#quotereels | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fariyaaah · 3 years

Text

UNITY IN THE COMMUNITY - my reflective thoughts

A true community is not just about being geographically close to someone or part of the same social web network. It’s about feeling connected and responsible for what happens. Humanity is our ultimate community, and everyone plays a crucial role’. (QuoteReel).

What comes to my mind when I read the word ‘community’? Well, if you had to break the word up, it would literally give you come and unity and this is a great reflection of what a community is. When people that share commonalities come in unity. Prior to this block, however, my idea of being in a rural community was based solely on the geographical aspect of it. My interpretation of the community concept was therefore totally locational.

Personally, I was dreading this block, mainly because I had no idea what an occupational therapist could do in a communal setting other than home visits and the usual clinical treatment. This cluelessness brought about many negative feelings and fear of failure before even entering the community of Inanda. Speaking of which, I was fearful of going into a community with such high crime rates and heinously known as the ‘Designated Rape Zone’ of KZN. (For more information on what the Inanda community is and has to offer, please click the following link: https://www.sa-venues.com/attractionskzn/inanda-township.php)

Fearful feelings like this are naturally common for a female young girl in a community-based settings. In addition to this, I had also heard notorious tales from previous students about the community block being mentally and physically taxing due to the workload. However, I had decided that how this block turns out should be based on my own lived experience of the block, and not based on how others have experienced it. Thus, I began the block. When driving through the community for the first time, all I noticed was the unemployment and severe poverty. The widespread of youth wandering around, a significant number of pubs and tavern as well as the aftermath of the recent political unrest gave me an idea about the potential cases I could be dealing with. Upon arrival at the clinic, I learnt about the disregard for Occupational Therapists, gaps in the healthcare system, as well as the issues that PHC face. In addition to this, the clinic was intrenched with the apathy of the healthcare workers. However, I started off with the advocation for OTs through the means of health promotion speeches. The response that I got due to these speeches were truly magical. I was in awe of how many people needed OT’s but wasn’t even aware that they did need therapy. It made me question ways of how to bring our profession into PHC to allow for a bigger scope of practice as well as help more people. One of the ways in which I decided to then integrate OT into the clinic was making my presence and what I do there known to the other healthcare workers through introduction and education.

As a means of extending our services further into the community, I also attended various HIV conference talks as well as did an interview with an RJ to explain who we are and the work we do at the Inanda Wilderness Park. It was through this that I learnt that the big changes in the community occur through small changes we make. These small changes are then explored during these talks. Furthermore, these talks have given me the chance to bear witness to the 'togetherness' of the community. People without HIV were showing up to support their fellow peers with HIV, and in this is truly a beautiful humanistic concept that stuck out for me in a poverty stricken community with a poor socio-economic background.

The clinic was not our only means of service in the community. I also visited the creche and the primary school. Here I was saddened to see just how many children who require extra attention and deep intervention are lost in the schooling system due to big classes and increased burden on the teachers of these institutions. A personal anecdote would be that I had conducted therapy for an eleven-year-old boy, who could not recite or write the alphabets. When queried with the teachers, it was stated that he had been struggling first grade and the school could not afford to fail him due to the high rate of admissions and was therefore condoned every year since then. To me this raised the question as to whether the child had to be condoned due to the teachers having an increased burden of other children of greater numbers, or was no one willing to actually work with this child? On a positive note, though, I did enjoy running groups in these institutes as I saw all the intervention theory I had learnt in pediatric lectures come to life. Despite not being on my pediatric block, I discovered a newfound passion for paeds when I saw the difference I was making in their lives. Just a simple balloon activity was the highlight of their whole days and it taught me that intervention does not necessarily have to be expensive and fancy, it just needs to appeal to the client group.

Excluding PHC and educational institutes, I also explored the concept of home visits. Honestly this was the most dreaded part of my block. The idea of visiting someone’s home, conducting intervention based on their context has been a concept that I had only learnt about in the theory role of OT. It was nothing that my 4 years in a hospital setting had prepared me for. The chance of contracting COVID-19 also exacerbated my reluctance to go on these home visits. My mindset was changed the minute I entered my first home to conduct assessments and intervention. I was thrown into the harsh realities of the lived experience of these community members, and how leading a life that seems so impossible to me is the reality to them. These life changing home visits not only naturally made me appreciate the opportunity and honor that I get to be able to make a difference in their lives but as well as made me aware of my own positionality and how this can impact the way I carry out my intervention. I had a client that had not being going to school for a year due to her wheelchair being broken. The client’s family had no idea of the process to obtain a new wheelchair and therefore getting this client a wheelchair became my responsibility. Due to her poor living conditions, I also collaborated with the social worker to assess the possibility of RDP housing. As Diane van Furstenberg once said; ‘I have always believed that when you have a voice, you have an obligation to use that voice to empower others. Following this, I have used my own voice to empower not only this client, but her entire family in improving their quality of life. Learning to do this has not only me grow as a person but has sharpened my skills as a healthcare professional in collaborating with others to effectively make a difference in my client’s life as opposed to previously referring them elsewhere or putting in recommendations that may or may not be overseen. Home visits provided me with the opportunity to provide holistic treatment for my clients, and this is a concept that has been imbibed in me since first year, but not something that I have actually practiced. Naturally, I owe my gratitude to this community module. In this block, I have truly learnt the meaning of what it means to advocate, for not only our clients but for who we are as a profession.

Being on this block has also taught me how to question and challenge things or concepts that I don’t agree with, be it theory notes taught or injustice in the community. Advocacy, intervention relevant to client context, holistic intervention, positionality, being a humanistic OT with a passion for feminism as well as standing up for injustices and challenging both the theoretical and practical systems are all skills that have not only helped me develop both professionally and personally, but these are also skills that are commendable to take forward as I begin working as an OT in the real world. I truly look forward to working not only in the community, but with the community to contribute to it's development.

📷

REFERENCES:

Community Quotes | Text & Image Quotes | QuoteReel [Internet]. QuoteReel. 2021 [cited 27 August 2021]. Available from: http://quotereel.com/community-quotes/

Inanda Township. (2010). Retrieved 27 August 2021, from https://www.sa-venues.com/attractionskzn/inanda-township.php

van Furstenberg, D. (2018). Retrieved 27 August 2021, from https://za.pinterest.com/pin/473018767111194151/

Dhillon, S., & Wilkins, S. (2010). Advocacy in Occupational Therapy: Exploring Clinicians' Reasons and Experiences of Advocacy - Shaminder K. Dhillon, Seanne Wilkins, Mary C. Law, Debra A. Stewart, Mary Tremblay, 2010. Retrieved 27 August 2021, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2182/cjot.2010.77.4.6

0 notes