NSC Expands Services in Partnership with Jefferson Occupational Therapy Program

Since 2011, Nationalities Service Center (NSC) has partnered with Jefferson Department of Occupational Therapy (OT) to deliver extra support to those newly arrived families with special needs. In the past, the partnership has also produced a Center City walking tour for newly arrived refugees as means to orient them to their new city, as well as individualized support for those households with extra challenges to adjustment.

This year, through the Jefferson OT Environments class, four pairs of OT students were assigned to four households managing chronic conditions and facing challenges in navigating the U.S. healthcare system.
Over the eight week course, the students first interviewed the households to learn about their daily routines and assess how well they are able to perform their activities of daily living (ADLs), such as showering or dressing, and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), which are the more complex skills needed to successfully live independently, such as washing clothes or managing finances. The students then did an analysis of the household’s living arrangements; taking measurements of the living space and analyzing the surroundings, such as the placement of furniture. Working with the households, the students then found five adaptations in the clients’ space (within their household or community) or routine that has a high probability of positively affecting the clients’ quality of life. The students then measured the impact of the adaptations and then wrote a final report which they submitted to their professor as well as to NSC.

Some of the adaptations that have been highly effective with past households have included helping a household of single men use closed-captioning on their television to facilitate learning English, a goal shared by each of the household members. In the same house, the OT students assisted them in signing up for library cards so they could access the many resources the library offers, including free including English classes.

During this term, one student assisted a Congolese family reposition a refrigerator blocking access to their backyard space. The backdoor had been blocked by the refrigerator since they had arrived to the home. By the following session, the family had cleaned the litter and the overgrowth from the backyard and eagerly reported to the student their excitement in having access to their yard.

Another team of students assisted a different family create a centralized scheduling system to organize their many medical appointments and weekly grocery lists. The family had reported difficulty keeping track of all the things they had need to do each week and were overwhelmed by the amount of medical appointments for one of the family members. The household reported that the organizational system the students assisted them to conceptualize and create has helped them already and that they will continue to use it.

The students were also able to help the youngest member of this same family, six-year-old ‘L’. At their first meeting with the students, L’s mother reported that she was concerned about his performance in school as he did not like doing his homework and preferred watching cartoons. L can speak and understand English, but had trouble with reading comprehension. The students chose to adapt the boy’s room, creating personalized play and study areas, where the child could focus on each activity without getting distracted by other things. They helped the child build a bright green lap desk that he could use both on the floor of his room or in the living room for work or play. L now spends more time practicing reading than he does watching TV and is often upset when he doesn’t have any homework to complete at his lap desk.

Through this partnership, these households were able to receive specialized care within their homes in order to improve their quality of life. The students also received valuable experience in working with people that have linguistic or other cultural adjustment barriers to participating fully within their lives. Both the students and the families this term reported this experience to be very rewarding.