SU extends free PT services in Valencia, NegOr
The Silliman University (SU) Institute of Rehabilitative Sciences (IRS) will now be able to provide free physical therapy (PT) services to those in Valencia, Negros Oriental through the SU-Valencia Community-Based and Out-Patient Rehabilitation, a new program of SU and the Municipality of Valencia.
IRS hosted the blessing and ribbon cutting of the rehabilitation center that will be used for the said program, July 13, 2022.
The program will offer free physical therapy services to all residents of Valencia. This will benefit primarily those who have limited access to care and the underprivileged.
Dr. Lily Ann D. Bautista, IRS director, said the program will be “an excellent avenue for service-learning and extension programs of Silliman University faculty and students.”
The blessing and ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by Dr. Earl Jude Paul L. Cleope, SU Vice President of Academic Affairs; Prof. Jane Annette L. Belarmino, SU Vice President of Development, Enterprise and External Affairs; Dr. Lily Ann D. Bautista, IRS director; Jarome Simon, clinical supervisor of the rehabilitation center; the representative of the incumbent Mayor Edgar Teves Jr.; Albert V. Tubal, Municipal Administrator; Dr. Cheryl Luz Navarro-Eullaran, representatives of the Municipal Health Office of Valencia Birthing and Rural Health Unit; IRS faculty & staff, and the doctors and staff of the Rural Health Unit.
The Memorandum of Agreement between Silliman University and the Municipality of Valencia to establish the rehabilitation program was signed on April 11, 2022.
The concept of this program started in the summer of 2021. With the help of some constituents of Valencia, a meeting was set with the Honorable Mayor Edgar Teves on January 21, 2022. The formal letter of intent from Dr. Betty Cernol-McCann, SU President, was signed and sent out on January 24 and the proposal was approved on February 28, 2022 by the Sangguniang Bayan.
Since December 2020, the IRS has been running its Free PT Clinic program at the Angelo King Building in the SU Medical Center Compound.
(with reports from the SU IRS office)
