CMC and girls home

Wednesday, 27-1-10...in India, the date is written with day first, then month, then year!
We finished our 25 reports from the testing that we conducted at Ranipet Boys' home. We recommended that 6 receive direct therapy from an SLP at CMC (Christian Medical College), we referred 8 boys to doctors/specialists (ENT, etc.) , and we designed home/orphanage staff programs for 11 boys. These 17 boys will be followed monthly via Skype by Cole speech therapists to monitor their progress.
After our morning of report writing and reviewing, we visited the CMC to observe sub-acute, re-evaluations for stroke patients. Teresa watched an Occupational Therapist (OT) conduct a cognitive assessment--which is not typical in the US, and probably due to shortage of SLPs in the CMC hospital. Vikki and Shannon saw initial evaluations and rounds for post-TBI and stroke patients. The hospital system at CMC is very different than what we have been exposed to in the US and we learned a lot of different approaches and perspectives (e.g., community functionality from the perspective of village living in India).
After we left CMC, we visited the Hope House girls' home in Vellore, India. Vikki and Teresa were fighting over a specific girl to take home--and Teresa won :) Just kidding! But we fell in love with several of the kids that are supported by The Hope House. We enjoyed an Indian burrito and time with the girls. Most of them referred to us as "Auntie" and gave us kisses on the cheeks when we left the home! All the girls are sponsored by various individuals across the world both financially and emotionally. Due to government regulations, the process is a little slower for the boys' home. The boys are in the process of developing a pen pal via email system and we thought that many Cole Therapy Center employees would be interested in participating in this project. Thomas will inform us when the pen pal program has become official.