CLOSE TO MY LIMIT

MY LIMIT

I have one limit in life, my limit is time. For the block to finish I'm left with two weeks to do things which I promised to do; Sub Programmes, I signed the contract saying I will continue where others left off but many things need to be done in this less time. All of them cannot be done at the same time, also I need to do my own duties, some of the strategies to use for now is to plan, prioritize, and make use of every minute I get. 

THINGS TO DO

• Play area 
• Assess learners with special need.

MY BARRIERS 

The community council is ignoring us, the councilor promised to assist us but he did not keep his promises, now have to do things on our own, if he comes he offer help from what were currently doing. 
The school teachers are on stay away from their work; teaching children from the school, children are not coming to schools and they are not from the area, I cannot reach all of them, I only come across few along the street who I have to use at the moment. 
Home visit, the community workers started to introduce us to the clients in their homes this week. My group members are not willing to walk within the community, they do not feel safe, on my own I will walk to see the clients, and give them help they needs in order to be different. 

MY PREDICTION FOR THE TWO WEEKS

1. For the time left, things will not be done properly, many people will not know what to do and what not to do.
2. Clients  will only be assessed, none of them will be treated after the home visit; I think If you use someone for assessment you should give something back by doing some intervention for them.
3. Some of the projects will be neglected from the previous group, the focus will be on the new projects.
4. The school teachers protest will continue until next week, or it may stop and they will be no children in the school.

 

Walking on the path of succesful

Reflective log

During the course of the week, this is what happened:

1. Started to work with clinic, implementing one project which assessing children while mothers are waiting into the ques. 
2. Contacting the ward councilor, and we have manged to see him, and he was happy to see the projects we are running, he will be able to offer some assistance to some projects.
3. New project has been discovered; Learners with special need at the primary school, this projects will be starting to run from next week.

Things which happened in each activity
Starting to work with the clinic; the clinic staff started to see the important of us being involved with them and they have asked us to join some of the campaigns, and we have started to form relationship with them. By the time going they will know more about our profession, the problem is that there is will be no person to refer to during our fieldwork block, because there is no OT within the area who works with the clinic.

Reaching  the councilor, the previous group was not able to get to the councilor, us we manged I had to call him most of the time and I asked him to choose a different place to meet us, not in his office or community. I also told him why I want to meet him and he was able to meet with us. Currently we have a second meeting booked with him for next week.

With all three of the projects, I was the leader for the projects during the course of the week, If I did not take the roles of contacting the councilor, he would have not been reached again. Within the group I am a valuable member, with unique skill, and I'm able to take the lead.

When working, I like to work alone, but  within the community you need to work with other people in order to see their views about what you want to do.

Reflective Log

Back to the community

I have stayed in the community for two years and now for this block I'm back to the community, I was staying within the same section which we are working in for now.

If i look to the community, there is unity amongst members of it but the leader of the community is not participating or contribute to the betterment of the community, I think his following a Laissez-faire leadership style; where there is very little of no participation by the leader , the members of the community take the role to lead.

What I learned from the community, the community has cohesiveness but to each side of it : the colored's are only working together and blacks are also attracted to their side only; cohesion is within each skin color but they are all coloreds. I also learned that the community know they problems as the community but none of them they want to charge of solving those problems.

My leadership skills, quite person in nature, not good with my voice but good with my actions, when were given projects to run, I think it was a good idea if each person have their own project this will help me to be more independent for the future, but I hate talking but  I love working, I will try my best to talk not for me but show I'm capable of talking and I'm not passive.

My strengths within the community; I know the community than other students with me, and secondly most of the patients we will see (children) speak Zulu, the group will depend on me and I' m willing to work with them.
I think we should have a schedule of working and the Non Zulu speakers should get a chance to practice Zulu for their future, com serve.We should plan for the week ahead in order to make corrections when necessary and to include other disciplines onto our programme. From the other other disciplines there is no Zulu speaker, they will have more of language barrier. They should be a Zulu speaker for each discipline not for one group within the area.

Lastly from the beginning of my training I hated reading but now I have realized that in order to keep up with new information and improve your knowledge you need to read not for the sake of finishing the book you are reading but trying to base your findings with current  theory in order to come up with useful interventions which are currently used. You may have knowledge but if that information is not updated it no use to yourself and other people, reading is good for everyone, it should become part of our daily routine, recapping on your  old theory, while looking for new theory. 

From the survivor to be the hope

My Background 

I was born in Port Shepstone, in a rural area, the first rock which was in my life was political fight which deprived from preschool; it was  not for children to go to schools because they were being kidnapped and trained to be fights, during most of the time i was staying in the hospital not sick but getting sensory stimulation from the peads wards, where my grand mother was working and some times i will stay in the house alone with the television on, but no volume. When I was in the house I had one rule " do not make noise and don't open the curtains or the door. this happen from the age of 4- 6 years. Remember I had sensory stimulation from the hospital not school.

I started school at the age of 7, I only spend three years in that school, and was moved to Durban, the reason for me to moved was that the community was changing. Children were starting to be involved with crime , using substances and dropping out of school, my family felt that I will have the influence from my environment, my mother decided to take me to Kwadabeka , my grandmothers house, I think that was done to protect me from getting influenced by the environment. When i was in Kwadabeka  I continued with primary school and I went to High school but towards the end of high school I changed the environment I went to stay at Mariannridge from 2006-2007. The reason form me to change, it was that the community was changing, people of my same age were using substances, I had to move to a new environment.

When i was at Marainnridge this was I experienced, the area was worse compared to all the areas in terms of using substances, unemployment and poverty. During my stay at Mariannridge I was remaining in doors I was not in contact with the community members and I was not using all the resources, this what i observed with the community;

• People see that there is a problem but they do not want to be part of it, they are not motivated to change the community.
• Within the community there is two cultures which are united alone not together as the community. 
• Resources are not fully used or they are used inappropriately. 

Through  CBR, I think the community need to be trained to be together, to be motivated to change their community, make them to take the responsibility to maintain their values of the community and use their resources appropriately.

useful reading 

1. Pollard, N. Sakellariou, D & Kronnberg, F. A Political  Practice Of Occupational Therapy. Churchill Livingstone: Elsevier. 2013.
2. Letts, L. Rigby, P & Stewart, D. Using Environments To Enable Occupational Performance. Slack Incorporated. 2003.

Similarity of two models: the Kawa and Ecology of Human Performance (EHP)

True or False

If you apply the Kawa model to any client you consider the idea of viewing life as a river? if this is so how would you see the following patterns of life;

1. What will be a drought in someone's life be like?
2. When the river is flowing, it flows with different waves, how the waves differ to each other in terms of life circumstances, if life is viewed as a river? 
3. If someone's life is seen a flood, what type of life are they living?
4. If you had to choose between two types of rivers would you rather be a forceful rapid or meandering stream?

Each person will have different answers, but they will close to each other, now if you really understand the above questions, what do you think influences the person's performance?

My belief is that people are not free, they are being restricted, controlled or limited on what to use or do within their context. Since people are not free from their environment my mission is to get them free  from the rocks (barriers/ life circumstance) in order for their river to flow into the same direction and be able to do all tasks within the entire environment.
To answer the above question, the person's motive to their performance is their environment.

Here the two models converge; the Kawa model and Ecology of Human Performance model(EHP). The Kawa model focus on removing rocks from the persons river, note that rocks are found within the environment and the (EPH) focus on changing the the temporal environment which inhibits the person from doing their required tasks.

In conclusion the two models focus on changing the environment as part of the intervention, but they have different aspects.