Name change boosts profile

The organisation that cares for more than 4000 children and adults with cerebral palsy and their families has taken on a new name - the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.

Signage at the organisation’s headquarters in Prince Street has been changed to reflect the new profile of the organisation.

Cerebral Palsy Alliance chief executive officer Rob White said the new name would have long-term benefits for the organisation and the thousands of Australians it supports.

“We are proud of our 66-year history of helping children and adults with cerebral palsy but research has shown us that now is the right time for our organisation to move into its next era,” he said.

Prue McCarthy, who was born with cerebral palsy, said she was delighted with the name change.

“It was really hard in the 1970s and the 1980s when I was young because the term ‘spastic’ was a derogatory term,” she said.

“People didn’t use it in a nice way at all.

“I think the new name is fantastic.”

Ms McCarthy said over the years the medical derivation of the terminology was lost.

“The name spastic came from the medical terminology relating to the spasms which people with cerebral palsy have,” she said.

“But over the years that meaning was lost.”

When the Spastic Centre was established in 1945 it was the first organisation of its kind in the world.

It was named after the word spasticity.

“At the time the word didn’t have the negative connotations it has today,” Mr White said.

The Cerebral Palsy Alliance office in Orange has a team of eight therapists who travel as far afield as Lithgow, Bathurst, Parkes, Condobolin and Lake Cargelligo to deliver services that include occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology, and respite programs.

janice.harris@

ruralpress.com