Ptolemy Reid Rehab Centre staff honoured at 50th anniversary
The staff of the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre (PRRC), were honoured for their service and dedication at the centre’s 50th anniversary Golden Jubilee Dinner and Awards presentation at the Pegasus Hotel, Kingston earlier this week.
According to a press release from the Department of Public Information, Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence, while delivering the feature address, commended the PRRC board and staff for upholding the organisation’s vision and mission.
“I would like to congratulate all those of you who are present, and not present, that have participated over the last 50 years in helping PRRC to be in the position that it is. I know that it is not easy and it had to be love and the service that they give, to take it to the heights that it is today,” the release quoted Lawrence as saying. She added that the hard work being done, has cemented the ministry’s relationship and commitment towards the development of the facility, the release said.
According to the release, Chairman of the PRRC, Col. Randy Storm, thanked the board for their continued support. He disclosed that with their support and that of donors and dedication of their staff the organisation’s growth and development for 2107 has been significant.
The release stated that the centre was established in January 1967, by the then Ministry of Health to provide rehabilitative services for those children who had suffered residual paralysis following the 1960 and 1964 Poliomyelitis epidemics. With control of this disease and the subsequent reduction of these types of cases, the
centre evolved into an organisation providing comprehensive programmes in rehabilitation for children with various types of physical and other developmental disabilities.
According to the release, in 1991, in an effort to improve resource acquisition so as to expand and provide quality service more effectively and efficiently, the centre was de-linked from the Ministry of Health and is now managed by a voluntary Management Committee. With the expansion of the Orthotic and Prosthetic Workshop from a small unit catering for the needs of only the children of the PPRC, the facility now has the potential to manufacture almost any appliance that may be required by those with physical disabilities, the release added.