Cerebral Palsy Tasmania, together with our project partner the Menzies Research Institute, is excited to announce the launch of the Tasmanian Cerebral Palsy Register.

Cerebral Palsy Tasmania, together with our project partner the Menzies Research Institute, is excited to announce the launch of the Tasmanian Cerebral Palsy Register.

Cerebral Palsy Tasmania's CEO Lindy O'Neill said the CP Register is a collection of statistics and information about people with cerebral palsy who live in Tasmania.

"The CP Register was created to gather information that will guide research in causes, prevention, effective treatment and service provision. The Tasmanian CP Register works in conjunction with other state cerebral palsy registers and the Australian Cerebral Palsy Register to create a comprehensive Australia-wide register for people with cerebral palsy," she said.

"For people currently living with CP we anticipate the register will supply accurate statistics to government for funding, facilitate more research and improve the quality of current research into the important issues of aging and effective treatment options."

Associate Professor Alison Venn, who will supervise the establishment of the register at the Menzies Research Institute, said one of the major aims of the register is to help researchers to identify the causes of cerebral palsy.

"The register is extremely important in enabling us to determine how the incidence of cerebral palsy has been changing over time in Tasmania. It also allows us to better understand any trends in the type and severity of cerebral palsy, and to advance our knowledge of the multitude of factors that appear to increase the risk of cerebral palsy," said Associate Professor Venn.

Seed funding for the introduction of this register has been provided by the Tasmanian Community Fund. Cerebral Palsy Tasmania will need to secure ongoing funding through sponsorship in order to continue operating the register.

"This is a fantastic outcome for people with CP in Tasmania. For the first time, Tasmanian data will be collected and can be used to inform government and service providers of the needs and gaps in current service delivery," said Ms O'Neill.

"In addition the data will form part of the national data and therefore the national register will be truly representative of the incidence and severity of CP in Australia. I thank the Tasmanian Community Fund most sincerely for giving Tasmania this opportunity".

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