Catching up!

Happy New Year to all!!  Sorry for the long delay since my last post. SO much has been going on that it will take a few posts to get all caught up, but I'll start with rehab.  We have been on quite a learning curve since beginning rehab in Agape in September and we continue to have much to learn and adjust as we move into 2017.  But God has been faithful in answering our very frequent prayer for wisdom and for that we are grateful!

Our current team minus Vadim

Our rehab center has always focused on providing physical therapy, but we have long tried (to the best of our ability) to implement components of occupational (OT) and speech (ST) therapy into our PT sessions when we noted that our patients had needs in those areas.  This fall, however, we began to intentionally schedule separate OT and ST with some of our therapists who have a desire to learn in these areas.  We have been tremendously blessed by therapists and therapy students in the US who volunteered or agreed to help educate our therapists.  We have been the recipients of educational material and equipment specific to OT and ST, had Skype consultations about our patients' OT needs, exchanged emails to learn more about ST, and participated in OT educational seminars via Skype. There is little to nothing to offer in Ukrainian in regard to these spheres, so we are so grateful for those who have stepped forward to help our therapists learn and grow and be better able to serve our patients.

Ira, Natasha, and Veeka learning about OT

Troy taught our therapists about dressing and rehab techniques for patients who have had a stroke. Ira, in particular, was so excited to learn this information and to apply it immediately in her treatment sessions.  Troy surprised us at the second session by bringing along a 2nd year student from his OT program who was born in Ukraine and was willing to participate in and translate the sessions. Pretty cool!

Natasha (pictured on the left above) participated in these OT seminars, but for now she is focusing on learning speech therapy.  She currently works full-time in Agape as a caregiver while she learns more about ST and we hope to utilize her more in the future.  She already has two patients that she works with twice a week and the potential for additional patients in the weeks ahead.

Veeka (pictured on the right above) is responsible for all of our office duties, as well as learning more about OT.  Over the past few months, she has been working consistently with a boy with autism and has a desire and plan to learn more about this sphere of OT.  She has also been assisting Ira during OT sessions with adults.  Starting next week, however, she will have her first adult patient with whom she is responsible for conducting a daily one-hour OT session.

It has been very encouraging to see our therapists growing, being stretched, implementing the education they've received, and becoming more confident in working on the OT and ST needs of our patients. We are immensely grateful for friends and colleagues from half-way around the world who have willingly given of their time, knowledge, resources, and energy to invest in our therapists and ultimately in our patients.  What a gift and what an answer to prayer!

Here are just a few pictures of rehab in November and December:

To date, the maximum residential patients at one time in our facility was five, but next week is scheduled to begin with six.  Each inpatient receives 3 hours of therapy a day, so it takes some time for Veeka and I to work out the schedule around the children and adults who come from Lutsk twice a week.  Because we just do not have enough full-time, skilled therapists to continue with outpatient and inpatient therapy, we are having to implement some changes in the new year.  First, we will focus the majority of our time and attention on adults residential patients.  Several adult patients who currently come on an outpatient basis will soon complete their rehab and we will fill their time slots with inpatients.  Second, children will now come once every two weeks for their parents to receive education on home tasks.  Each therapist will now have 4 children on their rotation, so we will actually be assisting a higher volume of children without requiring more time taken out of the schedule. It has been difficult for parents to learn about this new system of less frequent therapy though, as these children have definite needs and their parents have very limited places to turn for assistance.  So we continue to pray for God's provision of a full-time pediatric therapist.

We rejoice that God has answered our prayer for a physician at Agape.  Beginning next week he will work half-days at Agape, providing much needed medical oversight for our patients.    

Thank you for all of your prayers, support and encouragement in 2016!  It was definitely a year of tremendous growth and blessing for our rehab center and therapists and we eagerly anticipate what the Lord has for us in 2017!

The view from the rehab office on a beautiful winter day!