DEVELOPMENTAL COUNSELING OFFICE - BITOLA

Foundation: in 1982 as a part of the Institute for Public Health in Bitola. 

Address: �Ivan Milutinovik� b.b. 

Tel.: +389-97-33-320 

Fax: +389-97-27-112 

Manager: D-r. Anastasija Petrovska 

The professional team engaged in carrying out of these activities is composed of: two doctors-pediatricians, a defectologist - somathopedist, a psychologist and a medical nurse, and if necessary, other professionals may be included.

The doctor- pediatrician does a medical examination by which he evaluates the condition divided by systems, the physical condition, mental status and socio-economic development. 

The defectologist examines the existence of a somatic or mental failure. If such a feature is noticed, he carries out an early rehabilitation for the certain type of deviation using all the other abilities and educating the parents to do the same thing at home. The treatment that the defectologist will choose to carry out may be of the following types: 

• Stimulating exercises;

• Re-educational exercises;

• Active or passive psychomotor exercises. 

The psychologist carries out psychological examinations of the children in evaluating their intellectual level. At the same time, he examines their mental maturity for starting school. 

The medical nurse helps the pediatrician in conveying everyday measures in the interest of the patients, taking care of all the documentation for every one of them. It is here important to mention that the complete documentation is arranged in two registers: 

• for children born with a risk factor;

• for children with disturbed psychophysical development. 

The accomplished results of the Counseling Office can be assessed by the percentage of handled children. In that aspect, it has accomplished great success, considering the numbers of newly born children, those with a risk factor, those handled by the Counseling Office and those registered with a risk factor. For example, during 1987, out of the 1.847 newly born babies, 1.430 have registered in the Counseling Office, of which 286 with a risk factor. Timely treatment has been provided for 15.5% risky-born children of the whole newly born population on the territory of Bitola. We should mention the fact that in the following years that percentage has been constantly growing up to 17.5% (1989), 21.3% (1991) etc. Of etiological aspect a similar trend is noticeable, where peri-natal complications and interventions dominate the number 19%-22%, followed by premature births and post-natal complications (6%-8%).

After the treatments, the accomplished positive results are as high as 92%, 5.5% are unsatisfactory and 2.5% have been carried out in other institutions. 

• Pediatricians - 4

• General practitioner - 1

• Psychologist - 1

• Somatopedist - 1

• Medical nurses - 6

Copyright � 2000-2006; Macedonian Scientific Society for Autism,
Institute of Immunobiology and Human Genetics, 1109 Skopje, PO Box 60, Macedonia
Most recent update: March 06, 2006; This site is optimally viewed with Internet Explorer
Authors: Mirko Spiroski, MD PhD & Vladimir Trajkovski, MD, MSc
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