Volunteer H
Introduction
Baig Rehabilitation Centerbeing the first outpatient clinic to be opened in Saginaw, is one of the best rehabs for physical and age related conditions. Since the year 1980, it has been in the frontline offering a Tri-City community service.Services are offered by licensed professionals including administrative personnel, medical director, speech pathologists, physical and occupational therapists, and social workers too. I chose this center because I foresaw an experience in managing public health issues that touch directly to the community and the public in general. My experience in the volunteer period at this center was even far better after I learned and had an opportunity to manage conditions that I didn’t even know existed.
Category A
The Baig Rehab offers services that are directly in touch with public health services. The center specializes in physical therapies and more so occupation related injuries that include sport injuries. Public health is also sensitive in this field paying much concern on occupational health and safety for all. The Baig Rehab Centeris also keen on orthopaedic and sport related injuries, this also is a concern in public health as people who regularly involve in sporting activities are prone to many physical strains and injuries. I got to interact with such patients and was able to identify the variety of managements that can be applied to them. For instance, patients under strain from sporting activities can be introduced to a physical therapy that sees to it that the injured part regains its ultimate mobility and more so to prevent disability and further complications.
Pain is one of the most disturbing symptoms anyone can experience, in public health most of the conditions one can possibly encounter have this symptom. Patients who need palliative care in public health are mostly in need of pain management. I witnessed the distressing circumstances one gets into due to pain of unknown origin. In Baig Rehab, pain management is a priority because most of the conditions and injuries patients have,bring them pain. Variety of pains require different management techniques and physical therapies, examples of pain I interacted with included; lower back pain, neck pain, joint pain, shoulder pain, rheumatic pain, among others.
Category B
Question 2
Before myvolunteer experience,I thought and considered pain as a minute public health issue that can be easily managed using opioids and other pain killers. However, the much this is true that pain can be managed using opioids I noticed that the effects of chronic pain reach far beyond physical agony. Pain can cause absenteeism from work, dissociation from friends and family, can cause depression and low self-esteem too. It made me change my attitude towards any form of pain no matter how minimal including headaches.
In fact, I noticed in one of the brochures at the centerthat in 2008 around 100 million of the American citizens had chronic pain that included arthritis and joint pain (Relieving Pain in America). These people reported that the pain affected their productivity and social life, in terms of their job and social occasions (Relieving Pain in America). Pain thus I realized is one of the costly conditions in the country and should be prioritized in most of the managements offered by all health care providers.
Question 3
During my first day in the center I noticed a lot of concern applied to paining patients compared to a number of hospitals I have visited. I inquired and one of the staff explained that recurrent pain is one of the symptoms that would normally make a patient depressed, and as a result, will not respond to any treatments given. Therefore, at the center it was an important aspect for the practitioners to prioritize pain management in their care. This skill I noticed is very important in care for any patient; that the care provider first should identify the source of pain and address it in priority. This is because when patient’s pain is stopped, the patient feels at ease and his or her body will respond to most of the treatment the caregiver will apply. This lesson is one of the most important that I learnt in the experience during the volunteer and more so it will be an important skill to apply in my future practice of managing patients because I saw it yield good results in most of the clients.
Question 5
On top of offering management of various conditions and injuries at the center, Baig Rehab also creates rapport with their clients by offering counseling and sharing health messages to prevent reoccurrence of most conditions. For instance, many people get sports injuries in sports and others during exercise because of doing it strenuously or in the wrong way. Such need coaching and a lot of mentorship to prevent further injuries or reoccurrence.
Using such opportunities with patients to advise them on ways they can prevent occupational injuries and strains alone is not enough to completelyenlighten the community on occupational safety. The government should sponsor such organizations to host shows and seminars to inform and share these public health messages. If the community should apply most of the health messages shared by these health practitioners, there will be minimal occupational-related injuries, and hence making work more fun and as a result we shall have a more productive community and eventually, an outstanding economy.
Work Cited
(U.S.), Institute of Medicine. Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research.N.p.: National Academies Press, 2011.