Therapy and Rehabilitation

For us is disability a psycho-social trait; more important is the rehabilitation process than the result itself. Our work is holistic, all factors like environment, familiar economy, local culture, relation forms, management of familiar and personal emotions and all other factors which could influence the disabled person, are tried to be integrated.

Camps (Spring and Summer Courses)

Objectives

The object of the spring and summer camps is to promote the integration and independency of disabled children from communities from the southern coast of Oaxaca by manual, creative and recreational activities.

Justification

These disabled children live in very isolated communities where the natural environment is the only stimulation. Labor activities of their families could be agriculture, pottery, needlework and inside the local culture.

They receive just a little or no stimulation from their families, because of a lack of time or knowledge.

Their precarious economical situation obstructs the relocation of these children to others communities where they could get to know persons, activities and places which would advance their development and apprenticeship.
The lack of sensitization on part of the persons who live in the communities generates rejection of disabled persons.

All these conditions limit the possibilities of rehabilitation and integration of children with disability in the communities we are working with.

That’s why Piña Palmera organizes these camps during school vacations, in which actions to stimulate the apprenticeship and development of disabled children are generated through the participation of them and their parents.

Activities

Various activities are proponed to the children, as for example:

Wood and Paint Workshop.
Paper Recycling Workshop.
Dying
Elaboration of sweets.
Origami
Clay
Plastic Arts
Sports and Recreation

Human Communication and Apprenticeship

Objectives

The objective of Human Communication is to attend to children and adults with language problems, which implies for them problems of communication. The service is also given to children who present problems of school apprenticeship.

Activities

Sessions of 50 minutes are given one or two times a week, depending on the case. First is a clinical investigation made, later an evaluation and, after that, the therapy is initiated or it is necessary to search for an alternative to communicate. At the same moment, the family is trained so that they continue the program at home.

External Consultations

The general practitioner of the Center gives preliminary examinations and administrates medic treatments. Our users receive special attention from doctors in Rehabilitation, Neurology and Orthopedy, who visit us two or three times a year in order to offer consultations, diagnose, treatments and attendance. Users who require consultations, surgical interventions, electroencephalograms, the adaptation of orthopedic apparatus and hearing aids of specialists from the city are referred and accompanied to hospitals in the City of Oaxaca and Mexico City.
Families with low incomes are supported economically in order to facilitate surgical interventions, special medic treatments and for cares which are related to the rehabilitation of the users’ disabled limbs.

Hydrotherapy

The hydrotherapy is carried out every Saturday at the beaches close to Piña Palmera (as Playa Panteón in Puerto Ángel), together with the youths of the special care area. It’s a method in which the water functions as a rehabilitation medium. This allows movements, thanks to the floating effect, which couldn’t be done outside the water.
This technique allows us to realize special exercises based on recreational games which facilitate movements of the limbs and which help the child to improve his consciousness, concerning the realized movements.

Early Intervention

Objectives

The objective of the early intervention is to give attention and attendance to children younger than eight years, with or without disabilities, in order to develop their physical, intellectual and affective abilities in the fields of human development to the maximum.

Activities

At the moment, we work all Wednesdays from 10:00am to 12:00pm. During the first hour, we work with specific programs of exercises for the stimulation of each patient. During the second hour, we organize a group for self-help and for the reflection of the fact to have a child with disability. At the same moment, we train the parents.

During the whole activity, the family plays a very important role in the rehabilitation of the user. The affective part of the parents, grandparents, brothers etc. influences the well balanced development of the child.
Physio and Temporary Therapy

Physiotherapy

The physiotherapy-area is in charge of evaluating and exploring physical abilities of all persons in the region which are attended, in order to know what the patients are able to achieve. Later, we decide if we put us in charge of the therapy or if we have to refer them, in some special cases, to other instances – for example to a special hospital.

In accordance with the resulting evaluation, exercise programs for practicing at home which are revised in Piña Palmera at certain dates are elaborated. When the user comes to the Center, his orthopedic apparatus or his wheelchair is adapted or proportioned, using materials from the region. We also train the user or his family members in the correct use and maintenance.

Temporal Therapy

Temporal therapy means to lodge the user and/or a family member for maximal one month in Piña Palmera, so that the person accomplishes his rehabilitation process through his therapy by multidisciplinary work.
During this time, the family member and/or the disabled person is trained, so that he/she can continue her rehabilitation at home or in her community beneath the supervision of the responsible therapist.

We also integrate him/her into a productive life, for instance by the participation in the workshops which are in Piña, by name the wood and paint workshop, the garden, the paper recycling workshop, the carpentry or the handicraft shop.

Social Work

Objectives

The objective of this area is to know the needs of disabled persons who search for attention on part of Piña Palmera, with the aim to propose solutions and to achieve their integral rehabilitation by their own, their families’ and their communities’ participation.

Activities

The social work area organizes, plans and carries following activities jointly with the other areas of Piña Palmera out:

• The area is responsible for receiving, orientating and instructing the persons who search for our service.

• It’s responsible to elaborate economic studies to assign the recovery quote of Piña Palmera’s users.

• It’s responsible for the coordination and organization of the reference and the contra reference of our users.

• It’s responsible for the elaboration of projects which focus on the social rehabilitation of the disabled person.

• It’s responsible for the coordination and organization of the extracurricular regularization of the internal youths with disability in Piña Palmera.

• It’s responsible for the control of the consult statistics of the users in Piña Palmera.

• It’s responsible for the organization of traditional celebrations in Piña Palmera (World Children’s Day, Mother’s Day, All Hallows, Easter, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Epiphany...).

• Every three months, it’s responsible for the delivery of reports about its activities to the General Coordination of Piña Palmera.