SOTUMER

A scientific society that tries to promote the PRM in Tunisia by:

• more information about this “young” medical specialty
• avoiding confusion between physiotherapist and physiatrist
• developping new and modern tools of assessment and of treatment
• changing the nomenclature

So the Society organizes yearly:

• a national congress (usually in May), with 2 main topics, lasting 1 day 1/2
• a meeting in winter (usually in January or February), with 1 main topic, lasting ˝ or 1 day.

The number of beds of PRM (in public structure) is too little (111), according to the Tunisian population that is nearly 10 millions and inequally dispatched among the country.

Fortunately, there are 19 regional units of rehabilitation, with multidisciplinary team(doctor, psychologue, physiotherapist, speechtherapist, social worker), well integrated in the structures of basic cares. Their aims are: assessment of disability, prevention, parental advice, social insertion, information.

In Tunisia, statistic datas of disabled persons are the following (2003) :

• All disabilities together: 151 423 - 1,5% of the population
• Motor disability: 42,1%
• Mental disability: 27,7%
• Visual disability : 13,3%
• Auditive disability: 12,4%
• Other: 04,4%

The causes are :

• at birth: 47,8%
• disease: 38,7%
• traffic accident: 2,5%
• work accident: 2%
• home accident: 1,9%
• professional disease: 1%
• other: 3,7% 11 452 traffic road accident in Tunisia occured in 2003 leading to 16 335 injured persons and to 1,5% disability/year.

RECENT DEVELOPPMENTS are occuring in Tunisia, as :

• improvement of the public departments of PRM
• creation of private centers of PRM
• new technologies of assessment and rehabilitation (but still not in each department)
• new therapeutic managements

Our society has to promote the following aims:

• assessment of Tunisian scales
• according to Tunisian norms
• measurement of disability
• objective assessment of PRM programs
• progress in orthopaedic devices,
• 4 topics of Bone and Joint Decade (SOTUMER has endorsed BJD in 2002)

Our Society also wants to develop transversal relationship with other medical specialities, like:

• Orthopaedy, traumatology
• Rhumatology
• Neurology
• Paediatry
• Geriatry
• Urology
• Gynecology
• Cardiology
• Pneumology,.

and also develop relationship with other international societies, like :

• French Societies (SOFMER, ANMSR)
• Mediterranean Forum of PRM
• and ISPRM, of course.