Trainings for New Wheelchair Assessors

One of our responsibilities is to organize training for new Basic Wheelchair assessors with our various partners. We have so far conducted 3 such trainings. Our first experience was in Bataan, where we trained 11 new people.

 The woman you see here is Dra. Garcia. Along with Dr. Jeffrey Montes and Wennah Marquez they were trained as our new "trainers" for the Basic Wheelchair Training.  The Docs are Orthopedic Specialists. These are folks we have worked with for some time and really love.

One of the important things the assessor must do is teach the recipient new skills such as going up and down stairs, obviously that takes the help of someone else. . .

. . .going up and down a ramp and turning, stopping, and getting in and out of the chair, among many other skills. Most fun of all, and sorry there is no picture, we teach them to jump up the front wheels (commonly know as "pop a wheelie"). They use that trick to do things such as cross a threshold. I am really good at it!

In this picture you can see Dr. Montes explaining that just Elder Bautista's small shoes made walking painful and problematic for his large feet. . . giving someone the wrong wheelchair can be painful and problematic.

We were in Bataan for Monday through Wednesday and then came back to the APO (area presidency's office)(also know as the Welfare Office)(also know as our home) for another training. We had people from several partners in attendance.

 One of the projects for the students was to learn how to put the Rough Rider wheelchair together. This is not so easy as Bruce and I discovered.  One evening a recipient waited at the office for over an hour as we worked to try and put one together. We found a piece in the box that we didn't know what to do with. We sent pictures to all the area service missionaries to no avail. Well during this session we learned it was a spoke wrench.

There were more stairs here for practice. By the way this is not so easy. The person assisting counts and on "3" he pulls up and the WC user pushes hard on the push rim.

The days got long and so did the week. That is our Technical Specialist in the foreground. . .asleep. That is me in the background. . .asleep.

Finally, a graduation. Each person receives a certificate with his LDSC Certified Assessor Number. Only those with this number can access LDSC chairs. 

The Bataan and APO trainings were the first week in April. The 3rd training was held the last week in May and in Vigan! I love Vigan. It is an old Spanish town in the north of Luzon. It is quiet and smog free.

 The class spends the three days sitting in a wheelchair. 

 Basic part of an assessment are taking a basic history, checking sitting balance and sensation aong with measuring (which sounds easy but needs to be done very carefully)..

So now Bruce and I will come home prepared to fit all of you into a wheelchair!