The International Cerebral Palsy Society (ICPS) is an international organisation, which has about 140 members in 49 countries. It was founded in Great Britain in 1969, where the headquarters still is, although the office is in Helsinki, Finland at the moment. Among the members there are some 35 national disability (CP) and parent organisations and 15 institutions or other professional organisations dealing with CP. The rest of the members are individuals with an interest in cerebral palsy.

Cerebral Pasy world wide

Although great advances have been made in the social acceptance and development of services for people with CP and their families in many countries, others still lag behind, or have not yet even reached the starting post. Levels of understanding, development and capability vary enormously from country to country. There is no set pattern of development and the outcome is often unpredictable. But because ICPS has such a unique worldwide resource in the expertise of its membership, it can call upon them to advise and assist in almost any situation

 Meetings

One very important part of the work of ICPS is seminars. A country has usually written to ICPS saying they wished to hold a jointly run seminar. ICPS has always asked the organisers what subject they want to discuss and what they hope to achieve with the meeting. The subject matter is therefore chosen by the host country since it is usually a subject of great interest/concern to them and ICPS assistance is to be able to suggest appropriate speakers/experts to take part. Administration is usually undertaken by the host country and ICPS is able to support, offer advice and produce expertise where needed. In the same way there have been countries/organisations in different parts of the world which had approached ICPS for help. The host country has been asked to identify its needs and say how they think the problems might be solved. It is important always to emphasise that ICPS does not know the answers but is willing to sit down and listen, look and learn before planning together the project. In that way it has been possible to develop fruitful projects to help the situation in different countries.

 Cooperation

The European organisation members of ICPS form a coalition called CP-ECA. It is an active member of EDF (European Disability forum). That means also that it works on the field of disability policy in Europe. It is very important to keep in discussion the ideas and needs of also those people, who have severe disabilities. Valerie Lang, a lady with CP from UK is a CP-ECA representative on the board of EDF.

ICPS has been founded to promote the rights and welfare of people with cerebral palsy and related disorders, to provide a network for people with CP, parents and professionals to exchange and share the expertise, to encourage new developments in all fields concerned with CP and research into its prevention and to promote co-operation and understanding and the exchange of information. Having an worldwide organisation is important in order to develop new expertise and to share it with each others. It is also important that we can hear from each others, how the services have been arranged. Through an organisation like ICPS we can also help people with CP in other countries, especially in less developed countries. In this work we need everybody.

 Contact

Aimo Strömberg - Secretary General
International Cerebral Palsy Society
c/o Suomen CP-liitto
Malmin kauppatie 26
00700 Helsinki
Finland
Tel. +358 400 421652
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