Another lazy post: an article I wrote for post.
As I was nervously anticipating the commencement of my assignment, one common piece of advice was consistent amongst the other volunteers who had returned from Fiji. This advice was loud and clear: take a back seat, get to know your colleagues, take time to talk to them and don’t enter the workplace with all guns blazing. Be prepared to do “nothing” for the first 3 months. Being a person who possesses an inability to sit still, I knew I would find this incredibly challenging. So I readied myself to move slowly, reserve all judgements and decisions and welcome a slower pace with open arms – essentially doing “nothing”. However, doing “nothing” didn’t prepare me for my first day at school.
I was cruising for the first 2 hours. I sat myself at the back of one of the classrooms and observed. I said “nothing” and I did “nothing”. I think I was getting used to the idea that I really could handle this “nothing” concept. Little did I know that “nothing” doesn’t quite apply in the busy hive of activity at Hilton Special School.
Recess arrived and I noticed the teachers rushing for their daily serve of morning tea. The teachers cautiously stepped around me with mumbled “tulou, tulou”s and eagerly reached over for their lemon leaf tea with one hand while performing a balancing act with a generous pile of bara and fried taro in the other hand. One of the teachers pulled me into sit next to them and pointed furiously at her food and edged closer to me. Keen to try local snacks and attempting to be polite and interested, I asked “and what is this we’re eating? It smells lovely!”. As I was mid-sentence, the teacher turned away and ignored me completely! I leant over gently and enquired again: “Sorry, excuse me. Um…” She still had her back turned to me. I felt a light tap on my shoulder and turned to the friendly face of the assistant head teacher. “My dear, Teacher Leona cannot hear you, she is Deaf.” And with a sudden loud smack onto the tea room table which made me jump high enough to send me catapulting over the school’s fence and into Suva harbour, the assistant head teacher had successfully gained Teacher Leona’s attention and interpreted my question in Fiji Sign Language.
Before I could even find out the answer to my question, my counterpart, Linda, had approached and had a student and his mother behind him. “Yadra, Amanda. This is J – you can do something for him now?” I peered around Linda to get a better look at the student. Before me stood a large boy breathing heavily, clapping his hands and looking blankly into the distance. Having no knowledge about the child or without any briefing, I was ushered into a classroom and watched as the child’s mother pulled him onto a chair. Following in after us was Lauren, the Speech Pathologist who was also on assignment at Hilton Special School. “Ladies, you can tell us something we can do for J?”. With a bewildered look over at Lauren, both of us were now expected to do something to help this child. The idea of “nothing” was slowly fading. J’s mother and his teacher weren’t going to be satisfied with vague solutions to addressing her son’s needs, so Lauren and I did our best to offer only basic advice and stressed the importance of further assessment.
The bell for the completion of recess rang and after questioning J’s mother and performing basic assessments, I excused myself to return to another class to attempt to return to doing “nothing” at the back of the class. I was hoping to get used to the idea of doing “nothing”. It was comfortable and safe concept in a foreign country where I only had a patchy idea about its culture and customs. Once again, “nothing” was not to be as another teacher was beckoning me from the doorway of the classroom that I had nestled myself into.
“Kerekere, Amanda – I need some activities for my class, can you suggest some activities for me?” The Transition teacher had appeared at the classroom entrance and I was promptly ushered into the Transition class where the children with the highest support needs had their classes. From my first glance, this was a class for children who had major mobility and physical concerns. Half the class could not walk independently and most had issues with muscle control in their hands and a small proportion had global intellectual delays. From this moment, “nothing” was thrown out the window and over the fence into the banana-plant and ivy covered cliff that Hilton Special School sits on.
Since then, it has been non-stop assessments and activities with students, a constant barrage of writing wish-lists and recommendation reports to improve student’s mobility needs, a battle to maintain a hydrotherapy pool and keep inquisitive students from entering without my knowledge, juggling a large shipment of donated equipment and assisting students and teachers in their classroom environment.
I’ve grown so close to Hilton Special School and the children are endearing and call out my name in sing-song voices as I pass their classrooms at the school. I’m no longer lost in translation with Fiji Sign Language gradually de-mystifying itself through repetition and practice with the hearing impaired students. Most importantly, I’ve grown to know the school inside-out, including its overhead roof-cum-storage area space which is accessed somewhat precariously by a wobbly ladder. The mothers, aunties, teachers and students have become like an extended family. In Fiji, I’ve learnt that you drop everything for family and doing “nothing” would never be an option for my Hilton Special School family.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
THE DEVIL WEARS SOCKS WITH THONGS
Another lazy post - an email I wrote to Lauren (the speech pathologist who was working with me) who has since returned to Australia. I was just filling her in on a few recent events:
Dear Lauren,
This story is so amazingly funny that I have to share it with you and I am killing two birds with one stone by dictacting this email to Melina as we speak.
So Mrs P was away from school for two days last week. She was sick at home with fevers (what's new eh?). She returned to school today and was telling L that she had fevers and was posessed by a demon. She reported that this demon was in fact, her mother, and that her mother was haunting/possessing her. Mrs P said that her mother died when she was 4 so now she is coming back to haunt her. She said that when her cousin/sister/some relative that we won't actually know the exact detgails of because tha'ts what happens in Fiji... came to visit her over the weekend, she coughed really badly in front of him/her and the devil jumped from Mrs P to her family relation.
She also told L that while she was in her room which she swears that she had locked, had opened up mysteriously by itself, letting in a cool and creepy breeze. She also was coughing a lot today and told L that she had gastric/gastritis while pointing to her chest.
The end. You're missing out on a lot.
-Amanda
Dear Lauren,
This story is so amazingly funny that I have to share it with you and I am killing two birds with one stone by dictacting this email to Melina as we speak.
So Mrs P was away from school for two days last week. She was sick at home with fevers (what's new eh?). She returned to school today and was telling L that she had fevers and was posessed by a demon. She reported that this demon was in fact, her mother, and that her mother was haunting/possessing her. Mrs P said that her mother died when she was 4 so now she is coming back to haunt her. She said that when her cousin/sister/some relative that we won't actually know the exact detgails of because tha'ts what happens in Fiji... came to visit her over the weekend, she coughed really badly in front of him/her and the devil jumped from Mrs P to her family relation.
She also told L that while she was in her room which she swears that she had locked, had opened up mysteriously by itself, letting in a cool and creepy breeze. She also was coughing a lot today and told L that she had gastric/gastritis while pointing to her chest.
The end. You're missing out on a lot.
-Amanda
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
A LETTER
Oops. Looks like I've neglected this blog a bit. Mum won't be happy. A very interesting event happened the other day. I like to respect other professions that are seemingly similar but completely different to mine, but sometimes...you need to know your limitations.
To other healthcare professionals reading this, PLEASE:
Don't step outside your scope of practice (double standards, I know, but I don't think being a stand-in teacher is going to harm anyone). Don't think you have the answers to everything. Know what you don't know and admit when you've actually got no freakin' idea. And for crying out loud, DO NOT think or profess that you can cure the children at HSS!!! I have just lost a bit more respect for a certain healthcare profession.
I wrote to my surrogate mentor:
Dear H,
I thought I'd share this story with you. I nearly fainted watching this unfold and I'm not entirely sure why I didn't do anything to intervene. I think I was frozen from shock of the following events:
The background: we have a child with myelodysplasia who is non-ambulant, continent and one of our bright students at school. He's got extremely weak quads, and semi weak hip flexors and extensors. He stands with two people assisting (against no-lift policy in absence of a hoist) and can take 3 steps at his very very best, that is, if his knees don't give way. He's rather overweight and we've been plodding along nicely with diet assistance from a Dietician I befriended at the P hospital and has been doing hydro and daily sessions of weight-bearing exercise (mainly sit-stand, mini-squats, weight-shift/"dancing") and a once weekly extended session for floor-based therapy.
His mother approached me last week and asked if I could attend a specialist spinal Physiotherapist assessment of her son. I asked what kind of specialist this person was, but mum could only tell me that she was from the United States and has had very good results with children with s.b. Being used to the vague Fijian way of explaining things, I knew that more questions would just frustrate mum even further and probably wouldn't get me far anyway. I think I was being skeptical from the start, but I thought there wouldn't be any harm in getting a second opinion from a colleague. I also thought that mum had gotten confused and heard the word "spine" on the radio and "expert" and therefore thought this therapist could help her son, without knowing that the advertisement was probably directed at people with back pain.
So I said yes, of course I'd be happy to attend the clinic, except I thought it was a bit strange that the parents had to pay for this service. Usually overseas assistance comes without a fee as it is provided out of the generousity of overseas-trained staff. Having no idea what I was in for, I soon realised that we were about to see a chiropractor.
We were ushered into a small consultation room where our student was lifted onto the treatment plinth by dad. She was more interested in the therapy I had been doing with the student rather than the reports and scans we'd given her. She proceeded to poke at his back and bend his legs telling the parents that his pelvis was out of alignment because his legs crossed when she bent them. At this point, I was happy with the poking and prodding. All of a sudden, she was poised over him in what i remember as a screw-manip over the thoracic spine at uni. Before I knew it, without finding out more about his condition, without looking at any x-rays or CT scans, crack goes the spine and thump thump thump goes my heart.
After this, she asks my student to see if he can get up and try to take a few steps and walk. So he awkwardly turns over with assitance from Dad stands up, his knees collapse again and he's back to being on the floor. Sorry, but your magic crackin' is not happenin'.
I've since explained to mum about what myelodysplasia involves and how manipulating the spine is both dangerous and is not the most functional-based treatment her son could be receiving. I'm pretty sure that spinal manipulation will not make her son gain strength and may actually be harmful. We're realistic about expectations on his progress and agree that maintenance is far more important than gaining function at the moment.
I've advised mum and dad not to continue with the chiropractor. My gut feeling is that this child's spine shouldn't be manipulated and probably won't help his condition. They want to go back one more time, but do you have any stronger advice? Apparently the chiropractor says she's treated non-wheelchair dependent children with his condition before and has had success.... hmm.
I try so hard to respect other professions, but this makes it really, really, really difficult...
To other healthcare professionals reading this, PLEASE:
Don't step outside your scope of practice (double standards, I know, but I don't think being a stand-in teacher is going to harm anyone). Don't think you have the answers to everything. Know what you don't know and admit when you've actually got no freakin' idea. And for crying out loud, DO NOT think or profess that you can cure the children at HSS!!! I have just lost a bit more respect for a certain healthcare profession.
I wrote to my surrogate mentor:
Dear H,
I thought I'd share this story with you. I nearly fainted watching this unfold and I'm not entirely sure why I didn't do anything to intervene. I think I was frozen from shock of the following events:
The background: we have a child with myelodysplasia who is non-ambulant, continent and one of our bright students at school. He's got extremely weak quads, and semi weak hip flexors and extensors. He stands with two people assisting (against no-lift policy in absence of a hoist) and can take 3 steps at his very very best, that is, if his knees don't give way. He's rather overweight and we've been plodding along nicely with diet assistance from a Dietician I befriended at the P hospital and has been doing hydro and daily sessions of weight-bearing exercise (mainly sit-stand, mini-squats, weight-shift/"dancing") and a once weekly extended session for floor-based therapy.
His mother approached me last week and asked if I could attend a specialist spinal Physiotherapist assessment of her son. I asked what kind of specialist this person was, but mum could only tell me that she was from the United States and has had very good results with children with s.b. Being used to the vague Fijian way of explaining things, I knew that more questions would just frustrate mum even further and probably wouldn't get me far anyway. I think I was being skeptical from the start, but I thought there wouldn't be any harm in getting a second opinion from a colleague. I also thought that mum had gotten confused and heard the word "spine" on the radio and "expert" and therefore thought this therapist could help her son, without knowing that the advertisement was probably directed at people with back pain.
So I said yes, of course I'd be happy to attend the clinic, except I thought it was a bit strange that the parents had to pay for this service. Usually overseas assistance comes without a fee as it is provided out of the generousity of overseas-trained staff. Having no idea what I was in for, I soon realised that we were about to see a chiropractor.
We were ushered into a small consultation room where our student was lifted onto the treatment plinth by dad. She was more interested in the therapy I had been doing with the student rather than the reports and scans we'd given her. She proceeded to poke at his back and bend his legs telling the parents that his pelvis was out of alignment because his legs crossed when she bent them. At this point, I was happy with the poking and prodding. All of a sudden, she was poised over him in what i remember as a screw-manip over the thoracic spine at uni. Before I knew it, without finding out more about his condition, without looking at any x-rays or CT scans, crack goes the spine and thump thump thump goes my heart.
After this, she asks my student to see if he can get up and try to take a few steps and walk. So he awkwardly turns over with assitance from Dad stands up, his knees collapse again and he's back to being on the floor. Sorry, but your magic crackin' is not happenin'.
I've since explained to mum about what myelodysplasia involves and how manipulating the spine is both dangerous and is not the most functional-based treatment her son could be receiving. I'm pretty sure that spinal manipulation will not make her son gain strength and may actually be harmful. We're realistic about expectations on his progress and agree that maintenance is far more important than gaining function at the moment.
I've advised mum and dad not to continue with the chiropractor. My gut feeling is that this child's spine shouldn't be manipulated and probably won't help his condition. They want to go back one more time, but do you have any stronger advice? Apparently the chiropractor says she's treated non-wheelchair dependent children with his condition before and has had success.... hmm.
I try so hard to respect other professions, but this makes it really, really, really difficult...
Monday, May 9, 2011
TRIBUTE
A cloud of death surrounds my community at the moment. Loved ones have passed and feelings of grief and sorrow have ensued. I have reached out personally to those most affected, but only time can heal their souls. Words seem futile and can never equal the amount of sympathy you wish to convey towards those who have lost loved ones close to their hearts.
One of those who passed recently was a student at the school. Up until last year he had been attending sporadically. He'd have frequent seizures and was regularly sick with flu-like symptoms. His disability was undiagnosed. His awareness of the world was akin to a 1 months old baby. He would only walk towards light and his recognition of people was dubious. We'd know when he was at school because we'd hear him yelling at the top of his voice, or you'd hear his heavy, rattley breathing after walking down the corridor. In some respects, we feel deeply sorry for his mother and his little sister who is struggling to come to terms with her brother who won't wake up. In other respects, I feel that this world was too painful for him to live in. Perhaps he's in a happier, comfortable and understanding place.
It's at these times you remind yourself to let people know how much you love them. Perhaps it's the time you reflect and wonder if you're living your life, or just watching it float by. Do you start to fear regret and bad relationships? What if you're not given the chance to make amends?
Either way, I hope that those who have lost can gather strength from within to overcome the grief that they are facing.
I suppose it's only appropriate to end with a quote that's been quoted and re-quoted again: "Your life flashes before your eyes before you die - make sure it's worth watching."
One of those who passed recently was a student at the school. Up until last year he had been attending sporadically. He'd have frequent seizures and was regularly sick with flu-like symptoms. His disability was undiagnosed. His awareness of the world was akin to a 1 months old baby. He would only walk towards light and his recognition of people was dubious. We'd know when he was at school because we'd hear him yelling at the top of his voice, or you'd hear his heavy, rattley breathing after walking down the corridor. In some respects, we feel deeply sorry for his mother and his little sister who is struggling to come to terms with her brother who won't wake up. In other respects, I feel that this world was too painful for him to live in. Perhaps he's in a happier, comfortable and understanding place.
It's at these times you remind yourself to let people know how much you love them. Perhaps it's the time you reflect and wonder if you're living your life, or just watching it float by. Do you start to fear regret and bad relationships? What if you're not given the chance to make amends?
Either way, I hope that those who have lost can gather strength from within to overcome the grief that they are facing.
I suppose it's only appropriate to end with a quote that's been quoted and re-quoted again: "Your life flashes before your eyes before you die - make sure it's worth watching."
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
MY WARDROBE
Everyone in Fiji loves to wear brightly coloured, floral printed shirts, skirts and tops. I have cottoned on (chortle, chortle) to the fashion here and have had a few sulu/jabas made to get in touch with the Fijian culture.
Here's a picture of my week's washing (minus the disintegrating underwear):
I thought I'd better make the most of it because I'm not sure if I can get away with wearing such loud/bright colours back in black Melbourne. If I continue working with children, hopefully I can have a good excuse to be wearing these tops to work.
Here's a picture of my week's washing (minus the disintegrating underwear):
I thought I'd better make the most of it because I'm not sure if I can get away with wearing such loud/bright colours back in black Melbourne. If I continue working with children, hopefully I can have a good excuse to be wearing these tops to work.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
PROGRESS
Things are chugging along slowly at school. I have just over 3 and a half months left and my grand plan is to have most mini-projects finished in 3 weeks. This is for the sole purpose of being able to relax in my last term at school, monitor if my resources will get used and enjoying my time at school rather than stressing over things not being completed.
There's been lots happening and here's a few of the projects that I'm currently working on:
Making splints using the scraps of neoprene in our store room and inserting old spoons to act as a framework to set the wrist into a good position:
Making a stackload of worksheets that involve cutting, colouring, pasting and other general fine motor skills. This is me slightly extending my scope of practice where I've pushed at the boundary of being a Physio, stepped over the line into being an OT, ran a few more steps to the are titled: "teacher and curriculum development person". The children have a very limited amount of hands-on opportunities to cut, paste and interact with general classroom objects. Most lessons are spent being lectured by a teacher or copying off the blackboard. These ideas came to me when I was taking small groups for fine motor activities and then realised that I wasn't able to reach out to ALL the students who needed help. Then I realised that even some of the children in the Hearing Impaired department also needed opportunities for fine motor input to develop their language which then led to me taking classes to demonstrate to the teachers that interacting with paper, scissors, glue, peers and doing something other than copying off the board could actually have a myriad of learning opportunities, language development AND children with fine motor issues would get a chance at using their weak muscles during classroom activities. (Sorry, long sentence.) What was originaly basic therapy for the whole school has become a huge chunk of curriculum development.
So here's some beads made from brochures...
And some worksheets to learn about counting, houses, and shapes...
There's been lots happening and here's a few of the projects that I'm currently working on:
Making splints using the scraps of neoprene in our store room and inserting old spoons to act as a framework to set the wrist into a good position:
Making a stackload of worksheets that involve cutting, colouring, pasting and other general fine motor skills. This is me slightly extending my scope of practice where I've pushed at the boundary of being a Physio, stepped over the line into being an OT, ran a few more steps to the are titled: "teacher and curriculum development person". The children have a very limited amount of hands-on opportunities to cut, paste and interact with general classroom objects. Most lessons are spent being lectured by a teacher or copying off the blackboard. These ideas came to me when I was taking small groups for fine motor activities and then realised that I wasn't able to reach out to ALL the students who needed help. Then I realised that even some of the children in the Hearing Impaired department also needed opportunities for fine motor input to develop their language which then led to me taking classes to demonstrate to the teachers that interacting with paper, scissors, glue, peers and doing something other than copying off the board could actually have a myriad of learning opportunities, language development AND children with fine motor issues would get a chance at using their weak muscles during classroom activities. (Sorry, long sentence.) What was originaly basic therapy for the whole school has become a huge chunk of curriculum development.
So here's some beads made from brochures...
And some worksheets to learn about counting, houses, and shapes...
Saturday, April 2, 2011
CULTURE 101
This is a short one. I'm going to state the facts and the events without opinion or persomal commentary. Make up your own mind about what happened on Friday:
Friday's structure at school is "extra-curricular" activities. In the morning, the children have their "culture" lesson. After recess, the children have clubs and after lunch, they have gardening and sports.
During culture, the school is separated into "Fijian" and "Indo-Fijian" groups. The children in the "Indo-Fijian" group are of mainly Indian-Fijian decent and those who are in the "Fijian" group are all the other children who are Indigenous Fijian, Rotuman, Chinese, a fruit-salad of culture, but NOT Indo-Fijian. Those in the "Fijian" group learn about Fijian culture and those in the "Indo-Fijian" group learn about Indian-Fijian culture. So far, there has been no integration or cross-cultural learning during culture lesson times.
Last Friday, the children in the "Fijian" culture group went on an excursion to the museum. Opportunities to go on excursions are limited and so when an outing is actually organised and there are funds to venture out of school, there is much excitement and buzz about the school with regards to the upcoming excursion. An excursion is a special event in these children's school lives.
The Indo-Fijian children stayed at school while the Fijian children were given the chance to go out on an excursion to the museum. No excursion has been organised for the Indo-Fijian children at school.
I have my opinions about this situation, but will keep them to myself this time.
Friday's structure at school is "extra-curricular" activities. In the morning, the children have their "culture" lesson. After recess, the children have clubs and after lunch, they have gardening and sports.
During culture, the school is separated into "Fijian" and "Indo-Fijian" groups. The children in the "Indo-Fijian" group are of mainly Indian-Fijian decent and those who are in the "Fijian" group are all the other children who are Indigenous Fijian, Rotuman, Chinese, a fruit-salad of culture, but NOT Indo-Fijian. Those in the "Fijian" group learn about Fijian culture and those in the "Indo-Fijian" group learn about Indian-Fijian culture. So far, there has been no integration or cross-cultural learning during culture lesson times.
Last Friday, the children in the "Fijian" culture group went on an excursion to the museum. Opportunities to go on excursions are limited and so when an outing is actually organised and there are funds to venture out of school, there is much excitement and buzz about the school with regards to the upcoming excursion. An excursion is a special event in these children's school lives.
The Indo-Fijian children stayed at school while the Fijian children were given the chance to go out on an excursion to the museum. No excursion has been organised for the Indo-Fijian children at school.
I have my opinions about this situation, but will keep them to myself this time.
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