2020, one of the most important events of the year in Chile had to adapt to the difficult global scenario: a pandemic that spread around the world and brought a series of consequences. Among them, the health crisis with all the measures that this entails, the obvious economic problems that have affected all nations and many others. 

That is why this version of the Telethon had to change its modality extremely quickly. All the events that had always brought together thousands of people were discarded, donations became 100% online and all the television activities had to find a new way to protect the health of its participants. 

How Teleton evolved

If we take a look at its history, Teleton began in 1978 as a television program that was broadcasted for more than two days. The objective was to raise funds for a noble crusade to help children with disabilities. That was the tone it followed throughout time. 

As a foundation, Teleton today can say that it is the most important work that has been done in favor of children and young people with mobility problems.. Not only in Chile, but all over the world. This initiative has achieved a change in culture and put on the table the need to fight for dignity and support for them.

This is how they manage to attend 97% of the infant and juvenile population with motor disabilities in Chile and offer in their institutes around 729,000 medical-therapeutic treatments. 

But as we saw earlier, the needs and the crisis made things change, as has happened in the world of rehabilitation and medicine.

Remote rehabilitation

Since the treatments could not be carried out in person, new ways of continuing in this line had to be found. 

As explained by physiatrist Dr. Raul Smith in the webinar on The Importance of Continuity in Neurorehabilitationis that interrupting therapy can lead to deconditioning, which can lead to muscle atrophy, loss of joint range, alteration in cardiovascular function. So, what happens if a patient does not continue with his rehabilitation? The answer is clear: he will experience an increase in disability.

Although it is true that neurological and functional recovery will be subject to a certain time, this functionality may decrease if a certain level of activity is not maintained. 

Likewise, in case someone wants to start rehabilitation in this context, technology also allows it. Today there are ways of counseling a patient who for various reasons cannot attend a center.. In this way, he or she does not have to miss a single step in order to start this challenge.

Conclusion

The context and the availability of technology, allow to overcome the obstacles in the way of someone who wants to rehabilitate. In addition, the patient can find new ways to recover, by this we mean that he/she can own his/her treatment and find spaces to achieve maximum progress.

In a difficult context, we cannot fail to congratulate Teleton for surpassing the goal of the last edition - $34,703,593,204 - an amount that will ensure the continuity of the institution and its work through new technologies.