Wednesday, May 31st 2023
Today has been a day of new experiences and much learning. The RISE team spent some of the morning doing home visits to two of FOB's Extended Care patients, Marcos and Astrid. They live in the same small community but in very different situations. Marcos and his young mom live in a small wooden dwelling with 5 other adults and 6 other children. He has not been to see a specialist in over a year. His mother works when she can and leaves his grandmother and aunts to care for him. He needs total care. Astrid is cared for solely by her grandparents. She also hasn't seen her specialist in over a year and is a patient who needs the total care support of her family members.
The team members noted that both children seemed happy and engaged in their surroundings. Both situations had some challenges to overcome. While debriefing our visits, we all agreed that it was easy to come up with solutions to the problems we saw, but none of us can truly understand the obstacles these families face. FOB works to support them, educate them, and encourage them to provide the best care possible, but it is ultimately up to caregivers to do all that is needed. Sometimes that isn't possible.
The afternoon was spent having the staff members from RISE present case studies of children in their program and sharing how care and support was planned and prioritized. It was a great time of exchanging ideas, addressing challenges and brainstorming new ways of planning the care of our extended care patients.
Caring for patients with multiple health concerns can be extremely challenging for parents, teachers and the medical professionals who help to manage patient care. Just hearing that we all are met with the same obstacles and frustrations was healing for all around the table. At the end of the day, the sharing of thoughts and ideas provided hope.
Tomorrow, we begin putting some of what we learned today into practice. There is a great deal of anticipation as we look at learning and growing together.
