Disability and Malnutrition in low resource settings: links, synergies and opportunities for collaboration

ICED Seminar Series

This seminar will be video recorded

Speakers: Dr Mel Adams (MAITS) and Ms. Himali d Silva (Guys and St Thomas Community Health Services)

About the seminar:
This seminar will share evidence on the link between disability and malnutrition, explore the reasons, the issues and what can be done in a low resource setting. The information shared will bias interventions based on low-tech, locally acceptable modifications to feeding methods and show why specific training on the issues and management of feeding difficulties in this population, for both carers and service providers, is so important.

About the speakers:
Dr Mel Adams worked as a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) in the UK for many years before moving into international development. She spent five years living in South Asia, initially in Sri Lanka and then in Bangladesh, where she set up a degree programme in Speech and Language Therapy, worked as a lecturer and trainer and carried out her PhD research into appropriate interventions for children with feeding difficulties in low resource settings. She now manages a charity (www.maits.org.uk) that supports capacity building amongst staff working with people with disabilities in low-income countries and is a disability consultant within higher education and the charity sector in the UK.

Himali de Silva is a Speech and Language Therapist currently working in the UK, at Guys and St Thomas Community Health Services, with children under 5 years of age with feeding difficulties. Previously she worked in Sri Lanka, setting up a degree programme in SLT and providing training to hospital and community staff in the management of infants and children with feeding difficulties. She has since worked in Cambodia, Russia and more recently in Malawi, finding local solutions to feeding difficulties in infants and children with disabilities.