My Guyanese Adventure: Wakenaam Day 3

After a week of going out, partying and more going out, the time has finally come to buckle down and start work. My first day was Monday and it was also my first regional visit with Sam (the OT I'm replacing).

Guyana is divided into regions (like provinces). I'm based out of Georgetown, which is in Region 4. This week we are in Region 3, Essequibo Islands/West Demerara (so west of Georgetown). Since it's not too far, we are commuting from Georgetown daily.

Monday and Tuesday we spent at the hospital in West Demerara (I'll post about what we did there in a separate entry). Today we travelled to the Islands and visited Wakenaam. We aimed to leave by 6am. However, we woke up to heavy heavy pouring rain! It had rained all night and the canals this morning were flooded. The rain is to continue until the weekend, so there is potential for major flooding in Georgetown (some parts already are). This of course didn't stop us. We hopped into a taxi to the port, from there took a mini bus (about an hours drive), then a speed boat to Wakenaam (30 min ride).

We got to the hospital and due to the weather there were no patients. In Guyana, the rain is a legitimate excuse to be late or not show at all. We met the rehabilitation assistant(RA), M, who services the area and spent the day with her. The RAs in Guyana are trained to do SLP, PT and OT! This was M's first in-person contact with an OT. We reviewed cases with her and how she could be more OT focused with her patients, went over seating and play, did a couple of administrative things, went over the equipment and assessments she has, etc. We also touched on ways she can promote OT to her colleagues and the public to increase referrals.

Here's a list of her OT equipment:

All the Rehab. forms and equipment in this single unit!

-speech cards

-one kid's book

-young child's feeding set

-bag of building blocks

Yup that's it!

So we brainstormed ways she could be resourceful, making a drop splint and hand splints with cardboard and cloth materials, forming a ball with plastic bags then covering it with tape, filling bottles with rice, etc. She will be receiving a kit that Sam and the SLP have put together, which will contain basic equipment.

Unfortunately since transportation is quite expensive around Guyana, patient's will come for an initial assessment, but will not return for follow up visits impacting their rehab. progress. This is a huge huge issue!! M luckily is able to do home visits. My plan is to keep in touch and support M, and follow up with her in a couple of months and do another visit.