Adventures in hand rehab – Cape Hand Clinic comes to the wild

A post by Kate Sherry - Occupational Therapist in Chief

More exciting news from the rehab department!

I don’t think I ever posted something entitled “They Knew We Were Nuts”, that I started writing in February. It was all about how 5 of us therapists from Zithulele and Madwaleni got up at 2h30 one morning to drive to George to attend a one-day course. Presented by Karin Weskamp, head of the Cape Hand Clinic (and remembered by UCT graduates for her totally-impossible-to-take-notes-from but fascinating lectures on private practice and human occupation), the course was on splinting hands with neuro conditions. Wired from no sleep and Vida coffee, we sat riveted for the day, shocked the ordentlike George OT tannies, and collared Karin afterwards to invite her to the Transkei.

Persistence coupled with Karin’s adventurous spirit paid off, and a few weeks back we were blown away to host not just Karin, but two OT friends and colleagues – Tammy Williams (hand therapist, ex-Uganda IDP camp worker and soon-to-be second-ever-OT-in-Ethiopia) and Ruth Watson (highly esteemed former prof of UCT OT and one of my heroes). What was initially planned as a Wild Coast holiday coupled with some hand therapy training and consulting became a 5-day adventure in rural rehab.

Between the three visitors, we were in the presence of a wealth of experience in practice, research, community work, and service development (not to mention Tammy’s expert Ugandan 4x4 skills and Karin’s budding potential as a bootlegger). As we trekked over the hills, hiking, crossing rivers on ferries (or not), driving up and down eroded cliffs and picnicking in the wind, discussion ranged from clinical problems and the patients we saw in their homes, to broader issues of rural disability, the challenges of poverty, the power of occupation and the privilege of being here.

After 2 days of home visits from a base at Bulungula backpackers (how many of your university professors would you invite to a place with compost toilets and psychedelic frogs painted on the walls? J ), we moved on to Hole in the Wall, where Karin and Tammy got into teaching mode and gave us an intense day of hand rehab lectures and skills practicals. What they brought could have kept us busy for weeks, but the taste was enough to reinspire us and get us thinking again – they will have to come back for the rest…

This whole trip was inspired partially by the Cape Hand Clinic’s vision for education, and by the conviction that private practitioners and rural therapists have much to offer each other. An incredible thing we’re finding about the OT profession is therapists’ willingness to share skills and ideas, and we have benefited so much from the generosity of not only these three visitors, but many others as well (notably Theresa Lorenzo, another UCT prof, who visited us in August and gave us a fantastic workshop on community-based rehabilitation). A huge thank you to all of these wonderful people, some of whom first inspired us at university, and now continue to do so in new ways. We hope we can contribute to the general sharing and growing going on in the rehab professions – and warmly invite any therapists with skills to share and an adventurous spirit to come and visit!

PS A special thanks to Karin’s friend Nigel, who arranged for them to borrow a Toyota Hilux 4x4 double cab – the dream rural rehab vehicle – from contacts in East London. We couldn’t have done it without him!