Tuesday, March 1, 2011

No car seat and a mouthful of meat

When you work with refugee families , you set the bar at a different level. Not necessarily higher or lower. Just different. I would like to advocate for E's (will call little boy this name to protect his privacy) medical needs but because of HIPAA and other privacy acts, I am having a tough time finding out what doctors he actually sees. I did find out the name of his Pediatrician and obtained a release of information to take to his mom which she signed for me.
When I arrived at her apartment she was walking out the door carrying E with little C (his sister) running after her. He saw me and produced a giant grin allowing a huge bolus of meat to fall out of his mouth. So here is where I am trying to help. Now this may seem gross to you, but when you work with kids with neuromuscular impairments you learn that many have difficulty eating, which is the case with E. He holds onto food sometimes not able to completely chew it. He needs speech therapy and has had some test which showed that he indeed needs therapy but I do not know if he is getting it or who the therapist is. I alerted the refugee agency of my concerns and will continue to try to help by teaching some of the feeding techniques I know from my work.
The other thing that worried me today was that they were all piling in a small car with a friend to go to the bank and there was only one car seat and 3 small children. Oy. I can only imagine the scene at the bank when E allowed more meat to come oozing out of his mouth like a noodle making machine.
So now I am on the hunt for the car seats that they need, the doctors or clinics he attends and any other information that will help keep this family healthy and out of the emergency room.
One problems is..........emergency rooms don't take too kindly to kids being carried around without car seats and wads of unswallowed food in your kids mouth. You get the gist.

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