The first Early Intervention Centre in Poland was established in January 1978 in response to the needs of parents of children with disabilities.
It was preceded by rehabilitation camps organised by Krystyna Mrugalska, Secretary of the Main Board of the Society of Friends of Children (TPD). The camp programme met the needs reported by hundreds of parents: it gave them access to a team made up of a neurologist, a psychiatrist, a physiotherapist, a speech therapist and a clinical psychologist. Parents received a comprehensive diagnosis, a therapy programme and guidance on how to carry it out.
At first, from January 1978, the specialists saw parents and children in the afternoons in the offices of the TPD Main Board. Later the same year, OWI moved to the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology. In September 1993 the Centre got its own building at ul. Pilicka 21 in Warsaw. The Centre’s co-founder, staff member and long-time director was Zofia Pakuła, MA, a rehabilitation specialist and psychologist. From 2000 to 2014 OWI was directed by the late Monika Kastory-Bronowska. Since it was founded, OWI has helped well over ten thousand families and trained many doctors, psychologists, rehabilitation and special education students and speech therapists. It developed a standard of multidisciplinary, comprehensive support for children with psychomotor developmental disorders and their families, and became a model for many newly established centres. Today we help more than 1,700 families a year. Our team has 76 members.
The current director of the Centre is Dorota Szumbarska, MA, a clinical psychologist.