DominicanRepublic

	official website of matthew scott briggs

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DominicanRepublic (Clinical Sites and Service)

"Clinical Sites and Wheel Chair Clinic..."

Gotta have an outside shot of the "human sardine can"...or the Guagua.

HOGAR LUBEY

This site is an orphanage that takes care of children and adults with severe physical and/or cognitive disabilities. Many of the residents are dependent for all of their care. There is no ongoing therapy for these residents. The patient to staff ratio is very high. The students and professionals who work here provide daily care for the residents, help feed the youngest, model handling skills for the residents, problem-solved and prioritize to make the best of very scarce resources and provide intervention to a select few.

Steph.

(Courtesy of Margaret)

Renae.

(Courtesy of Margaret)

Some of the PT students from Puccamayma University Physical Therapy (PUCMM) program.

(Courtesy of Margaret)

Caroline.

(Courtesy of Margaret)

Susan.

(Courtesy of Margaret)

Margaret.

(Courtesy of Margaret)

Jason.

HOSPICIO SAN VICENTE de PAUL:

Hospicio is an assisted living center for older adults. The residents have various levels of functional abilities. The focus for this site is service to the residents and to the out-patients as needed. The students and professional provide annual screening/assessment of the residents, update previous programs, and modify adaptive equipment. The also provide ongoing group exercise classes (which were incredible). Hospicio is also a clinical site for local students as well.

(Courtesy of Margaret)

Resident.

Playing tug-of-war.

"Pull Joe Pull!"

More tug-of-war.

(Courtesy of Margaret)

Joe and Jan.

MOCA, PATRONADO CIBAO DE REHABILITATION, INC.(DUARTE y CABRAL):

Moca is an outpatient clinic located in the city of Moca (a suburb of Santiago). It was not a continuous site the entire time due to lack of personnel but it provided outpatient orthopedic, neurological, and pediatric care.

Patronado Cibao de Rehabilitation at Duarte is an outpatient rehabilitation site associated with the Hospital de Cabral. The center provides physical therapy on an on-going basis to a variety of patients (orthopedic, neurologic, pediatric, etc.) Patients are are private pay as well as some public assistance. Therapists are involved in patient care as well as staff and local students' development.

The Hospital de Cabral is an acute care public hospital located in Santiago with an outpatient physical therapy dept. on the first floor. The dept. is fairly large and has a wide variety of patient ages and diagnosis. It has a large physical therapy and numerous PT students . The students and professionals provide direct patent care, teach staff (charla's - inservices), and teach students from PUCMM. It is a typical fast paced dept. of a public hospital. Students work with adults and pediatrics.

Jullianne works with a boy with spina bifida at Moca. He gets his braces from the U.S.

Me working with a child with CP at Moca..

This is Joseph...he was a patient of mine at Duarte. He had a femoral fracture ~10 months ago...osteomylitis ensued...he was casted for ~9 months and now was ~35-45 degree knee flexion contraction.

Joseph had to be continuously occupied and given attention...otherwise he would start crying...he was an angel though...

(Courtesy of Sue)

Jose...another patient of mine.

Dominic with a patient.

Dominic with two PUCMM students.

One of the therapists at Duarte.

Me giving a charla (in-service) to the PUCMM students.

Beth, Jason, and Jullianne at Cabral. They didn't have A/C...but we did at Duarte...tehehe!

(Courtesy of Sue)

NUEVA ESPERANZA:

Nueva Esperanza (new hope) is a residential facility/school for children with mental and physical disabilities. The residents of this center are similar to the residents at Hogar Lubey, but with a much lower patient/staff ratio. There is no ongoing physical therapy available for these residence. Students and professionals are involved in evaluation, needs assessment, development of functional programs that can be carried out by the staff, as well as teaching staff those programs and the skills required to carry them through. The also recommend and facilitate adaptive equipment.

Jason with a child.

(Courtesy of Jason)

WHEEL CHAIR CLINIC:

The ICC girls (Internation Child Care) set up a wheel chair clinic for needing children. Wheelchairs were obtained from the Wheel Chair Foundation. So we spent an afternoon setting up wheel chairs for the 25 disabled children. The girls did an excellent job organizing the clinic.

International Child Care (ICC) is a program that is community based. It was started by a dutch PT several years ago to train mothers/relatives of children with disabilities in the barrios (inner city) how to best care for their child with special needs and how to foster motor development. These mothers then train other mothers to care for their children with disabilities. Students and professionals in this program make home visits everyday with the promotora (community health care worker) and evaluate children in the home or at the local ICC office. They teach the mother and promotora specific exercise programs for the child, recommend and obtain adaptive equipment, and teach groups of promotoras child handling skills, facilitation techniques, and functional training.

Jenny carrying in a donated wheelchair.