Week 4 down...starting the wrap up

This week has been a bit of a disappointing week. The high school teachers at Mariannridge have decided to strike ...illegally...and rippled to the Primary school which is hampering our intervention in the community. We met an astonishing matric pupil who we interviewed and he was sitting with Jenny trying to find out what the MCC could do to help as he was worried about his grades slipping during this time. This really got us thinking about what we can do because there are a few members in the school that want an education, that want to better their lives and want to make something of themselves. We thought about implementing a programme that will continue to educate the students despite the strikes (as these seem to be a common occurrence). This will be set up with the MCC and may involve parents to help facilitate and run these programmes. This will act as a buffer so that learners that want to learn are not deprived of that right.

  We are still awaiting the counsellor’s visit in the community and the concrete bins. It's as if the community runs on their own different time to the fast pace city that I am used to. In a way it has its perks, it contributes to the relaxed beauty of the community and there is time to be a community, but everything is taking so slow. In a presentation in our tut today, it was raised that we must constantly remember that although we have academic time frames and we would love to see the produce of the seeds we have sown, we must remember that this is for the community and not for our benefit.

Monday, despite my flu, we charged on with the baby development. The more and more children that we see with delayed developmental milestones, the more we realise the importance of this project. Intervention needs to begin here, before school. This project could really be run well with the speech and language students as we should always see the child holistically and some of these moms have to take time out of their working day to be at the clinic so instead of the OT's noticing a speech problem with the child and asking the mom to then bring the child back for another assessment, just is not going to work. If the OT and speechies assessed together at 1 time, this would be really beneficial for the child and mother. I was looking at all the NGO's that look after our communities and implement projects and i found the Robin hood foundation. This NGO runs a project ( and have visited St Mary's hospital) that involves giving baby care packs to new mothers. This project is called "Love the babies". Here is the quote of their website http://www.robinhoodfoundation.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=116: "A Love the babies" bag is essentially a baby shower in a bag. Love the Babies bags are always so well- received by the needy mums who we donate to.

Included in these bags are toweling nappies, disposable nappies, second hand and new baby clothes, booties, hats, bibs, blankets, towels, toys and teddies.

Occassionally, if we receive sufficient donations, special items such as aqueous cream, baby shampoo or powder are included in bags.".

With this wonderful project already being implemented, I wondered if maybe a Stimulation pamphlet that we created could be put into these bags as a prevention type of programme. Im sure Mariannridge is not the only community that we are seeing children that are not being stimulated at all. This would really be a great opportunity for us to intervene on a large scale.

On Thursday, at Khitwe, Kaylee and I treated a very mild spastic quad. She visited the clinic for a speech therapy as she was having trouble feeding and was non-verbal but externally communicative. They were trying to get her to make to count and recognise the numbers and colours using flash cards. Looking around the clinic I spotted foam numbers and thought of wetting them and getting her to stick it on a mirror counting the number, recognising the number and colour while incorporating grasps, trunk rotation, trunk flexion, sensory stimulation, weight bearing. She grasped the activity quickly and was screaming with excitement when a number stuck on the mirror. She engaged so well with the activity and that when i really noticed the difference between other professions and OT. When treatment is carried out through an activity, the therapeutic value and outcome is just so much greater. The client is active in the activity ensuring active engagement and this was just fun for the child. The sensory stimulation with water ensured it was age appropriate and just made it that much more exciting for the child. I really do just love this profession.

Friday=play day! We dedicated the whole day in the community to staring the play area. This consisted of cleaning up the area, washing the area, marking and painting the area. Although it’s a play area…it meant hard work for us. Probably the most manual labour I have participated in in a good couple of month but how incredible it was to finally get the play area up and going and the success we all felt when we looked at all the work we accomplished. The children all took great interest in the play area and were already trying to skip and jump in the play area. Monday the play area will be completed and my blog post will go into more detail then but for now...

The prac is coming to an end and we are all feeling mixed emotions. I feel fulfilled and after a gruelling 7 weeks of psych, I have fallen in love with my degree again. Their is just something about giving back to others that makes one feel a joy that cannot be put into the correct words. It makes me feel like I have purpose in life and if I can experience this feeling every day in my job...what more could i asked to be blessed with in an occupation. Viva Occupational Therapy!

 

 

 

Week 3 done...all downhill from here

Our week 3 has finished meaning only two weeks left...i almost want to make time stand still, we arent ready to leave our community block yet. I feel like we only just started the other day and we still have so much to get done. The Sadtu strike has slowed things down in the community, but none the less, we keep on swimming.

The more we venture into this block and take in all the happenings around us, the more opportunity for change we see. Its hard to not take on a million different projects and try to go in depth and focus on only just a few. Its almost like our block needs to be a yearlong so that we can do everything we want to accomplish in the community block.

Monday let us down a little, the counsellor couldnt make it, the high school was closed and the primary school was closed. The baby development that I ran as a project in the clinic went well. We are finding kids that are in need of both speech and OT intervention. Treating these children now will ensure success in schools and in life for these children. This will ripple and in turn will result in a more positive community if the children do well and make something of them and hopefully get a successful job. Education is key. What has really helped is learning a little from the speechies, They have taught us how to pick up certain problems regarding speech and how to encourage speech in ypung children. As the speechies are not in the community on monday, we are able to pass this information on to the mothers of the children. we put 2 developmental charts up in the clinic and explained them to the sisters. The sister will be able to quickly see, using the charts, which children are not developing properly and they will refer the children to us and the students to follow. If we nip it in the bud now and treat the children at a young age, this will really prevent problems in the future. These are the posters we found that we placed in the clinic:

Tuesday was hippotherapy day ( hippo as in greek for horse not the hippopotamus). What an incredible thing to see. The cp child from being carried before the horse riding to walking with assistance after the riding. This is possible because when the child is riding on the horse, the child's hips move in the exact same movement as walking. It was just amazing to see such a different form of therapy and how much the children enjoyed it, engaged and benefitted with the therapy. This is a real by the way approach to therapy and these are just kids so to do something a little different, FUN and therapy not in a classroom setting resulted in such a success! The horse therapy is possible through a NGO called SARDA which stands for the South African Riding for the Disabled Association. An amazing association with amazing people who give up their time to bring joy and therapy into these childrens lives. Their website is: http://sarda.co.za/ and its worth a look.

During the week we went on home visits which was an experience. At first I felt a little uncomfortable going into someones home and into their personal space but the more I visited people at home the more I become comfortable and started to see the necessity to do home visits. This is where the person lives. They eat, sleep, relax and spend most of their time at home...so isnt it logical to intervene in the homes. Rails for elderly, wheelchair accessibility, bath rails and transfer boards for stroke patients...these things need to be put in place and would go unnoticed if a visit to the home was not conducted. It is also such a lovely way to understand the client a little better. Photos, books and other personal objects in the home allow you to get to know the person a little better and for some reason the little switch turns in your head and you realise these clients are people, they have lives separate to the hospital or clinic where we see them. I think I sometimes forget that these are normal people...although I treat them holistically and will incorporate their home lives in my treatment, as this is the beauty of Occupational therapy, the emotions arent attached. Home visits change that completely. It really was a lovely experience although sometimes its difficult to leave when you have to leave the home as the clients just want to talk and show you pictures.

During the Thursday tut, it really hit me when December was discussing the importance of the community building the tippy taps. As he said, there is already a misconception that white people and indian people must bring them stuff and that is what is expected. If the students build the tippy taps, they are not going to build more themselves as it can only be done by the "white and indian" students. It all comes back to that old Chinese proverb...give a man a fish. They need to actually DO it in order to carry on in the future.

Bin posters went up educating the community to put litter in the bins, a jungle gym was finally completed and ready for the children when they return to school and the students are ready for the next week. We have prepared a plan A, B, C, D and E because you always need 100 plans in the community because it is very rare that things go the way they are planned in community....which just makes it that much more fun and exciting.

Week 2 down

The days are starting to fly by...this could be beacuse time flies when your having fun!!!
I really feel like we have made a difference in the community this week. Things are starting to happen, programmes implemented and just a little bit of change can be seen...just a little.
53 members in the stop litter club, a bin, a jungle gym, groups, assessments, treatments, meetings with the councellor, clinics, over school teaching programmes....and the list goes on.
With a little bit of hard work, dedication and 100000 phone calls, things can get done which is incredibly uplifting for us as 4th year students.
The community was just welcomed us and the changes with open arms. A few of the members are excited for the change and have been wanting it to happen. The community want the change but I think have just needed the platform and the little shove from us students to get the ball rolling. This shows the need there is for intervention in the community.
I am loving community work, and may even think about working in the community in the future. There is so much that needs to be done and can be done in the community. Rather give my time and help in a place that needs it the most than a fancy, private hospital where there is adequate staff and money to pay for fancy equiptment and treatment just because this is where my comfort zone is....but where is the excitment if you are always in your comfort zone?

Ketiwe visit

Ketiwe is a little clinic run in the monastery in Marianhill. It is run by a 1 very patient and kind hearted lady.
Our thursday visit coinsided with a cerebral palsy group that is usually run on this particular day. I dont think I have ever learnt so much in such a short amount of time! Partical experience that can not be learnt through a book.
One little boy stuck out in particular for me. He was 3 years old and was diagnosed with sever spastic quadraplegia (all four limbs are affected). Unlike the rest of the children, this little boy was unhappy, was not getting any attention or intervention at home, he was malnourished and just needing some tlc.
His femurs were dislocated due to the sever spasticity and the skin was peeling from his hands due to the sweat as a result of his hands being in a tight fist for a long period of time. While trying to treat the child and train the mom, his mom was too busy on her cellphone to answer my questions are look at the stretches and positions for her baby. I tried to use myt critical thinking brain and think what if I was in her shoes...looking after a normally developed baby is a 24/7 job, looking after a baby with cerebral palsy is just unimaginable. These children demand every second of everyday.
I then looked around at all the other parents and saw their hard work and dedication. This particular mom had just given up.
This really disturbed me for some time. My heart broke for this helpless little boy and I did for a split second contemplate stealing him and bringing him home so I could care for him but prison does not seem like a pleasent place to be.
After some reflection time, I sadly think that this is just a reality I have to learn to deal with. There will always be moms, care givers and families that just have given up in my experiences to come. As hard as this is to see, sometimes all you can do is try your best.
I am feeling disheartened and emotional, its never a nice thing to see, but as long as I do as much as I can to be an advocate and a voice for these people and treat as well as I can. I  have to learn to just accept the harsh reality but I never want to become hardened to it as it is a drive to always try to do the best you can.

 

Community Week 1

First week of community complete. A little more tanned from all my walking, a little more street wise and my eyes, a little more opened to the beauty and potential a community offers.

What first struck me one the first day was the hospitality from the community. We were welcomed with open arms and are looked after by some of the members. This may be due to the legacy the previous group of students have left behind. I also noticed that there is already a sense of love and nuture from the members of the community for the members of the community. Feeding schemes, soup kitchens and the general concern that the members have for each other. The community want to help better themselves but just need the right platform and a few helping hands pointing them in the right direction. This does make our job as OT's a little easy.

What really inspired me was the connection between the members and the love they have for each other. Everyone on the street greets each other and knows what is going on in each others lives. Women meet in the mornings with tea and do each other's hair, neighbours walk the blocks children to and from school, women give up their time to make soup for other peoples children, youngsters holding each others hands when walking to school. People associate a community with poverty but these people are rich in the things that matter...love, unity, cohesion and concern for each other. I have never experienced that in the neighbourhoods i have lived in and i wish i had. This creates an indescribible vibe within the community that creates excitment and motivation within me.

I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the community block, it combines everything we have learnt and all OT's will agree with me that it is ALOT!!! It is very different to any block I have been on, we are independant which carries alot of responsibility but creates the largest learning oppertunity I have been exposed to. Alot of reading and revising is going to have to take place this weekend.

Progress has been made and so far so good within the community. The people are welcoming and are more than happy to allow us to assist and make a difference. They do love and care for their community and want to better their lives and childrens lives.

I am inspired by the community and frightened by the magnitude of the ot intervention that needs to take place. buuuuuuutttttt......
“Good things come to those who wait… greater things come to those who get off their ass and do anything to make it happen.” - Unknown
Time to make great things happen!