Sada-e-Watan Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
PEACC- Apheda Medical Volunteers return form Pakistan
(Exclusive Report to Sada-e-Watan by Uzma
Malik, Wollongong)
(PEACC) and Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA welcome home the
second Australian health professional team from Pakistan. The Australian team
consisted of a senior physiotherapist, Craig Drury, and two senior Occupational
therapists, Madeleine Trewartha and Annette Keay.
PEACC has co ordinate and contribute to the earthquake appeal effort by sending
expert Australian health professionals to teach physiotherapists, health care
workers and families (of patients) about the physiotherapy management of people
with spinal cord injuries (SCI). The team has now arrived back from Pakistan,
having spent 5 weeks there working primarily on capacity building of local
Pakistani therapists.
Based at the National Institute for the Handicapped (NIHd), they conducted a
needs analysis of the training needs of the local therapists who were involved
in the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injuries. Then, in
collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a six day
workshop to train over 30 local therapists. The purpose of the workshop was to
teach the theoretical and practical skills to therapists and build their
capacity to rehabilitate earthquake victims who have sustained spinal cord
injuries. This was to enhance the skills of the therapists, so they can now
treat current patients, and teach other Pakistani therapist themselves in the
future.
A second workshop was run to further build capacity on the multi disciplinary
management of patients, and service development of health departments. Following
on from the workshops we treated patients with local health professionals in
three hospitals, in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, to help consolidate their
learning.
A visit to earthquake affected areas helped the Australian team to assess the
conditions that the Pakistani people are facing. They also met with hospital
administration to consult regarding development of a community based
rehabilitation project to service people with disabilities in the northern
mountain areas of Pakistan.
"We hope we made an impact on the services the spinal injured patients will
receive, yet recognize that there is scope for future volunteer workers to
expand on this." said Craig Drury. The team was able to commence final stages of
rehabilitation, where patients are being prepared for discharge from the
hospital to their communities. Clinicians with experience in spinal cord injury
rehabilitation were essentially needed at this time, to help organise discharge
planning, living skills programs and planning for suitable accommodation. Future
teams will be able to assist community and long team aspects of rehabilitation.
Madeleine Twarthwa suggested, "It would be ideal for PEACC to sponsor a small
Pakistani team of spinal rehab workers (doctor, nurse, Physio, occupational
therapist) for an extended visit to a spinal hospital unit in Australia, to
learn about established practices, resources and models of rehabilitation. for
the ongoing development of NIHd. “PEACC aims to continue to provide medical
support teams and will be assessing the feasibility of sponsoring a Pakistan
teams visit, in the future.
Annette Keay states, "We had a wonderful experience during our time in Pakistan
and made some lovely friendships. We found the Pakistani people to be very
hospitable, generous and quick witted, which made our time and work very
enjoyable." The team thankfully survived the scorching temperatures of Islamabad
and even survived working during hours with no electricity!
PEACC would like to truly thank the Australian team for a very successful effort
in Pakistan. Their contribution, to help provide Pakistan hospitals with long
term medical rehabilitation and to the rehabilitation of spinal cord patients of
the earthquake, was greatly appreciated. PEACC hopes to continue with long term
fund raising and to support the development of medical and community facilities
in Earthquake affected regions in their future projects.
