Rehabilitation for children with rare diseases
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This rehabilitation course is intended for children under the age of 16 who have a rare disease and their families. Rehabilitation is offered in the form of group rehabilitation. The group meets on the service provider’s premises. The rehabilitation programme includes remote rehabilitation.
The rehabilitation course is free of charge.
Who is the rehabilitation course for?
Rehabilitation for children with rare diseases is suited for children under the age of 16 who
- have been diagnosed with a rare disease (condition, disability, syndrome or deformity)
- encounter difficulties in their daily life at home, day care or school because of their rare disease
- have enough functional capacity to participate in rehabilitation.
This rehabilitation course is not suited for children
- who need almost constant guidance, supervision or assistance in their daily life
- who damage their surroundings or cause harm to other people due to violent behaviour
- who also have some other condition that Kela offers rehabilitation for
- who have a congenital multiple disability or a developmental disability or disorder that Kela offers rehabilitation for.
- Sex chromosome abnormalities, such as Turner syndrome
- Bone diseases, such as osteogenesis imperfecta
- Connective tissue disorders, such as Marfan syndrome
- Heart diseases, such as long QT syndrome
- Pulmonary diseases, such as cystic fibrosis
- Haematological diseases, such as sickle cell disease
- Endocrine diseases, such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)
- Metabolic diseases, such as long-chain 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (LCHAD) deficiency
- Structural anomalies, such as esophageal atresia (sequela)
- Kidney diseases, such as congenital nephrotic syndrome
- Muscular diseases, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy
- Gastrointestinal diseases, such as congenital chloride diarrhea
- Skin diseases, such as epidermolysis bullosa
Aim of rehabilitation
The rehabilitation course helps the child and their family adapt to a new kind of daily life and the changes brought on by the child’s condition or disability. The aim of rehabilitation is to
- secure the child’s functional capacity
- give the family better resources and support their life management skills
- support the self-treatment of the child’s condition or disability
- help the family discover ways to continue to live as full a life as possible despite the child’s condition or disability.
- The rehabilitation course also offers the opportunity to get support from peers and to share experiences with other families.
How rehabilitation works
The rehabilitation course is offered partially on the service provider’s premises and partially online. Rehabilitation is primarily given in a group setting.
Rehabilitation takes the needs and goals of each child into account.
The child’s family accompanies the child for the entire duration of the rehabilitation course. The child can be accompanied by 1–2 adults and 1–2 siblings over the age of 2. All siblings under the age of 2 can accompany the child.
The service provider will contact you before and after the rehabilitation course.
The rehabilitation course is offered in Finnish. If you speak Swedish or one of the Sámi languages, Kela will provide an interpreter for you.
In-person rehabilitation will be given on the service provider’s premises. It lasts for 5 days. The family can stay overnight at the rehabilitation facility or travel there from home each day. The facility offers accommodation in a family room when family rooms are available.
During the rehabilitation course, the family will work in small groups, participate in group discussions and have one-on-one meetings with rehabilitation experts.
The remote rehabilitation includes one individual video call and 2 group video calls. The individual video call is about 45 minutes and the group video calls about 60–90 minutes each.
You do not need to have special computer skills to participate in remote rehabilitation. The family can borrow a device from the service provider if they need one to participate in the remote rehabilitation. Kela also offers help and guidance with accessing remote rehabilitation.
The experts involved in rehabilitation
The following experts will plan and manage the rehabilitation programme:
- a specialist in paediatrics, paediatric neurology or paediatric psychiatry
- a registered nurse or public health nurse
- a social worker, Bachelor of Social Sciences or rehabilitation instructor
- a psychologist, psychotherapist or registered nurse.
Depending on the child’s individual needs, other rehabilitation professionals and assisting personnel may also take part.
How to apply
This rehabilitation can be granted either as discretionary rehabilitation or as intensive medical rehabilitation.
- You need a medical statement B (B-lausunto) or a medical statement BC (BC-lausunto) issued by a doctor for the child or some other statement on the child’s health if you want to apply for discretionary rehabilitation. For example, you can submit a copy of the child’s medical history (sairauskertomus). The medical statement or health statement must be dated within the past year.
- If you want to apply for intensive medical rehabilitation, you must submit a rehabilitation plan (kuntoutussuunnitelma) that a doctor who works in public healthcare has drawn up for the child.
The medical statement B, medical statement BC, health statement or rehabilitation plan must state which disorder or condition the child has that qualifies the child for rehabilitation, how well the child can function, what kind of rehabilitation is recommended for the child and why.
If you are not sure which type of rehabilitation you should apply for, please ask the doctor in charge of your child’s care.
If you apply for discretionary rehabilitation, we will contact you if your child may have the right to intensive medical rehabilitation instead.
Once you have a medical statement B, a medical statement BC, a health statement or a rehabilitation plan for the child, do as follows:
- Complete the application form for discretionary rehabilitation KU 132 (PDF, in Finnish) or the application form for intensive medical rehabilitation KU 104e (PDF).
- Save the blank form to your device. Do not fill in the form directly in the browser because some of the information may not be saved that way.
- Open the form with Adobe Reader and fill it in.
- Tell us in the application which service provider’s rehabilitation you want to participate in. You can use Kela’s rehabilitation course search (in Finnish and Swedish only) to look up service providers. Type harvinaissairaudet (rare diseases) in the search field.
- Save the completed application form on your device. Note that the application must be in PDF format.
- Send the application in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish). The parents or guardians of a child under the age of 18 can apply for rehabilitation in OmaKela on behalf of their child.
- Log in to OmaKela and select Tee hakemus tai ilmoita muutoksista (Submit an application or report changes). If you want to apply for rehabilitation on behalf of your child, go to Asioi toisen henkilön puolesta (Act on behalf of another person). Read more about acting on behalf of another person.
- First select Sairastaminen ja kuntoutus (Sickness and rehabilitation). Then select Kuntoutus (Rehabilitation). Finally, select either Harkinnanvarainen kuntoutus (Discretionary rehabilitation) or Vaativa lääkinnällinen kuntoutus (Intensive medical rehabilitation).
- If you send your application to Kela in OmaKela, you do not need to sign it.
- If you have supporting documents, send them via OmaKela after you have submitted your application. If they are paper documents, you can photograph them.
- If you are applying for discretionary rehabilitation, send us a copy of the child’s medical statement B, medical statement BC or health statement as a supporting document with your application.
- If you are applying for intensive medical rehabilitation, send us a copy of the child’s rehabilitation plan as a supporting document with your application.
- Visit OmaKela to see if Kela has made a decision on your application. We will also send the decision notice to the rehabilitation service provider. This tells the service provider that Kela will pay for the child's rehabilitation, and the service provider will reserve a place for the child on the rehabilitation course.
If you cannot use OmaKela, mail your application to Kela. Save the form to your device and fill it in after saving it. Print out the completed form and send it and any supporting documents to Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA.
Apply for rehabilitation
Submit your application and supporting documents online
Let us know if you cannot attend rehabilitation
Remember to tell Kela immediately if the child cannot participate in the rehabilitation course. Let us know that you have to cancel by sending a message to us in the OmaKela e-service or by calling our customer service number for rehabilitation clients.
We recommend that you also contact the service provider to let them know you have to cancel.
Check if you can get rehabilitation allowance and travel cost reimbursements
Kela pays rehabilitation allowance to give you financial security during rehabilitation. Kela may also reimburse you for rehabilitation-related travel costs.