IICP love:)

So this post is for my dad (he asked to know lots more about our placement) so I am going to try and fill anyone who is interested in on our day to day at the IICP. As I think Rachel mentioned we are working with Physio's (PTs) as OT and PT are pretty much the same thing here. As a result we are doing a lot of physiotherapy sessions. Each day a different class has a physio slot so they just tell us go and grab a kid...so we do and then we do physio with them. The focus here is on doing physio sessions involving standard exercises (ie increasing trunk strength and rotation, weight bearing on hands and feet, increasing head strength) which is so different from my experience of physio in Canada. On my last placement I was at a child development center and I got to work with a lot of physio's at the center and do joint sessions with them. In Canada the focus is more on doing therapy through play (ie. increasing trunk strength through practicing crab walks or using scooter boards). I am sure it has a lot to do with resources as well as philosophy, but that is one of the main differences I have noticed in India, here the physio room has no toys and is strictly about doing exercises. Also (I don't think there are any PTs reading this blog so I can say this safely) but both Rach and I think that physio sessions can be really boring and are so glad that we are not doing this for our profession! That sounded mean, what I really meant was that I am happy I am in OT so I get to assess and provide therapy to clients in so many differnent ways, not only increasing strength, ROM, endurance etc. Sorry if anyone is partial to PT!

In terms of more OT things we have been doing handwriting assessments and recommendations for children who are able to print or have the ability to hold a pen/pencil. We have also done feeding assessments, which is also something that is relevant to OT in Canada. Finally we are hoping to do assess and make recommendations regarding self-care and access (access refers to how non-verbal children communicate either through communication boards or specialized softwear/switches attached to computers-one guy uses his feet to type!). We have also been asked to observe and make ergonomic recommendations for the vocational programs that are run at the IICP for adults with disabilities (there is a catering, tea packing, print making, and a computer course that are continually running). Also we get to do hydrotherapy, where we take the children into the warm pool and do physio exercises. Rach and I get to do it twice a week and I really enjoy it because you can see immediately how much they benefit from being in the water, children who are so flexed are able to extend and relax so well in the water. Also I really like it because the PTs (all male) and the other volunteers who are male cannot work with the female students and there are not many female staff and volunteers who want to do hydrotherapy (being in a pool in a bathing suit with men is the reason I think). So it means that well Rach and I are here, girls are able to do hydro that otherwise would not be able to, so that is really nice.

One last thing I will explain before I should go, we are in charge of feeding our assigned student each day. We initially had to watch for a while and then do a paper and pen feeding assessment and now we are in charge of feeding our child each day. Rachel is in love with her little guy and he is adorable and loves her too! My assigned student Bitasta does not love me so much...in a therapy session yesterday she bit my knee, pulled my hair and pinched me! She refused to eat with me until this week (so lunch used to be my "favourite" part of the day)...this week though she is starting to warm up to me around mealtime, I am not sure what I did but I am hoping my luck will last for another week an a half until we leave!

Sorry if this was not interesting to everyone, but that hopefully gives you an idea of our days. Also there is some bad news...Rachel is ill again and had to miss placement today. We think it has passed and she will be okay tomorrow and back to placement. It is really frustrating though, we have not eaten any street food and been so careful so we really have no idea what happened...but a tourist did tell us that everyone gets sick in Varanasi, so who knows. I am really hoping that I do not fall a few days later as last time...keep your fingers crossed for both of us:)