Raphael Ryder Cheshire International Centre

RAPHAEL was founded in 1959 in Dehradun (Uttarakhand) jointly by Group Captain Lord Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire of Woodhall, VC, OM, DSO***, DFC and his Read more wife, Baroness Sue Ryder of Warsaw, CMG, OBE. Their mission was all-encompassing – the relief of suffering. RAPHAEL is a duly registered charitable society governed by a Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations. It caters to the needs of the economically weaker sections of society in the State of Uttarakhand and the neighbouring districts of North Western Uttar Pradesh. All its facilities and services are provided free - at no cost - to its beneficiaries. And, it is entirely dependent on its benefactors for financial support.

Vision: RAPHAEL’s endeavour is to alleviate suffering. Mission: RAPHAEL’s mission is to assist in the: Rehabilitation of children with intellectual and associated disabilities; Control of Tuberculosis (TB); Life-long care of persons with disabilities who are rejected by society.

Special Education Programme
A student seeking admission is first assessed by a multi-disciplinary team of specialists, consisting of a special educator, psychologist, physiotherapist, speech therapist and physician. The team determines the child’s baseline abilities and identifies further training needs. Classroom observation is done over 2-3 days. If admission is required for residential care, the child may spend a night or 2 in the hostel under close supervision. A more detailed assessment is done a month after admission. All assessments are done on the basis of standardized tools that are culturally appropriate.

On the basis of this assessment, an Individual Education Plan (IEP) is drawn up, with goals selected for 3 months. The IEP is evaluated and updated every quarter. A long term rehabilitation plan is also made for every student. This is evaluated every 6 months; it changes based on the student’s progress and any change in family circumstances.

An attempt is made to follow a ‘typical’ curriculum, with appropriate modifications, to facilitate inclusion.

When the appropriate service is not available on campus, for example, the child is too young for admission or has significant behavioral issues; a home-based programme is given to the family and is closely monitored. Families may return for counseling at determined intervals or speak to a special educator telephonically.

The Training Centre keeps abreast of training needs for various stakeholders – parents, in-house caregivers, in-service training, refresher courses for special educators, and training for other community groups, such as but not limited to, Anganwadi workers, primary school teachers, civil administration.

TB Hospital:
The patient is usually self-referred to the hospital, or by word-of-mouth from others who have been successfully treated at Raphael’s hospital. An initial screening and investigation is done by Director Medical who will take a sputum sample and ask for an X-Ray to assess if the patient is TB positive. Once this need is assessed, the procedure is as under:

- Registration of all patients. Those advised admission, are registered separately and record maintained of name, age, address, date of admission and date of discharge.
- Online registration with Nikshay portal, compulsory to generate an individual identification number for the patient. This number can be used by the patient at any DOTS, for continuing treatment
- An indexed patient record card is made to include details of home address, sputum exam results, X-Ray findings, diagnosis and treatment advised. These cards are regularly updated until the completion of treatment and are retained in hospital record room thereafter.
- A Blue card with index No is made showing details of treatment with dates and is given to each patient. The index number helps in tracing patient records whenever necessary.

Progress is monitored on a regular basis. A local outpatient is given medicine initially for 15 days call for follow every 15 days. Outstation outpatient is given medicine for one week (3 doses) and referred to the nearest DOTS.

A severely ill patient is usually admitted for 2 to 3 weeks. On discharge the patient is given medicines for one week with referral to nearest DOTs.