Mexico 2006
In 2006, Dr. Tran traveled to Mexico to learn about a model system for Community Based Rehabilitation.
I met Eileen Wu at New England Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts during the summer of 2006. Eileen was doing her physical therapy clerkship at the hospital while I was starting my second year of physical medicine and rehabilitation training at Tufts. We had the same passion for helping the disabled and that we were both former Albert Schweitzer Fellows. Eileen later told me about a unique community based rehabilitation center in Culiacan, Mexico called PROJIMO. After doing more research about PROJIMO, we formed a rehabilitation team to embark on a medical mission to PROJIMO. The most unique aspect about PROJIMO is that it's run by former patients who themselves are disabled.
As former patients recuperate, they teach and help more recent patients rehabilitate from their disabilities. PROJIMO also elicits the help of local townspeople to facilitate patients' goal of community reintegration. It is not uncommon to see family members of one patient helping to rehabilitate another patient and vice versa. PROJIMO patients produce wooden children toys to be sold in order to raise revenue to keep their facility viable. They also have a Spanish emersion course where visitors pay a fee to live at the facility. Visitors then have the opportunity to observe how a community based rehabilitation center function while also practicing their Spanish at the same time. PROJIMO is a great example of a bottoms up approach to community based rehabilitation where local grassroots efforts strive to better the lives of those who are disabled.
Community Based Rehabilitation (64 slides) |
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