Within the framework of the implementation of the trilateral agreement on the creation of new educational conditions for future specialists working with people with disabilities, in Uzhhorod, at the Faculty of Health and Physical Education of Uzhhorod National University (UzhNU), Swiss practitioners will provide a course of lectures on early physiotherapy.

This is the first step to introducing a sustainable and effective training system for the provision of quality social and therapeutic services aimed at socializing and improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities.

Early intervention is a comprehensive system of family services in which a child with a disability or risk of its development is born. Early intervention helps, first and foremost, children in the early years of life, as early detection of biological and social risk factors for a child's developmental disability allows intensive care to be taken in time to prevent complications.

The weekly lecture course, which begins on October 31, is designed for a specialized student audience and specialists in providing comprehensive services for people with disabilities. An important aspect is that lecturers for trainees in Zakarpattia are practitioners from Switzerland, whose positive experience is shaped by years of work in various social institutions.

So, there will arrive in Zakarpattia:

Brigitte Berthold is a physical and Bobath therapist. She worked in the neonatal unit in Lucerne, and now she is a private practitioner.

SilviaZimmermannis an early intervention specialist, a special educator for preschool children. She works in the Early Intervention Service of the canton of Lucerne.

During the seven academic days, the lecture course will cover such applied areas as the typical development of the child during the first years of life, pathological development in various manifestations, problems of his/her perception, behaviour and psychiatric characteristics, autism, as well as work with parents, in particular, counselling and guidance conversations.

Along with the specified course of lectures, seminars will be held in Uzhhorod by Anton Wagner who is a teacher, trainer, and consultant on existential analysis, a specialist in correctional pedagogy, and director of Special educational school in Biel (Switzerland). The expert will touch on the issues of the special and social education, crisis phenomena in the group and methods of overcoming them, ways of working in a multidisciplinary team, contacting professionals who work with people with disabilities. Seminars for relevant students will last from 4 to 7 November at the Uzhhorod National University.

Students and practitioners are invited to lecture courses on physiotherapy in early intervention that will be held on October 31 – November 8 from 08.00 to 16.00 (with breaks) at the Department of Health, UzhNU (Uzhhorod, Mytna st., 27, auditorium 1).

We would like to remind you that September 23, 2019, Volodymyr Smolanka the rector of the UzhNU, Andreas Schmidt the president of the Association Parasolka (Switzerland) and Natalia Kabatsiy the director of the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattia signed the trilateral agreement on the creation of new educational conditions for future specialists working with people with disabilities.

The active phase of engaging European best practices is now underway to train the staff that is essential for making a qualitative change in working with people with disabilities – at the stage of early intervention, for the age support, in the context of working with parents of children with disabilities. The offered lecture course from Swiss coaches is the first block of theoretical and practical training of specialists in Zakarpattia. Within a few months, partners from Switzerland will be presenting the next educational block, which will complement and expand the approved educational programs of Uzhhorod National University.