[This is an item from our news archive] EACD - Brussels

Posted on 31st May 2010

[This is an item from our news archive] On a bright May day, Catherine and Johann set off on Eurostar to Belgium. The destination, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the European Academy of Childhood Disability in Brussels.

Entitled; "Measures of Progress" the programme was broad and partly reflective, looking back on how far we have come and seeing the fruits of many research projects which will help to inform practice as we go into the future.

The day before the main scientific program began, a symposium was held. This pre-conference symposium on rehabilitation in paediatric neurology was conducted in French and Dutch and gave us both ample chance to practise our language skills along with learning a great deal about how different measures can help to evaluate neuro rehab in children. With the slogan, "Measuring to know", this day gave insights into a range of measures and research projects that have looked at rehab in children with both acquired and congenital brain lesions. The scope of research covered topics from mirror neurones to sexual function and from dyspraxia to epilepsy and ended, appropriately on the note of future perspectives in neurological rehabilitation.

After a good night's sleep we were ready to take our places in the main conference.

The main conference took place over two and a half days and the first session was held in the very impressive European Parliament Buildings. We were in the large auditorium where politicians are always shown on the News. It was quite a buzz to sit in such a mighty space and be told that the first obligation of the healer is to establish that the treatment offered actually works and to consider the genetic and environmental factors in neuro-developmental disorders and to think about whether the multidisciplinary team can meet the multidimensional needs of disabled children.

From here we all took the bus out of town to the Erasmus University campus. A veritable feast of parallel sessions gave us plenty of opportunity to find things that really interested us and we spent a whole evening deciding exactly which sessions each of us would attend. This was not a simple task, both from the point of view that every session looked worth attending and also that sessions were held in different buildings and we had to factor in the travelling time (on foot) between buildings.

The full programme can be viewed on the EACD website and the next meeting, 2011 will be held in Rome, Italy. The EACD is a fantastic group of people ranging from doctors to therapists and nurses to academics, each with a passion for improving the lives of children with all manner of disabilities and for supporting the families, carers and professionals involved with these children.

Details of the EACD 2010 can be found here.

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Tags: EACD | Belgium | Brussels