Trendsetters in Occupational Therapy on mission to raise awareness

Feb 11, 2018 News

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Afeeza Khan, Deoranie Babulall, Errica Canterbury and Calvin Lawrie must be celebrated as a history-making Guyanese quartet in the field of Occupational Therapy.
When they strolled across the University of Guyana [UG] graduation stage to receive their Bachelor of Science in Medical Rehabilitation in Occupational Therapy in November 2017, the four graduates were the first ever locally-educated and employed in the discipline.
Occupational therapists treat injured, ill, or disabled patients through the therapeutic use of everyday activities. They help these patients develop, recover, improve, as well as maintain the skills needed for daily living and working.
In the past, work in occupational therapy in Guyana was done by members of the US Peace Corps and Voluntary Services Overseas [VSO] who also helped train locals to be rehab assistants.
Historically, there have always been locally-trained and employed therapists: physio and speech, but never occupational therapists, confirmed Ms. Ariane Mangar, a UG Lecturer and Director of Disability and Rehabilitation at the Public Health Ministry during an interview this week.
As trailblazers, Khan, Babulall, Canterbury and Lawrie have assured they will be difference-makers at the Georgetown Public Hospital [GPHC]; the Palms Geriatric Home; the West Demerara Regional Hospital [WDRH] and the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre, respectively, where they are employed.
For Lawrie, all are candidates for rehabilitation. “Everybody needs rehab in some way or the other,” he said, flashing a characteristic grin followed almost instantaneously with his infectious laughter.
As a tutor at the Ptolemy Reid Rehab Centre, Lawrie sees first-hand, on a daily basis, the struggles of children. He also spoke of the absence of badly-needed updated policy to guide the sector. For him, teachers at every level of the education system must receive rudimentary training to spot disabilities among students and the wider labour sector must provide “on-the-job” therapy for workers in need.
“If you start therapy early, patients can get better faster,” the UG graduate said, appealing to the Ministries of Education and Public Health to forge stronger bonds in the quest.
“Educators and employers should also exhibit greater compassion by retrofitting offices with patient-friendly furniture and modifying their teaching methods to suit the learning styles of children and comfort for employees with disability as needed,” Lawrie counselled.
Restoring patients’ independence is cardinal in Babulall’s daily work at the Palms. As a pioneering occupational therapist, her methods at first made patients hesitant, but after two months they have been embracing it, she said.
Breaking cultural barriers in the field of therapy was the first hurdle that Babulall crossed. For Guyanese, only physiotherapy previously existed, and with the coming of the ‘new-kid-on-the-block’ occupational therapy, there were mental hurdles to master.
There are some 45,000 Guyanese undergoing therapy, with sight impairments at 30 percent and followed by mobility 16.4 percent; body movement 10 percent; hearing related 9.1 percent and mental impairment 8.3 percent, according to local data. However, the need for disability and rehabilitation services may be significantly higher than suggested by the (2010) Census Report.
Nevertheless, “disability shouldn’t rob you of opportunities,” said a perennially-optimistic Afeeza Khan, who is currently attached to GPHC. But patients are unwittingly robbing themselves of opportunities for full rehabilitation by skipping their rehab timetable.
At the referral hospital, Khan said, “getting patients to honour their daily schedule” is her biggest challenge. She often reminds them that “occupational therapy will help victims reintegrate into society faster.”
Khan is currently on a campaign to bring awareness about the differences between occupational and physio therapies to GPHC staff, patients and their families, she said.
Meanwhile, Errica Canterbury wants the spotlight to focus more on those invisible elements which provide daunting challenges for sufferers and the healthcare system alike. Guyana must zero in on mental health; bipolar disorders; stress and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] the WDRH staffer said.
In the rehabilitation sector, Guyana’s current seven-year plan, which concludes 2020, has several key components: Strengthening the Health System for Disability and Rehabilitation Services; Improving accessibility; Promoting Prevention; Minimising and Preventing further disabilities and Mobilising resources/finances through partnerships.
The four groundbreakers want leisure and enjoyment to be fully part of the country’s programme for rehabilitation patients who are “…no less of a person because of your disability”.
“With fun there is [faster] progress,” in rehabilitation, said Lawrie, who received approving nods from his three colleagues.
They gave their assent too when he noted that rehab “is no quick-fix, but a gradual process” and that despite national policies and programmes “the family is the support system for rehabilitation patients, and what happens in the home is a big part of rehabilitation.”
After more than 50 years as an independent state, Guyana has only now begun to harvest its home-grown Occupational Therapists and the future in the field is bright “despite the challenges,” Babulall said.
“Open your eyes, open your doors [and] open your businesses to people with disabilities,” Khan pleaded.

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