Disability rehabilitation should be started from childhood. There are 360,000 disabled people in Jingzhou, including about 2,500 children under 14 years old. The report on the work of Jingzhou government in 2023 proposed to provide rehabilitation assistance to 1,000 disabled children free of charge. How is the current progress? Here are the details.

In 2018, the central government established a rehabilitation assistance system for disabled children. Jingzhou was one of the first pilot cities. On May 16, 2019, the Rehabilitation Assistance System for Disabled Children in Jingzhou was implemented. According to the principle of "voluntary application and on-demand assistance", classified rehabilitation assistance for disabled children under 14 years old in Jingzhou will be provided. Children with household registration in Jingzhou (including those with residence permit for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents), aged from 0 to 14 and diagnosed with vision, hearing, speech, limbs, intellectual disability, autism and phenylketonuria are all eligible for assistance.

Disabled children holding Jingzhou household registration live outside the province can get training in designated rehabilitation institutions in other cities/provinces. Parents then can take the invoice to the county-level Disabled Persons’ Federation in the registered permanent residence to reimburse a certain percentage of rehabilitation bills according to regulations. Fourth-level chief staff member Shen Zuofu, Head of the Rehabilitation Department of Jingzhou Disabled Persons' Federation, said that disabled children aged 0 to 6 can receive rehabilitation assistance subsidy of RMB 16,000 each year, and those aged 7 to 14 can receive RMB 10,000 a year.

At present, there are 11 designated rehabilitation institutions in Jingzou. In the past three years, about 1,400 disabled children received rehabilitation assistance in Jingzhou every year. This year more than 1,400 disabled children have been approved for rehabilitation training. Jingzhou is striving to provide rehabilitation assistance to all disabled children as much as possible. The rehabilitation is provided according to the needs of disabled children, which is aimed at reducing their functional impairment, improving body function, enhancing self-care ability and social participation, and providing personalized rehabilitation training for disabled children. Children who meet the conditions of different assistance programs can apply for multiple rehabilitation assistance in the same year. For example, children with cerebral palsy can apply for corrective surgery, rehabilitation training and assistive device programs in the same year.