The MSF Foundation aims to develop physiotherapy in humanitarian settings; not only for trauma activity but also in other areas such as burn care, women’s health activity focusing on pelvic floor rehabilitation (maternity, cancer, fistula) and pediatric program focusing on neuromotor development (including associated malnourishment and malaria activities).
In December 2022, a survey was completed by 25 out of 59 MSF sites to collect information on the presence of physiotherapy activity, the type of patients treated, and to gauge interest in developing specific rehabilitation care. Following this survey, a team of specialized physiotherapists were selected to develop rehabilitation activities within MSF that were either present or nonexistent, with the aim of expanding access to patient populations in need of physiotherapy.
The majority (18/25) of MSF sites reported physiotherapy deficiencies among their patients. Most of the remaining sites (5/7) encompass woman’s health activities with unreported deficiencies, as functional complications were not assessed. The overwhelming majority (23/25) desired to develop or initiate physiotherapy activities in their project (13 for women’s health, 8 for pediatric and 6 for burn rehabilitation care). Since September 2023, needs assessments for rehabilitation were performed at 11 MSF sites in 6 different countries. Among them, deployment of rehabilitation activity was performed at 6 sites; in Yemen, Chad, Nigeria, Malawi, South Sudan, and Syria. Through this initiative, we have treated 240 new pediatric patients in 2 countries, 948 new women’s health patients in 2 countries, and 1554 burn patients in 2 countries.
Need for physiotherapy activities in humanitarian settings are tremendous; not only in orthopedic but also in other medical areas in humanitarian contexts. Following this survey, we expanded physiotherapy care at MSF project sites. The possibilities to develop rehabilitation care are numerous but challenged by limitations such as acceptance of physiotherapy in the patient pathway of care, budget limitations, access to local professionals, access to patients after their hospitalization, and difficulty of reaching sustainable solutions with local structures.
Advocacy for systematic integration of physiotherapy in humanitarian medical relief activities is essential to reach more sites and patients. This initiative aims to raise awareness of the need and the impact of physiotherapy on patient care. This project can lead to sharing experiences and future research on physiotherapy delivered to specific patients in humanitarian contexts, with the goal of reporting the functional progress of our patients in each category of care.
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