Folke Bernadotte regionhabilitering
Habilitation and education in tandem
The Folke Bernadotte Regional Habilitation Centre (FBH) is named after the UN mediator Folke Bernadotte, who was killed in 1948 on a mission in Jerusalem. To celebrate his memory a campaign was started in 1958 for the benefit of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy. The funds raised by this campaign made it possible to found the FBH, and it was inaugurated in 1962.
As a complement to the children´s local habilitation unit and the home school, FBH serves today as a regional institute and knowledge centre for children and adolescents, aged 0-20 years, with physical disabilities as well as various types of learning disabilities. Activities comprise a co-operation with the Department of Paediatrics at University Hospital in Uppsala, the Municipal Board of Education in Uppsala and the national authority The Swedish Institute for Special Needs Education.
All activities - assessments, treatments and education - are characterized by:
- High professional competence.
- Continuing co-operation between medical habilitation/rehabilitation and remedial education.
- Close contact between parents, children and professionals.
To be enrolled at FBH a letter referral from the local habilitation unit or an undertaking from the local municipality to defray costs.
Children/adolescents stay at FBH for a period of 1-3 weeks. One or both parents usually accompany them for the whole or a part of this period. Guest rooms and nearby hotels are available for their accommodation.
Each child is cared for by a multidisciplinary team of professionals. A team may comprise: psychologist, speech therapist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, remedial teacher, social worker, doctor, children´s nurse and children´s staff nurse. Parents staying at FBH have many opportunities for informal contacts with members of the team.
Towards the end of the child´s stay at FBH a meeting is arranged when members of the FBH team meet representatives of the child´s local habilitation unit and of the home school to discuss the outcome of the period and also coming intervention. Members of the team can serve as consultants during this local follow-up work.