Day Care Centre – Wilcock’s model
One of our main projects that we focused on in the community block was the day care centre. Have a look at how well it falls under the different areas that Wilcock labelled as 'essential' for living a healthy life.
Doing
Wilcock
stated that, “People spend their lives almost constantly engaged in purposeful ‘doing’
even when free of obligation or necessity. They ‘do’ daily tasks including
things they feel they must do, and others that they want to.” (Wilcock, A.,
1998). The disabled individuals that attend the centre feel a sense of doing something
purposeful when they are engaging in the programme that the centre has to
offer. The intervention planned by the students for this component of the model
is to take ownership of their own garden which they have begun. Another aspect
of intervention will be based on a craft programme that will make use of
recycled material and that will focus on performing activities that will
improve the individual’s fine, gross and verbal skills.
Being
“To
‘be’ in this sense requires that people have time to discover themselves, to
think, to reflect and to simply exist.” (Wilcock, A., 1998) The day care centre
was donated some learning material and books from the Down Syndrome
Association. We made use of the centres and the communities resources in order
to construct a shelf that was installed to store the books on. This results in
material for leisure activities such as listening to stories being read out by
the teachers or for the higher functioning individuals to read by themselves.
Becoming
“Occupational
therapists are in the business of helping people transform their lives by
facilitating talents and abilities not yet in full use through enabling them to
do and to be.” (Wilcock, A., 1998) Our profession plays a huge role in an
individual’s process of becoming which is why it is important to take the
process of individuals very important. At the day care centre, six different
conditions are found. The severity of the cognitive impairment varies greatly
which is why it is so important to group the individuals into severity of their
impairments. This was done by a previous student group. For further
intervention on structuring we have decided to structure the physical
environment by employing room dividers which are in the process of coming. The
infrastructure of the facility is a real hazard as it puts the individuals at
great risk of harm. This is the reason why we assisted the process through
teaching the principle how to correctly address the issue with the relevant
services that are available.
Belonging
This term was first used
by Reibeiro et al. (2001) to describe the state an individual finds himself in
when he is included in taking part in certain occupations that other
individuals also benefit from. (Hammell, 2004)The Augmentative and alternative
communication which the speech therapists have started to employ in the
Day Care Centre , creates the opportunity for assisting the carers of
a disabled individual to interpret ‘non
verbal communication signals’ such as touch, gestures and objects to help with ‘language
and communication within an environment’. (Bloom, L., 1993) The speech therapy students
have drawn up an ACC programme that consists of a morning ring, absent/present
chart, placemats and name labels. All of these contribute towards the feeling
of belonging. The individuals give back to the community and to the centre by
making crafts that are sold on pension day. Another contribution will be the
vegetables that will be growing in the garden.
Reference
Bloom,
L. (1993) The Transition to
Language: Acquiring the Power of Expression.
Cambridge, UK: CUP.
Hammell, 2004, Canadian Journal of
Occupational Therapy, 71(5), Canada, CAOT Publications Ace
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