VOL. 8 NUMBER 2: April 2012VOL. 8 NUMBER 2: April 2012

Welcome to the Diversity issue of the Insider. I am confi dent you will enjoy the wonderful articles provided. T2K is a truly diverse bunch. Whether you look at us by gender, age, ethnic back-ground or level of clinical specializa-tion; we are a broad and wonderful representation of our society.

I have decided to celebrate our cover value of diversity by issuing a call for unity in the following four areas – How we care for ourselves, our future selves, others, and for those who will come after us.

Let’s care for ourselves – T2K aims to offer an employ-ment experience that is unparalleled in our industry. One of the tangible benefi ts we offer is our wellness program. Our wellness program is designed to entice you to engage in healthful behaviors by reimbursing gym memberships, mas-sages, smoking cessation, etc. In the past quarter, about 20% took advantage of this benefi t. My fi rst call for unity is for 100% participation of every eligible T2K’er in our Wellness program. You deserve it!

Caring for your future self – THERAPY 2000 offers one of the most generous 401K plans in the industry. We provide a “dollar for dollar” match on the fi rst 3% of your salary, and another 50 cents on the dollar for the next 2% you stash away. Another way of saying this: We are offering you a 4% raise. All you need to do is invest in your own future. With the T2K 401K, you are 100% vested from the day you start participating. In other words, the above mentioned match is all yours, and everyone is eligible to participate (other than a brief 90-day waiting period for newly hired T2K’ers). There are many T2K’ers who take advantage of this benefi t. Our fi rst payroll in January showed 44% participation in our 401K. So my second call for unity is the following: let’s achieve 100% participation for all eligible employees. Your future self will be so thankful for the decision you make today.

Caring for others – T2K’ers are showing their commitment to our “We give Back” core value in many ways. Our Chari-T2000 March Madness campaign was extremely success-ful. We went from a company-wide annual commitment of

$37,000 to $50,000. THANKS FOR YOUR GENEROSITY. After March Madness, we now have a total of 175 of us con-tributing to this cause. My call for unity is to those 100+ of you who are not yet payroll contributors. Sign up, and help us improve the lives of the patients we serve!

Caring for those who will come after us – At my 2012 State of the Agency, I issued a challenge to all of you to donate ¼ of 1% of your wages to the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice Political Action Committee. Al-though I have been a TAHC&H PAC contributor for many years, the decision to ask all of you to join the PAC was not an easy one. Asking for “political money” is a different ball-game than asking for charitable contributions. When we give to Chari-T2000, our donations result in our patients receiv-ing weighted vests, seating equipment, or even a wheelchair accessible van - something immediately tangible PAC dona-tions disappear into a “black hole” with results not imme-diately visible to us. We are to simply trust the PAC board that our money is well spent. My decision to ask all of you to help out as well is a result of what I saw fi rsthand in the 2011 Texas Legislative Session. I observed the house pass a budget that would have cut our rates by an insane 28%, a cut that neither T2K, nor any of our peer providers could have absorbed. Then I saw the TAHC&H professionals go to work, advocating for our industry, and for the kids we serve; using relationships that have been built over the past years and calling on industry advocates, who have been reelected with our support. And as you all know, we all got to breathe a huge sigh of relief when the fi nal budget was passed, and we did not receive any cuts. All of us have an opportunity to help the kids we serve, to protect our own jobs, and to help the therapists and patients who will come after us by joining the TAHC&H PAC. I hope that you will join today, and make a positive contribution to the future of home care in Texas.

Our Diversity core value is one of utmost importance. Di-versity strengthens and enriches organizations, and I cel-ebrate how truly diverse our workforce is. It is from this base of diversity that we must unite in some common goals – improving the lives of those we care for, including ourselves.

celeBrating Diversity – a call for unityfrom the administrator, jerre van den Bent, pt

-Jerre

DIVERSITY AROUND THE STATEIt has been a pleasure to travel around the state to visit our branches. As with our DFW divisions, each offi ce takes on a personality of its own. Part of that is based on the personality of those folks who lead and manage, and part is due to perhaps the "fl avor", or culture of that particular region of the state. Some of the differences include the willingness (or not) to drive to see patients, status of fi eldstaff (as in full-time, part-time, or preference for PRN), and even which night to have mixers. Also, there are trends/differences in experience levels in the various regions.

There certainly seems to be a proclivity for more medically fragile patients in some areas of the state. This may be more a matter of how well we are known in that area as opposed to the actual number of the more involved patients. We are certainly branding ourselves in new areas with our specialty programs, our evidence based practice, and our use of gold-standard assessments and intervention strategies. This does set us apart.

As for those specialty programs, DFW clearly has the greatest number. However, slowly but surely, the other regions of the state are increasing their number of specialists, (e.g.,Vital Stim certifi ed clinicians). Mentors in all four areas of expertise: AAC/AT, hearing impairment, high risk infants, and feeding and swallowing are also on the rise.

One common denominator in each of the offi ces is the desire to put the patient fi rst and do what is best for him/her. The quality of our care, the effi cacy of our treatment, and excellent outcomes are seen in all the areas in which we serve. Our life-long learning value is company-wide. Another area we all have in common is that T2K’ers love to have fun, whether it’s at the rodeo or the racetrack! Last but not least, we are passionate about doing the right thing andgiving back through charitable donations, community service projects, and sharing knowledge as supervisors and mentors. In the end, we are probably more the same than we are different, and that’s okay with me!

My nephew (we’ll call him Steven) was diagnosed with autism at the age of four. Until then, the doctor had repeatedly told my sister-in-law that he was just a late bloomer and would eventually catch up. He consoled her by saying that Steven

would grow out of his lack of speech and strange behaviors. We were all very worried, that he would never speak, and

perhaps would always have frightening tantrums in response to a world of unpredictable events that would naturally be unending.

When he was fi nally diagnosed, the school district had completed additional testing and prepared my sister-in-law and her husband for the worst. The consensus was that he may never speak, but they would try to help him learn to communicate. They also were not very encouraging

lone star terry HutcHings, m.eD., ccc-slp, ceo

A LESSON IN DIVERSITY AMONG CHILDREN WITHAUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS: A TRUE STORY

(Continued on next page)

• Lone Star ........................2

• Education ...................2-3

• Community Relations .....4

• HR ...............................5-6

• Chari-T2000 ..............7-8

• Provider's View .............9

• SLP in China ............... 10

• T2K Tech Talk ............. 11

• Intern Feature ...... 12-13

• Anniversaries ............. 13

• Division Dirt ........ 16-24

• Current Events .......... 24

Inside This Issue:

eDucation BelinDa williams, otr, eXecutive Director of eDucation & Qa

editorial staff

Jerre van den Bent, PTEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Kyle ButlerMANAGING EDITOR

Alex ParisCOPY-WRITER/EDITOR

Terry Hutchings, M.Ed., CEOLONE STAR

Belinda Williams, OTREDUCATION

Jennifer RileyCOMMUNITY RELATIONS

Ira KirkleyHUMAN RESOURCES

Maicol NietoI.T. CORNER

about his behaviors which were perplexing and extremely challenging to manage.

My nephew was one of those 1/110 kids (which was the autism occurrence rate at the time) and as an occupational therapist, I offered all that I knew at the time and showed her how to manage his most difficult sensory driven behaviors. But even I was to find out that there is an even more powerful milieu than the tricks in my OT bag. I learned this the hard way.

One day my sister-in-law was unable to pick Steven up from school so she called me to do the favor. I arrived just in time to see the vice-principal trying to coax my very anxious and panicked nephew out of a corner so he would be ready for me to pick him up. Steven was having none of this amateur coaching. When he saw me, I expected that I would be a source of familiar comfort and surely he would run to my arms for solace and reassurance. We had spent limited time together at family holidays, but he had always acknowledged me in his own timid way and I always managed to steal a few kisses on the best days.

His eyes met mine and to my horror, he ran past me and tried to exit the school’s front doors and head for the parking lot. Fearing the worst I ran after him and grabbed him from behind in a “calming” hug. Surprisingly, he did not appreciate this gesture at all and violently headbutted me in the chin, just in time for the vice principle to catch up and without a word question…are you really Steven’s aunt? I reassured him that I could handle this, flashed my badge from work and turned my attention back to the bigger concern.

I barely managed to walk him five feet when I gave up and carried him, (giving his head plenty of clearance) as we made our way to my minivan. The whole time I tried to console him and keep myself calm in the process. I was on a mission–get him home in one piece. I fastened his seatbelt…he released it…I tried again and he immediately released it again. This continued several more times with him flying out of the seat in between; I was completely exasperated and I had only been with him for five minutes at this point. Thanks goodness for child safety locks because I would have never been able to drive away as he continued to tantrum and flail around the van for more than fifteen minutes no matter what I did.

I share this experience, because it is one of the most personal experiences I have ever had with a child with autism. This was different than dealing with any of the dozens of patients I had treated with this condition at the time, this was someone I love. That made this disease a personal concern. I realized later that I was out of context for him. He always saw me at his house or mine with mom nearby. Here I arrived at his school wearing my work scrubs and I was cooperating with “the enemy”. I should have thought about what he needed before I arrived, given him more time to shift to my care and then use a transition object or activity that would have helped to ease his anxiety.Fast forward fourteen years. Steven graduated from high school last year, and unless I was to point him out and tell you that he has this diagnosis you would not readily notice. He talks comfortably with family and friends, he jokes (in his own way), and is going to community college. When I celebrated my own son’s graduation last year, we made it a double celebration and threw a big pool party for both of them. To what do I contribute his success? The love and uncompromising level of expectation that my sister-in-law and her family provided for his whole life made the difference. I can take no credit except to say that I also treated him like anyone else and never accepted that it was ok to settle for less.

The CDC just released new statistics of the occurrence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): among American boys is now 1 in 54 and 1 in 252 for girls. The average occurrence is now 1/88 or 1% of the population. My call to action is that we never allow stats and norms to cause us to lose sight of the individual and recognize each and every child with this diagnosis as individuals. The children living with this diagnosis are just as diverse as any other child. Although they will certainly tend to have the markers of the disease including social & communication problems, sensory issues, and a narrow range of unusual behaviors. They are not personally defined by this diagnosis. Each one bears their own intellect, personality, interests, personal needs and variations of the symptoms themselves. They need to be embraced for who they are. Families of children with autism need to be supported and reassured that their child can grow up to contribute to others in their own unique way. Take it from me…after a painful headbutt and frightful ride home from school, followed by such a wonderful outcome, I got it!

3

(Continued from previous page)

marketing jennifer riley, Director of community relations

Advocacy in ActionTHERAPY 2000 participates in important activities that ad-vocate for the long-term eco-nomic viability of our industry and for quality healthcare for the children of Texas.

Over 90% of the children we serve receive Texas Medicaid

benefits. For several years Medicaid funding has been at significant risk of major cuts. In addition to funding, therapy utilization continues to come under scrutiny by the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), Texas Legisla-ture and Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs).

What are we doing? THERAPY 2000 is an active member of our state association, Texas Association of Home Care and Hospice (TAHC&H). With over 1200 member agen-cies, TAHC&H is one of the strongest home care associa-tions in the nation. We participate in the Pediatric Com-mittee, Government Affairs Committee, Political Action Committee (PAC) Council and Board of TAHC&H.

THERAPY 2000 makes every effort to develop strong, working relationships with our payers in order to reduce barriers to providing therapy to children and receiving pay-ment for our services. We work closely with government agencies especially HHSC, we serve on several statewide stakeholder groups promoting best practices and solutions to clinical and payment issues.

This past legislative session, THERAPY 2000 partnered with pediatric home care agencies around the state and hired private lobbyists to supplement the advocacy efforts of TAHC&H. We have formed a group named Home Ther-apy Advocates for Kids (HTAK) with three similar agencies, and we have developed a Key Contact Strategy for leaders in the Texas Legislature who are heavily involved in deci-sions that affect our industry.

What have we accomplished? During the last legislative session which was extended into last summer, we success-

fully lobbied against any additional cuts to our Medicaid rates. In the fall of 2011, we successfully advocated against drastic cuts proposed at that time by HHSC. Only a month later, we successfully advocated against HHSC’s proposal to change our payments to unit-based methodology.

What is in store for our industry? It is hard to say, but with our commitment to educate decision-makers about the benefits of home-based therapy we feel confident that our voice will be heard.

What can you do? There are several ways you can as-sist with THERAPY 2000’s advocacy efforts. First, you can commit to giving ¼ of 1% of your income to the TAHC&H PAC. By law PACs cannot receive corporate funds, so we are depending on contributions from you to help educate legislators on home care issues. Please contact HR@T2000.com to begin your payroll deduction as soon as possible. Second, do you know any Texas lawmakers? Or, would you like to be a part of our Key Contact Strategy? If the answer is yes, email Jennifer.Riley@T2000.com. Over the next months and throughout the next legislative ses-sion, there may be times when we need your help to write letters and make phone calls to forward our messages.

THERAPY 2000 is over 280 employees strong! With ev-eryone’s help, we will continue to be a positive force in Austin protecting our industry!

Q: Tell us a little about your background.A: I came to THERAPY 2000 after serving as an executive at a re-gional home-remodeling company. Prior to that I was with Starbucks as a manager and trainer.

Q: What brought you to HR?A: I am a teacher at heart, and I think people are fascinating. I’ve spent significant time in operations but have migrated to HR because of my interests. My experiences in training often proved limiting because the training environment can only do so much to produce the desired results in an orga-nization. Growth and development, both personal and pro-fessional, are only effective when they live in the company as a whole on a daily basis. My position in HR affords me the opportunity to design development solutions that extend deep into the company, helping us improve more lives.

Q: What most excites you about working at THERAPY 2000?A: My family has been serviced by THERAPY 2000 in the past. We have had a wonderful experience and truly valued the therapists that invested in our home. It’s exciting to be returning that investment.

Q: Can you give some general tips of “what to do” and “what not to do” in an interview?A: Regrettably, the list of “what not to do” is too long for this space. As a result, I would emphasize sticking with the inter-view script to avoid any legal problems. It is very tempting to want to connect to applicants in as many ways as possible during the interview process but even the most innocuous questions can have legal ramifications. For instance – Where are you from? Do you have kids? Have you been arrested in the last three years? - all of these questions might seem inter-

esting or relevant, but they create a legal liability. For that reason, stick to the script.

Beyond legal concerns, be careful when scheduling multiple interviews in a single day. Engaging in an interview can be exhausting. Later candidates will seldom receive your full attention or mental abilities.

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?A: I read a lot. Fiction and non-fiction alike. Unfortunately, with three children under the age of five that means I read a lot in the late hours of the night. I also enjoy basketball, woodworking, and cooking. My time at Starbucks gave me a connoisseur’s love of coffee and tea. It has since carried over into wine.

Q: What do you think is next at THERAPY 2000?A: I think the organization will continue to see growth. As things grow bigger and bigger, systems that were once natural have to become more and more intentional. For instance, adopting the company vision probably once oc-curred by sitting down in the break room (or basement) and talking to Jerre during down time. Obviously, that is much more difficult these days. Now that process has to be spread out across the whole state of Texas. Each em-ployee has the responsibility for serving as ambassador for the organization’s values and mission, meaning they have to be prepared for that role.

The transition from the natural to the intentional will oc-cur time and again as the company grows. It can often feel awkward or less authentic because it requires more effort. However, these transitions are required if more and more employees and families are going to experience the wonder-ful benefits of working with THERAPY 2000.

Q: Who is your favorite Beatle, John or Paul?A: Paul’s vocals, John’s lyrics (Does anyone ever say Ringo? Poor Ringo.)

Ira Kirkley comes to us from a variety of professional experiences. Before joining THERAPY 2000, he spent five years as the Chief Operating Officer at a regional home-remodeling company. During his time there he was responsible for human resources (earning his PHR certification), sales, marketing, web development, and installations. His true love is working with people, so he jumped at the opportunity to move into a full-time HR role. Prior to that he worked with Starbucks as a manager, classroom facilitator and regional trainer. Additionally, this is not Ira’s first experience with THERAPY 2000. He and his wife, Valerie, have had T2K in their home to work with their three young children for the past three years.

Get to know HR Director, Ira KirkleyHuman resources

Diversity in Workplace Yields Great ResultsHuman resources

Over the course of our profes-sional careers and during our everyday lives we come in con-tact with people from different backgrounds. As THERAPY 2000 employees we deal with diver-sity on a daily basis. In the HR department alone we have staff members who have roots or ex-

periences living in countries such as Holland, Mexico and the Ukraine. As a therapist you may interact with families with different socio-economical backgrounds. As an office employee you undoubtedly work closely with someone with different beliefs and life experiences. It’s part of our everyday lives to be immersed in the melting pot of the American culture. Some of us may have very little knowl-edge about diversity, and may think of it as just a difference in sex or the color of your skin. In reality diversity goes way beyond just physical characteristics. Places where you grew up, your religious beliefs, lifestyle preferences, differ-ences in personal life experiences, and many other things create a very diverse work environment. I can state it with

utmost confidence that THERAPY 2000 is proud to have a very diverse workplace. So why is it important to have a diverse workplace, and how does it make us a stronger company? According to the Society of Human Resource Management, organizations made up of individuals with a more diverse mix of quali-ties, experiences and work styles tend to yield a richer set of ideas, perspectives and approaches to a business issue. In other words, our diversity-rich work environment can provide us with a competitive advantage over other com-panies. It all sounds great, but in order to take advantage of our diversity we have to learn to recognize how others’ life experiences and beliefs influence their communication style and work preferences. One of the best approaches is to show sincere interest in those who we interact with on a regular basis. Being open minded, and respecting each other’s differences will provide for a more enjoyable and cohesive work environment which is so important to the success of our company.

–Illya Ignatenko

A little about Illya:• He's an HR intern at THERAPY 2000, currently working on his Masters Degree in Human Resources• He's also a military veteran (served 4 years in US Air Force), and has a banking background• He was born in the Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union before the breakup in 1991• He moved to the States in September of 1998• He's married and has a 3-year-old daughter

Did You Know?: Diversity• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2016, 70% the work force will be made up of women and/or

Black, Latino, or Asian workers.

• For the first time in history, there are more 55-64-year-olds than there are 16-24-year-olds.

• Almost 18% of Americans over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home.

• 11% of the US population are native to countries outside the US, most notably: Latin America and followed

by Asia, Europe and Canada.

• Approximately 10% of the general population is gay/lesbian.

• Our labor force includes 21.3% of people with disabilities.

WeCelebrateDiversity

cHari-t2000 upDate

c2k recipients to Date

newest c2k recipients

7

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

After many years of “Wouldn’t it be great if…”, Chari-T2000 fi nally got its feet off the ground two years ago. Now it is soaring! What started out as aspira-tion quickly became a real-ity thanks to you, generous T2K-ers.

The board of Chari-T2000 has been blown away by your generosity over the last few weeks. What started out as a highly ambitious goal ($50,000 in payroll deductions) was reached and then exceeded thanks to the generosity of our magnanimous staff – that’s you!

Before the March Madness competition our payroll com-mitments would have netted us $37,895.00 this year. As of

today, our annual commitments total $52,650.00, al-most $3,000.00 over the initial goal of the campaign. That’s an additional $14,755 more in payroll commit-ments from the previous month.

As you know, many of our kids face signifi cant bumps in the road. Chari-T2000’s goal is to help pave the way for them by making sure they receive the proper tools to help them make progress and reach their full potential. This signifi cant increase in payroll deduction will help better the lives of even more of our patients.

Thank you all for your support of Chari-T2000. The board couldn’t be prouder or more thankful for the overwhelm-ing amount of participation. We look forward to helping more kids fi nd success this year. In addition, these Chari-T2000 recipients would like to thank you too!

LEFT: Eric just received a Convaid stroller. Before Chari-T2000 helped out, Eric only had a power chair so the family couldn't take him in their vehicle.

RIGHT: Katie loves her new weighted blanket, thanks to C2K.

SALIAISH – WEIGHTED BLANKET ........................................................................................................................................................................... FATIMA – TOMATO SEAT

SANABEL AND DIANA – FM TRANSMITTERS .................................................................................................................................................. FRANCO – WEIGHTED VEST

DAMIEN – WEIGHTED BLANKET ...................................................................................................................................................................KELLY – POSTERIOR WALKER

CHANCE – HEAD POINT ADAPTION FOR COMMUNICATION DEVICE .........................................................................................DRAVEN – WEIGHTED BLANKET AND VEST ZAMOREE – WEIGHTED VEST ................................................................................................................................................................................ KIEARRA – CUBE CHAIR

MARVIN – WEIGHTED VEST ................................................................................................................................................................................................... EBER – VAN

SORIE – WEIGHTED BLANKET ...................................................................................................................BRIAN – REPLACEMENT BATTERY FOR COMMUNICATION DEVICE

JACKSON – BITMACK DEVICE ................................................................................................................................................................... PRESSLEY – WEIGHTED BLANKET

KENNETH – VAN LIFT .............................................................................................................................................................................................MARCO – HIP HELPERS

VICTORIA – WEIGHTED BLANKET ............................................................................................................................................................. BRADEN – WEIGHTED BLANKET

LEIGHTON – WEIGHTED BLANKET ...........................................................................................................................................................ADRIAN – TUMBLEFORM WEDGE

RALPH – WEIGHTED BLANKET ................................................................................................................................................................................... CALEIGH – VAN LIFT

BRYAN – DYNOVOX CHARGER .................................................................................................................................................. CARSON – KEEKAROO ADJUSTABLE CHAIR

CARLA – TUMBERFORM SEAT WITH TRAY ...............................................................................................................................................TIANA – HEARING AID BATTERIES

JOSE – PEC BOOK ......................................................................................................................................................................................... GUADALUPE – HIP HELPERS

SAUL – 1ST ARM DEVICE ...........................................................................................................................................................BRIAN – GUARDIANSHIP PROCESSING FEES

ERIC – CONVAID STROLLER ................................................................................................................................................................................ DIEGO – BIFORM WEDGE

cHari-t2000 upDate

8

The Said sisters live in a very fun and very loud house. Together, seven boisterous kids live under the same roof. These adorable sisters live with their two parents, five other children, and three other adults in a tree-lined subdivision in Sunnyvale. Diana, age eight, and Sanabel, age five, are very expressive despite their profound hearing loss.The girls have a blast with their in-house playmates but also were ex-periencing some communication difficulties due to their hereditary hearing loss. At age two years and four months Diana was fitted with cochlear implants. Sanabel also re-ceived cochlear implants when she was almost three. Loud environments, like their school and household, sound especially muffled and distorted for them, making it hard for them to separate one sound from another sound. Their Mom had to be close and talk very loudly for the girls to hear her. According to their audiologist and SLP Lucy Liu, "They don’t do well in noisy situa-tions."

To facilitate learning, their school system outfitted the girls with FM systems so the teacher’s voice would be amplified and they could learn in a traditional classroom environment. When the bell rung for the end of the day, the girls had to the leave the FM systems behind as they were school property. They no longer had the benefits of these much needed FM systems after school and at

home. Unfortunate-ly, these high-tech systems were too expensive for their parents to cover for home use.

Lauren Blackwell, their SLP, saw these two motivated sis-

ters and their loving family as great candidates for Chari-T2000 assis-tance. The family provided 10% of the cost and Chari-T2000 funded two FM systems for the girls. The Said sisters received one transmit-ter and two receiver boots in De-cember. Lucy Liu started the girls off with just one transmitter so it wouldn’t be too complicated for the family to adjust to at home.

Once the girls initially tried out their new receivers, their Mom had to learn she no longer had to yell to communicate with her daughters. To test the receivers on the first day,

Lucy asked the mom to go in another room and ask a question over the transmitter while the sisters stayed in the other room. Mom asked the question in her nor-mal tone. Loudly she asked, “What color is your shirt?” The quick response from Diana was, “too loud!” Mean-ing, the FM system was working just fine! Now their mom is getting used to talking to them in her normal voice. Though the girls have only been outfitted with the sys-tem at home for a short while they are already showing vast improvement in their speech and communication. Just last week Lucy brought in the second transmitter for other family members to start using with the young girls.

Thank you all for supporting Chari-T2000 and providing these much needed assistive devices to this deserving family. Thanks to you, both girls can now hear better at home and participate with ease in family activities.

C2K Provides FM Systems for Sisters

Sanabel and Diana

FM receiver boot

FM receiver boot

a proviDers view on Diversity

9

Dr. Anu Partap is the Director of the Foster Care Clinic at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. She has over fifteen years experience working in a pediatric setting. Her primary research interests include the quality/design of pediatric primary care for at-risk children and reducing risks/strengthening assets of families experiencing abuse and/or neglect to improve child health outcomes. She is also one of our strongest supporters and referring physicians.

Q: As the director of the Foster Care Clinics at Children’s Medical Center, you serve a diverse array of foster families. In what ways do you approach these families differently than those seen in a more traditional pediatric setting?

A: The limitless definition of "family" comes to life in our clinic daily. We have adult siblings who become “Mom,” estranged relatives who live and breathe for a new-found nephew, and single professionals who suddenly find themselves worried about which baby-bottle is best. When we enter an exam room, we make no assumptions about the relationship between child and caregiver and express gratitude towards anyone who has opened his home to a child in need. We ask questions that help caregivers open up about where they see themselves short and long term in a child's life, how they feel about parenting, and begin learning about their expectations in raising a child with special needs. I think that is very different from traditional settings, where we tend to make assumptions, although maybe we shouldn't.

Q: Foster care is a complex system in which most of the emphasis is rightfully placed on the physical, emotional and social challenges resulting from abuse or neglect. However, in the midst of such exceptional challenges children must still come to terms with topics such as racial identity, ethnic heritage, physical disability, and religious belief. What interplay have you, or your staff, seen between these issues? How do you respond to that interplay as a medical provider?

A: Children in foster care have this amazing challenge of learning the basics of childhood - mobility, communication,

identify, trust, love, and self-sufficiency - in a milieu of traumatizing separation, strangers, and frequent change. In foster care, a child's caregivers will have the strongest influence on how a child views his or her place in the world, how well he or she “fits in.” Since 75% of children are beyond toddler years, children come into foster care with cultural and family systems’ influences. Racial and ethnic diversity receives the most attention, particularly with African American youth being overrepresented in foster care. In addition, over half of children in foster care, and arguably perhaps all, have special health care needs. We see many caregivers who seem to intuitively prioritize which identify-issue is most pressing in the context of a child’s overall health and abuse history, since each child is so different. If a child is suddenly disabled, this adjustment is most pressing and whether faith or culture supports a child in his adjustment is very individual. However, when caregivers are struggling with how to embrace a child’s uniqueness when it seems very different from their own, professionals can step in to help. Professionals can role-model interactions with the child that emphasize strengths or make statements about the strengths and similarities of a particular culture or faith the child identifies with. While it is rare, if a professional hears demeaning or dismissive statements about a child’s disabilities, family, or culture from a caregiver, a professional should give direct, non-judgmental feedback. Caregivers are generally receptive to advice when alternatives are offered. For example, if a caregiver feels a child is defiant in refusing family meals, a professional can suggest perhaps the child ate different flavors due to her heritage and together think of new foods to try at home. As a provider, the challenge in embracing diversity is remembering to approach every child and family with no assumptions about their identifies or their preferences and accepting them all equally. Letting families guide and teach us is the most fulfilling way to go through the day.

Dr. Anu Partap

In addition to working at THER-APY 2000, Lucy Liu, audiologist and SLP, has spent part of the last three years working on audiology and SLP projects in China. She has been helping train people working at rehabilitation centers in differ-ent cities in China. Currently Chi-na does not have language assess-

ment tests and Lucy is making an effort to form a language assessment development team to collaborate with the lin-guists in China to establish these fundamental assessments. In conjunction with UT Dallas Callier Center for Commun-ciation Disorders, she is also making an effort to provide SLP basic trainings through Tianjin Normal University. Fluent in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, Lucy has also been providing regular audiological and speech language consultation for Tongren Hospital a leading hospital in Bei-jing, China, famous for both its ophthalmology and otolar-yngology work.

There are very few trained audiologists and speech-lan-guage pathologists in China for such a very large popula-tion. In addition to the lack of trained individuals, Lucy explained, “Overall, there is simply low awareness of cer-tain disorders.” The equipment at the hospital and school is state of the art, yet the training to use the equipment properly is lacking.

On one of her recent visits Lucy went to a pediatric ce-rebral palsy rehabi l i t at ion center to help establish audio-logical testing. While she was

at the center she realized there was

a need to address the feeding issues that many of the pa-tients with cerebral palsy were exhibiting, a normal part of treatment in the United States. Lucy inquired what kind

of feeding therapy the therapists were practicing with the patients and they said none, since the patients had no problems with feeding. Surprised that these issues

weren’t being noticed, she talked to the par-

ents of some of the children. Inquiring if their children got sick often, the parents overwhelmingly replied yes. Many of these children suffered from pneumonia and fevers often, both symptoms of children not being treated properly for feeding disorders. It is not that they didn’t want to treat the children at this rehab center, there was just no awareness of these issues in China. Before they can start to develop these areas of therapy in China they must realize there is a need and this has been part of Lucy’s mission.

Lucy plans on continuing the knowledge exchange with China and will be returning the summer with SLPs to per-form therapy and training at more hospitals, reha-bilitation centers, and universities in China.

China has one hundred and thir-ty seven million children under the age of seven. Most of China’s rehabilitation specialists have lim-ited training ranging from just a couple of hours to a couple of years. Only a handful of SLPs have received adequate training that are currently working in China. Lucy wants to continue to serve as a bridge to bring passionate audiolo-gists and SLPs to China to provide therapy and training of those children in need.

Interested in learning more or joining Lucy on her future China journeys?

Contact: Lucy.Liu@t2000.com

www.kaishinlab.com

RAISING AWARENESS OF DISORDERS IN CHINA

10

Lucy LiuAudiology Congress in 2009

(Keynote Speaker)

Training at aural rehabclass for toddlers

Teaching session with physicians and interns

11

www.kaishinlab.com

T2K Tech Talk BY MAICOL NIETO

For more tools or tips contact:Maico l N ieto maico l .n ie to@t2000.com

BY MAICOL NIETO

iCan't

If you read the T2K'NECTION sent out every week, you have probably seen app recommendations made by some of our therapists. I have compiled the recommendations made by the East Division. Sherri Woloszyn does their app section with help from some of our therapists. Please send more recommendations to your district manager, and see them posted on our T2K'NECTION.

APPS OF THE WEEK

Did you know that Super Duper has a free app called: "Let’s Name Things"? It's a great categorization app-check it out!Requires iOS 4.0

There’s a FREE app that lazy, I mean BUSY!, therapists might like. It’s called the "Super Duper Age Calculator". It calculates a patient’s chronological age easily, quickly and accurately. You just input the test date and the patient’s birth date.

“Blow Up Balloon” is a great app for all disciplines-and allows you to blow up a balloon through the micro-phone of your phone and then pop it. Fun!

"What's Different" is an educational game for young children from age 3. This is a great puzzle for young thinkers.

Iphone/ipod/ipad

Android*

*Install these apps remotely on your phone using “Google Play” from your computer browser: https://play.google.com/store

Don’t forget to download the new "Angry Birds - Space" –Maicol

"That's How I Feel" is an app designed to help nonverbal children and adults express their feelings using Smarty Symbols.

Visit geekSLP.com for more useful apps

"Talking Tom" is a fun animated app. Though not designed specifi cally for speech therapy, it can be a very powerful tool for articulation therapy. Talking Tom is a cat that repeats everything you say using a high pitched voice. It’s a lot of fun, kids love him!

In case you may not

have noticed, I am ‘that

girl from Holland’ that’s

been walking around

in the Lone Star Divi-

sion for a few weeks.

I’ll shortly introduce

myself because despite

what some people

might think; I’m not a

therapist! Instead I’m

doing a student internship for three months (I wish I could

stay way longer though, pesky 90-day visa) in order to do

research for my master’s thesis on human resources. My

thesis focusses on assessing the organizational culture of

THERAPY 2000 and on ways to make the core values

more alive. Since the theme of this edition of T2K Insider

is diversity, I was asked to write a piece on my perspective

on being here, miles away from home.

It’s been over a month ago since I arrived so I’ve had

enough time to experience all sorts of differences amongst

the U.S. and Holland (officially: the Netherlands). On the

other hand, I’ve had time to get accustomed to those dif-

ferences too, which makes you sometimes not even realize

them anymore! Imagine what that means for people that

have been living in a certain place for years and years; all

the habits that you have are so much part of your daily life

that you fully take them for granted. So even after just one

month, I’ve found myself taking over some of your Ameri-

can and/or Texan habits too.

Such as driving cars. I love every single minute of it, but

in Holland I didn’t do it as much. Especially because I live

downtown in a ‘big’ city. It might sound strange to you but

in Holland, my city Utrecht, with around 300,000 inhabit-

ants, is considered a big city. But I have to say, we live way

more packed than y’all (see here my Texan habit of us-

ing y’all popping up). Because our houses and streets are

mostly historical and therefore way smaller, there is no

real point in having a car. Finding a parking spot would be

a huge problem and we have a very decent public trans-

port system. Not to forget about the walking and cycling

culture: it is very common in Holland to walk or cycle

to your friends, to the university or to the supermarket,

which I actually miss here. Since in Holland doing exercise

was integrated in my daily life – by just getting from A to

B – I have to find myself some new challenges over here.

So any dog that needs to be walked, just call me for it and

I’ll be glad to do it .

So that is one of the differences that struck me. When I

asked if I could walk to the supermarket – not to speak

about walking to work – people were looking at me as

if I came from a different planet (which is in a way true

apparently). The conclusion I drew is that if you want to

do exercise at all, you first need your car to get to a spot

where you can actually do it.

Besides that, a huge difference is the eating culture. Even

though Holland is getting more and more into junk food

(we call this McDonaldization), we still have a dinner-cul-

ture, which can better be described as a dining culture.

Cooking is what we do on a daily basis (which doesn’t

mean that we always feel like it) and if we go out for dinner

it’ll be a whole evening event. It may take a while before

you even get your first course and in between the courses

you enjoy your – specially chosen – wine and chit chat with

your tablemates. Even when you’re done with the actual

eating, you might still spend an hour on just enjoying your

cappuccino or some more glasses of wine. The waiters

will only take your plates away when you are clearly done

(which you show by having your all your cutlery pieces

next to each other on the plate).

Marcella Das: From Utrecht to Waxahachie tHerapy 2000 we celeBrate Diversity

(Continued on next page)12

Happy Annivevev rsaryryr

10 Years

Donna Trantham ........................ 4/8/2002

Gloria Martinez .......................5/24/2002

9 Years

Alejandra Chaparro .................. 4/7/2003

Tamara McCormick ................4/29/2003

Mary Burger .............................5/19/2003

8 Years

Tonya Ferguson .......................... 5/3/2004

Amy Peterman .........................5/17/2004

Kristin Mycke ...........................6/18/2004

7 Years

Meri Linscomb ........................... 4/5/2005

Miranda Beckmann ................... 5/3/2005

Karen Gillum .............................. 5/3/2005

Nancy Trillo ...............................5/31/2005

Melissa Sneed ............................. 6/6/2005

6 Years

Juan Garcia ................................5/12/2006

5 Years

Michiko Escobido ...................... 4/2/2007

Angela Lawson .........................4/16/2007

Brianne Richardson ................... 5/7/2007

Keane Byrom .............................. 6/4/2007

4 Years

Jean Tally ...................................... 4/9/2008

Tanya Benson ............................. 6/6/2008

Vanessa Flores ..........................6/20/2008

Heather Wise ...........................6/10/2008

Molly Wood ..............................6/30/2008

3 Years

Anabel Cabrera ......................... 4/6/2009

Griselda Hernandez ................4/27/2009

Joanna Rubenfi eld ....................4/27/2009

Vicki Sitzer .................................. 4/6/2009

Judith Shaw ...............................5/26/2009

Cynthia Alvarado ....................... 6/3/2009

Darla Camacho .......................... 6/8/2009

Katie Neal ................................... 6/3/2009

Guillermo Netro ....................... 6/3/2009

Rachel Smith .............................6/22/2009

2 Years

Kyle Butler ................................4/12/2010

Udoka Chukwuma .................... 4/5/2010

Margaret Junker .......................4/26/2010

Jennifer Ortiz ............................. 4/5/2010

Alice Anderson ........................5/10/2010

Harolyn Marshall .....................5/24/2010

Rachel McClure .......................5/10/2010

Michelle Acosta-Nabarrette .... 6/7/2010

Donice Arrington ...................... 6/8/2010

Cassie Brasher .........................6/14/2010

Elizabeth Capron .....................6/14/2010

Emily Chow ................................ 6/3/2010

Jennifer Ellis ..............................6/14/2010

Arlene Feinberg ......................... 6/7/2010

Kristi Garrey ............................6/14/2010

Rebeca Goncalves ..................... 6/1/2010

Karen Lewis ................................ 6/1/2010

Leslie McCorkle ........................ 6/1/2010

Dietmar Perez ..........................6/22/2010

Jeri Ward ..................................... 6/1/2010

1 Year

Marisha George .......................4/22/2011

Megan Ramos ............................. 4/4/2011

Elizabeth Salazar ......................4/11/2011

Marcia Thomas ........................... 4/4/2011

Jeanette Torres .........................4/11/2011

Mary Anna Valderas .................4/20/2011

Courtni Marshall ....................... 5/9/2011

Federico Mendez ....................... 5/9/2011

Yvette Reeves ............................ 5/9/2011

Blair Griffi th ..............................6/27/2011

Tina Hahn .................................6/27/2011

Morgan Hanhart ........................ 6/3/2011

Christina Hansen .....................6/20/2011

Stephanie Kent .........................6/20/2011

Candice Loessberg .................... 6/6/2011

Kimberly Westbrook ..............6/20/2011

Just a wild guess but maybe this (the fact that we spend

more time when we are eating out) is a reason why we

don’t have doggy bags in Holland. If you ask for a doggy

bag in Holland, people would look at you the same way

you guys look at me when I asked if I could walk from

the house I was staying at in Oak Cliff to THERAPY 2000.

It’s not because the system doesn’t make sense (in fact it

does, cause you don’t waste food) but there is not even

one place that I can think of that offers doggy bags. I have

to admit that our portions are smaller too, so you won’t

come across portions like I received at Sweet Georgia

Browns Bar-B-Que Buffet in Holland. Even though it was

awesome food, it took me three days to fi nish it.

Besides enjoying all the great food (the lack of a dining

culture certainly does not mean there is a lack of great

food. In fact, I have to watch myself to not gain too many

Tex-Mex pounds when I’m over here). I’ve also enjoyed

every single day of being here. I experienced a very warm

and nice reception at the welcome potluck. Since then,

I’ve been positively surprised by a lot of experiences. In

Holland, the US is mostly associated with the alleged

prejudices of infomercials telling ‘how amazing’ products

are, reality tv shows and more not-very-meaningful things.

Unfortunately, Americans can be perceived as rather

‘fake’ or superfi cial. In addition, Texas is known for being

very conservative, strictly religious and therefore seen as

a little close-minded. I can only say that these stereotypes

are not in any way what I have experienced myself. No

matter what political opinion, religion or cultural affi lia-

tion, I’ve basically met nice and open-minded people.

So my personal experience – of course there are excep-

tions and I might be biased by the great ambiance with-

in the company – is that I feel very privileged by being

surrounded by a blend of people with all different back-

grounds, mindsets and opinions that know how to respect

one another and deal with diversity. Thanks to everybody

who has put effort into welcoming me and involving me.

It’s made me feel at home.

ANNIVERSARIES(Continued from previous page)

14

WE SENT OUT A SURVEY REQUEST RECENTLY RELATED TO DIVERSITY WITHIN THE T2K FAMILY. WE WANTED TO KNOW HOW YOU GREET PEOPLE IN YOUR NATIVE TONGUE, AND WHAT YOUR FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD IS FROM YOUR HOME COUNTRY. WE GOT A LOT OF GOOD RESPONSES. WE PULLED A FEW BELOW TO SHARE. ENJOY!

• USA ...............................Hello, How's your day going? ................Peanut butter crackers

• USA ...............................Hi, hello ........................................ Roast beef potatoes and gravy

• USA ...............................Hi!.............................................. Hamburger and homemade fries

• Solomon Islands ..........mun mumu leana (good morning) ..................... tapioca pudding

• Australia ........................G'day mate ..........................................................................Meat pie

• USA ...............................Hi or hello. ........................................... Cereal/Pancakes/Cookies

• USA ...............................Hello, how are you? ......................................................... Ice cream

• USA ...............................Hi, how are you today? ..................................Rice and spare ribs

• U.S.A. .............................Hi, How are you? ....................................Chicken wild rice soup

• USA ...............................Howdy, how are you? ....................Wings and fries, and burgers

• USA ...............................Hi .........................Chicken fried steak w/gravy & mashed taters

• New Zealand ...............Hello ....................................Fish-n-chips wrapped in newspaper

• USA ...............................Hello ................................................... Grande soy 2 Splenda latte

• USA ...............................Hey! ........................................................................ shrimp and grits

• Guadalupe ....................How's it goin ........................................... Bratwurst & sauerkraut

• USA ...............................Hey- How's it goin? ...............................................................Queso

• USA ...............................Hi ..................................................................................................Pizza

• USA ...............................Hello how are you or y'all doing? ..........Green chili enchiladas

• USA ...............................Hello ........................................................................................Shrimp

• Colombia ......................Hola, como estas? ..........................................................Empanadas

• USA ...............................Hello .....................................................................................Tex-Mex

• USA ...............................Hi!.......................................................................Steak and potatoes

• Venezuela ......................Epale(informal)-Buenos Dias (Formal) ............................. Arepas

• USA ...............................Hi ................................................................................................... Rice

• Netherlands .................Hoi ...........................................................................Indonesian food

• USA ...............................Hello, how are you? .......................................................... CHEEZ-ITS

• USA ...............................Hola .............................................................................................Mole

• USA ...............................Hello ....................................Mashed potatoes with brown gravy

• Cyprus ..........................Geia sou!............................................................................. Souvlakia

• USA ...............................Hello .............................................................. Macaroni and cheese

• USA ...............................Hey y'all! ....................................... Mom's snickerdoodle cookies

• UKRAINE .....................Privet ......................................................................................... Borsh

• USA ...............................Hello ................................................Burger and fries with a Coke

• Mexico ..........................Hola, Hello ............................................................ Arroz con leche

• Brazil ..............................Kissing ........................................ Rice, beans, vegetables and beef

• USA ...............................English: Hello! ..................................Hamburger and french fries

• USA ...............................Hi ............................................................................. Burger and fries

• USA ...............................Hello, how are you ............................................................Tex-Mex

• USA ...............................Hello! How are you? ...............................Chicken and dumplings

• Argentina ......................Hola che! ................................................................................. Asado

• USA ...............................Hi .........................................................................................Chick fi l a

• USA ...............................Hey ................................................................. Macaroni and cheese

• Mexico ..........................Hola Mucho Gusto .................................................Chiles rellenos

• Mexico ..........................Hola, como esta hoy? ..............................................................Tacos

• Brazil ..............................Oi tudo bem? ................................................................... Brigadeiro

COUNTRY GREETING COMFORT FOOD COUNTRY GREETING COMFORT FOOD

15

WE SENT OUT A SURVEY REQUEST RECENTLY RELATED TO DIVERSITY WITHIN THE T2K FAMILY. WE WANTED TO KNOW HOW YOU GREET PEOPLE IN YOUR NATIVE TONGUE, AND WHAT YOUR FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD IS FROM YOUR HOME COUNTRY. WE GOT A LOT OF GOOD RESPONSES. WE PULLED A FEW BELOW TO SHARE. ENJOY!

• Netherlands .................Hoi ...........................................................................Indonesian food

• USA ...............................Hello, how are you? .......................................................... CHEEZ-ITS

• USA ...............................Hola .............................................................................................Mole

• USA ...............................Hello ....................................Mashed potatoes with brown gravy

• Cyprus ..........................Geia sou!............................................................................. Souvlakia

• USA ...............................Hello .............................................................. Macaroni and cheese

• USA ...............................Hey y'all! ....................................... Mom's snickerdoodle cookies

• UKRAINE .....................Privet ......................................................................................... Borsh

• USA ...............................Hello ................................................Burger and fries with a Coke

• Mexico ..........................Hola, Hello ............................................................ Arroz con leche

• Brazil ..............................Kissing ........................................ Rice, beans, vegetables and beef

• USA ...............................English: Hello! ..................................Hamburger and french fries

• USA ...............................Hi ............................................................................. Burger and fries

• USA ...............................Hello, how are you ............................................................Tex-Mex

• USA ...............................Hello! How are you? ...............................Chicken and dumplings

• Argentina ......................Hola che! ................................................................................. Asado

• USA ...............................Hi .........................................................................................Chick fi l a

• USA ...............................Hey ................................................................. Macaroni and cheese

• Mexico ..........................Hola Mucho Gusto .................................................Chiles rellenos

• Mexico ..........................Hola, como esta hoy? ..............................................................Tacos

• Brazil ..............................Oi tudo bem? ................................................................... Brigadeiro

COUNTRY GREETING COMFORT FOOD

We Celebrate Diversity – We recognize that our employees and the families we serve come from an enormous variety of ethnic and national backgrounds. We approach our differences as opportunities for learning and personal growth.

Central DivisionDivision Dirt

Updates on the Super Six

HELPFUL TIPS

CENTRAL MIXER

16

I have often been asked how it is that I only have a few, if any, missed visits in any given month. Here are a few things that have worked very well for me.

1. Make it a point to have great communication with your patients' families. Relate the importance of keeping a set schedule and how it relates to continuity of care and overall progress towards their child's therapy goals. If they know you really care about their child and their family, they are far more likely to work with you whenever issues come up. Ask them for the earliest times that their child may be seen, in case circumstances have changed since they were last admitted. I also write down any scheduled dental visits, surgeries, wellness doctor visits, etc.

2. Value your scheduled therapy time by being consistent. Families know when their therapist values their scheduled therapy time. The amount of importance that they show towards your appointment time will be directly refl ective of the amount of importance that you show towards your appointment time, in the majority of cases. It may sound obvious, but you really need to be there when you say that you are going to be there and if you know that you will be running late, call them or text them (whatever method that they usually communicate with you) to inform them of any deviations from the schedule. Most parents are very understanding, as long as you let them know as soon as you know that a problem arises that might cause you to run late or to cancel a visit.

3. Know all the vacation dates and early release dates for each patient's school district, so that you can see afterschool patients during the day. Make sure to ask if they have any plans for those rest periods at the beginning of the month, so that you can adjust your schedule accordingly and in a timely manner.

4. Review the areas where your patients live and see if there are any changes that you can make (with the parents' consent) to maximize your travel times between patients. For instance, I scheduled patients in one city on Mondays and Wednesdays, while scheduling the remainder who live in another city on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I try to see the patients who live the furthest fi rst thing in the morning and the closest ones last, so that I am not fi ghting as much traffi c.

5. Learn shortcuts. I try to fi nd alternate routes, especially with all the construction in this area. That will help you keep your scheduled appointment times more consistently, when car accidents, street repairs, etc. occur.

I hope that these simple ideas work for you, as well as they have for me. Treat each family as you would want your own family to be treated. Your patients and their families will thank you.

–Jessica Reva

Here are some pictures from a recent mixer organized by Theresa Hill, OTR, MOT, M.S. HCA, DM. This particular mixer was organized to woo new therapists from TWU to the family.

17

East Division PATIENT SUCCESS STORY: DYLAN

INTERNS, INTERNS, INTERNS!

September 28, 2009 is a day that Shannon unfortunate-ly will never forget. That was the day that her spunky, en-ergetic 17-year-old son was in a horrifi c motor vehicle ac-cident. He was not wearing a seat belt when the truck he was driving rolled several times after clipping a semi-truck. Dylan, affectionately nicknamed “Pickle” since kindergar-ten, sustained a severe traumatic brain injury. He became a THERAPY 2000 patient approximately ten months after the accident. When Dylan was initially evaluated he was non-verbal, non-ambulatory, dependent for all bed mobil-ity, transfers and ADLs. He has spastic quadriplegia, acute respiratory distress, severe dysphagia, and a severe ex-pressive/receptive language disorder.

His physical therapists, Alice Anderson and Jennifer Or-tiz have set up a home exercise program and obtained needed equipment for Dylan. In addition to addressing his PT goals, Jennifer has been instrumental in obtaining the ongoing resources and referrals Dylan desperately needs to help him reach his fullest potential.

Dylan has made measurable improvements in speech therapy with Chessa Jones and his current speech thera-pist, Carmen Ojeda-Reyes. At the time of the admission, he was NPO and received all nutrition through a g-tube.

Currently, to supplement his g-tube feedings, he can now safely eat pureed food with no signs/symptoms of aspira-tion.

The most signifi cant area Dylan has progressed in is with an augmentative communication device. Initially, his only mode of communication was through the limited right-hand gestures of ‘yes’, ‘no’, and extending his middle fi n-ger when upset or frustrated. Chessa took the initiative to recommend and obtain an appropriate communica-tion device for him. Dylan is currently using a DynaVox Maestro to functionally communicate with others. Using this device, he can express basic needs, ask and answer questions, and share ideas. His sense of humor can also be seen at times. He has recently used his device to tell Carmen that he wants only “hot” therapists to work with him. He can now get on Facebook and has an email ac-count that he can access using his device. Carmen has also taught him how to access the Pandora app so he can listen to online radio stations in his bed.

THERAPY 2000’s tag line is “We Improve Lives.” Although Dylan continues to have signifi cant physical limitations and global defi cits, our THERAPY 2000 therapists have helped Dylan improve his quality of life.

–Eileen Wade

Lorena Jung with her clinical instructor Tran Tran

Courtney Quinn-Scott with her clinical instructor Amelia Rankin

Maryam Hussain with her clinical instructor Jennifer Ortiz

Carlyn was 18-months-o ld when I walked into her home for the fi rst time. She looked at me with distrust while she played with small pieces of scram-bled eggs. When I looked at those

chubby cheeks and she gave me the serious look, I knew that I had a long way to go but never expected to learn so much about determination and trust.

Carlyn was born on January 14th, at thirty-seven weeks with a jejunal atresia and christmas tree deformity. She underwent a total of fi ve surgical procedures throughout her fi rst eight months of life, requiring a prolonged hospi-tal stay due to intestinal infections, multiple obstructions to severe liver damage (caused by TPN nutrition and high dose lipid use). Oral feeds were started and stopped, in-creased and decreased until she had an NG tube and fi nally a G-tube was placed. The last surgery resulted in 15cm of intestines being removed. A week after this last sur-gery, feeds were started. Carlyn was fi nally discharged on August 28th on twelve hours of TPN, Lipids, IV antibiotics, Protonix, and twenty-four hour g-tube feeds at a rate of 4ml/hr. She was allowed to have 15ml bottles of breast milk or Elecare every 3-4 hours. Around her fi rst birthday feeds were condensed into 1-2 hour increments and Car-lyn started drinking more. By mid–April, tube feeds were completely stopped. Carlyn's bilirubin was below 1.

Carlyn received therapy from a different company since November of 2010 and mother’s main concern at the time was that Carlyn would gag/projectile vomit if anything with texture was placed in her mouth. The only calories she was really getting were from formula in a bottle. Carlyn was admitted by THERAPY 2000 in July of 2010 and she was already putting small pieces of soft consistencies in

her mouth, then spitting and never swallowed them. She did not like to use her lips and she only drank from a bottle.

Carlyn was very smart and I knew I would have to de-velop her trust little by little considering the amount of pain she had been exposed to in the fi rst year of life. And we did! Carlyn went from saying single words to four word phrases in a matter of fi ve months: “Tiny” to “tiny piece”, “it’s too big”, and “I want more Mrs. Beatriz…please”. I was amazed by her capacity to learn from the cues that I was giving her and her willingness to try the presented foods despite her fears of previous pains. She imitated every single prompt or cue that I gave her and I followed her lead, allowing her tilt, awaiting for her permission to be fed. She learned to drink from a straw and a cup, and learned to use her lips appropriately to remove food from the spoon. She went from mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs to a wide variety of foods and consistencies (more than fi fty, last time mom counted), and it amazed me that she could label all of those foods.

But the truth is Carlyn could not have gotten there with-out her mother’s persistence and father‘s support. Ebby went right in with all the recommendations from the very fi rst day and despite many tears and days of frustration she never gave up. Cleaning vomit, changing diapers (due to Carlyn’s intestinal condition), cooking high calorie foods, changing the consistency of the food, adding color, modify-ing the shape, let’s add more texture, let’s change the meal schedule–truly tireless.

Thank you Ebby and Kevin for giving me the chance to work with Carlyn, to be part of her life and enjoy her mar-velous progress.

–Beatriz Lourido18

PATIENT SUCCESS STORY: CARLYNWest Division

Carlyn and Family

Carlyn

19

Tara Wisdom, PT, and I landed in Port au Prince, Haiti, two days after the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake, exhausted from our travel. We were volunteering for eight days with Project Me-dishare at the Bernard Mev hospital, the only trauma center for miles. We joined

about twenty-fi ve other volunteers, mainly nurses and doctors from Cincinnati, at the small corrugated hangar for baggage claim and customs, battling our way through the chaotic crowd and even walking on the broken lug-gage carousel to maneuver our luggage outside to meet our drivers. We inched our way along the dusty road to the hospital, shocked by the number of people still living in tents and fascinated by tap-taps (their colorful pub-lic transportation) and people with large baskets on their heads, marveling that traffi c lanes, signals, and even traf-fi c direction are meaningless. After a brief orientation and tour, we hit the ground running, working with Kristin, a US PT fi nishing a six-month stint, and two techs who do everything from evals to wound care. We would later meet Fedora, a Haitian and recent Florida PT grad who will eventually head the PT department, for her second week on the job. There were no nurses’ aides; families changed sheets, bathed, dressed, and fed their loved ones, frequent-ly giggling at our initial efforts to help them.

Tara and I worked as a team for most of the week, settling into a routine of treating pedi-atric patients in the morning and adult spinal cord patients in the afternoon. The only soap to be found was brought by volunteers, in our dorm bathrooms; we relied instead on hand gel and gloves, thankfully in abundant supply. Two meals a day were stacked on a table in takeout boxes, and yes, I ate my en-tire goat portion for lunch!

We saw many babies and toddlers with heads grossly en-larged from hydrocephalus, a result, in part, of poor or nonexistent prenatal care and well-baby checkups. We worked with preemies, a baby with a TE (transesophageal) fi stula that would have been reparable in the states but not in Haiti, and a 12-year-old boy with a gaping foot wound from a tap-tap injury. We shortened an adult walker by removing the legs to give another little boy mobility while his knee healed from a debilitating infection. One of our adult patients, Myrtha, had been in the hospital since her cervical injury during the earthquake. She was able to walk slowly with a walker and will be hopefully be discharged soon once her support system is in place. Most of the equipment was old and terribly worn, but the patients and staff were grateful for what they had. Medishare’s goal is now training Haitian staff and transitioning the facility back to them.

We were excited to go out one morning for home vis-its in preparation for two spinal cord patients’ upcoming discharges, humbled by their modest homes and gracious families. We spent our last morning enjoying watching Team Zaryean, the national amputee soccer team. The name means “Tarantula,” chosen because the spider is just as deadly when missing a leg. The players were inspiring,

speeding past us on their forearm crutches, their prosthetic legs stacked against the wall. Local boys crowded the sidelines to watch their heroes; they could have hung out at the other end of the fi eld with the able-bod-ied teams, but they emulated the amputees instead.

Tara and I hope you will join us for another volunteer trip to Haiti to help the beautiful, gracious people there!

–Kathy Gamble, PTA

UPDATE FROM HAITI, JANUARY 12TH, 2012

Kathy Gamble

Tara Wisdom

Team Zaryean sideline

20

San Antonio/Austin Division

On Friday, March 16th, San Antonio therapists and offi ce staff attended a “Documentation Big Training Event”. Jo-seph Valdez and Lisa Reopelle hosted the meeting and both were able to address changes, updates and much needed information to all the therapists and staff. At the meeting everyone had the opportunity to provide feedback on the question: “What frustrates you about working in Home Health?"

Here were some of the responses:

• Parents who don’t call back • Feeling isolated from other clinicians • Managing missed visits and no shows • No shows again • Don’t see team members enough • Traffi c • Documentation deadlines • Gas prices • Outskirt patients (mileage) • Ridiculous schedule timelines for patients • No reimbursement for materials

At the end of the training everyone stayed to learn a little more about Camp Gladiator and My Fit Foods. Camp Gladiator is the largest camp in San Antonio that offers a fun, challenging and competitive environment where men and women of all ages and fi tness levels can push them-selves. Andy and Brittany from Camp Gladiator offered a really nice introductory package for anyone that was inter-ested in joining on the spot. Mike with My Fit Foods pro-vided awareness in nutrition education basics and handed coupons for their meals and snacks.

DOCUMENTATION BIG TRAINING EVENT

Christie Boertlein, PTA Jennie Gentry, COTA Allyson Lannom, SLP Kelly Caviness, OT

WEST NEW HIRES

Recently Toni Barron, SLP, sent an email reaching out to everyone that could help one of her patients that was scheduled to have cranial surgery at the end of this month. The child was anticipated to have multiple blood transfusions and Toni wanted to ask anyone that was willing to consider donating blood for this little one. After a quick email was sent, we had several therapists and offi ce staff respond willing to donate. Here are a few of the responses:

“I am O+. Sign me up for both arms!” - Marcos Jimenez, Staffer

“I am A+. Where do I sign up?” - Tina Hahn, STA

“I am O+ I can help out as well.” - Marisela Martinez, Intake

“I have Vulcan blood but I'm willing to help out too!” - Michelle Parish, ST

“I'm O+” - Melody Chavez, SLP

We wish the little one a quick recovery. Thank you for everyone that donated and helped out!

21

SAN ANTONIO WELCOMES NEW SOCIAL WORKER

This month we welcomed an addition to our San Antonio THERAPY 2000 Team. Everyone please welcome Collin Gregston our new social worker. Collin has extensive experience dealing with the families and children of San Antonio. He worked for fourteen years for CPS and has a wealth of resources to help out our patients and their families. We are so happy to have him!

East Texas Division

Lizzie Norlander, PRN SLP, graduated with an MS in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2006. She has pediatric experience in outpatient, school and inpatient rehab settings. Lizzie sees patients in the Tyler, Troup and Overton areas. She enjoys playing with her two little boys (2½-year-old Carter and 5-month-old Seth) in what little free time she has! Lizzie also enjoys cooking and reading.

Meghann Louvier, FT PT, graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio with her DPT in 2011. She completed a clinical affi liation with THERAPY 2000 in Fort Worth. Since graduation, she has been gaining additional pediatric experience through a local outpatient facility. Meghann lives in Troup and will be covering Tyler and the surrounding areas of East Texas. Meghann was recently married. Her husband is a football coach. She enjoys going to all of his football games and spending time with her friends and family. She also loves being in the great outdoors!

A CALL TO (OR FOR) ARMS

EAST TEXAS WELCOMES NEW EMPLOYEES

22

EAST TEXAS WELCOMES NEW EMPLOYEES

Makenzie has one inspiring

story. She is a determined

six -year-old little girl who

was diagnosed with Perisyl-

vian Syndrome at the age of

two-and-a-half. She is being

raised by her grandparents.

I began seeing Makenzie

when she was fi ve years old. At that time, she maintained

no more than two functional verbalizations due to pa-

ralysis of her tongue and lips secondary to her diagno-

sis. Her grandmother said Makenzie would often try to

communicate her thoughts, but after multiple unsuccess-

ful attempts she would end up crying and leave the room

frustrated.

During her evaluation, I modeled four signs of pictures in

the Preschool Language Scale assessment in passing. Dur-

ing a break, Makenzie turned back to the page in the PLS

and pointed to each picture and signed baby, ball, shoes,

and cookie. She had remembered each sign after only one

model and following 10-15 minutes of additional testing.

One to two weeks into treatment, I received a phone call

from Makenzie’s grandmother and she could barely talk as

she was crying. She explained that Makenzie had just re-

turned from a walk with her grandfather and signed, “I saw

two horses!” This was the fi rst time her grandmother

was able to understand a novel phrase she was trying to

communicate. She said the look in Makenzie’s eyes when

she knew that she had been understood took her breath

away and left her speechless.

PATIENT SUCCESS STORY: MAKENZIE

Maria Chavez, Interpreter, has had experience working as an interpreter and a receptionist at a local pediatric outpatient clinic in Tyler. She will assist with translations in Tyler and the surrounding area. Maria enjoys hanging out with friends and family, shopping and going to the movies in her spare time.

Nicole Gregory, PRN MOT, OTR, graduated from TWU Dallas in 2010. Prior to obtaining her degree in occupational therapy, she had obtained BA in Psychology, which she used for more than ten years with the Early Childhood Intervention program in Tyler. Nicole and Vanessa worked together at ECI for almost fi ve years, where Nicole was employed as an Early Intervention Specialist and a documentation QA specialist. Nicole lives in Van and will be providing OT services in the Van, Grand Saline, Edgewood and Wills Point areas. Nicole enjoys spending time with her children especially as they play softball and soccer. Her daughter, Ashley, is 13 and her son, Austin, is 9.

Leigh Ann Cook, PT SLP, graduated from Abilene Christian University in 2008 with her M.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She has increased her pediatric experience by working at a local outpatient facility. Leigh Ann will be covering the Grand Saline, Ben Wheeler, Flint, Palestine and Tyler areas. She also coordinates a special needs program called Kingdom Kids to help families of children with developmental delays. She likes to play “42” and spend time with her husband in her free time.

Megan Bateman, SLP-CCC

Over the next two and a half months, Makenzie learned

over seventy-fi ve signs with her grandmother intently

watching and attempting to sign each target with limited

use of her hands due to her own disability. Makenzie not

only learned how to sign animals, food, colors, emotions,

and common school phrases but she was able to sign fi ve

to six word sentences. By the time she was discharged

from therapy services, she was not only able to make re-

quests, but also able to initiate conversations such as, “I

like your pink shirt.”

A little determination is sometimes all it takes…Makenzie

and her family are perfect examples.

–Megan Bateman, SLP-CCC

"She said the look in Maken-zie’s eyes when she knew that she had been u n d e r s t o o d took her breath away and left her speechless."

PATIENT SUCCESS STORY: MAKENZIE

2323

Hello from H-Town! I’m Jamie Lombardo and I am the Community Relations Rep for the Houston Division. For the

past eleven years I have worked in the fi eld of marketing, and in December 2011, I came on board with THERAPY 2000.

Needless to say it was one of the best decisions I ever made! We

are rocking and rolling in Houston and it’s so exciting to be a part

of such an amazing team. When I’m away from the offi ce you can

fi nd me fi shing, playing soccer, softball

or tennis or enjoying time

at the beach. I'm also an

avid Texas Longhorn fan and

I love following all of their

sports teams - Hook 'em

Horns! The most important

things in my life are God, my

family & friends. I love life. I

love to laugh. And I love helping

other people. I am truly a blessed

individual!

Houston Division EXCITEMENT IS BUILDING

Some of Jamie's favorite things (clockwise from left): Playing soccer, spending time with family and friends, and fi shing.

Makenzie (Age 6)

Hopefully you are all aware of the exciting partnership that we have begun with the Frisco RoughRiders this season! We

are extremely proud to be diver-sifying the way we reach families by

utilizing opportunities such as this and wanted to share some of the details with all of you.

The season will kick-off on April 4th and THERAPY 2000 will begin our campaign with a focus on autism awareness as it corresponds with April as Autism Awareness Month. We will be highlighting facts throughout our ads in the PlayBall! programs that are distributed to each attendee. Video displays will highlight our information as visitors walk through the ballpark or stand in line for their refresh-ments. If that isn’t enough to catch your eye, our company

information will also be scrolling across the field on their 180-foot animated LED sign that will be visible from every seat in the ballpark! Each of the seventy games has roughly 8,000 in attendance with capacity for 10,000. That’s a lot of exposure for THERAPY 2000.

Another great opportunity offered to THERAPY 2000 through the Rough Riders partnership is the chance to take part in live marketing events during the games. Dur-ing these events we will be able to directly interact with families that have seen our information at the game and might have some questions about possible pediatric ther-apy needs. In the month of April we will have a booth at both the Frisco ISD and the McKinney ISD game nights.

Popcorn, Peanuts, THERAPY 2000:RoughRiders Sponsorship Kicks Off

• April 14: 7 pm McKinney ISD night @ Roughriders

• April 27: 7 pm Frisco ISD night @ Roughriders

• May 4th-5th: NANT Conference @ Omni Hotel in Fort Worth

• May 5 : Kidnetic GamesUpc

omin

g Ev

ents

(D

FW)

WE IMPROVE LIVESA Texas leader in home-based ther apy for ch i ldren .

PH: (214) 467-9787 or (877) 688-2520 FX: (877) 658-2520 www.T2000.com

TO ObTaIn PHySIcaL, OccuPaTIOnaL OR SPEEcH THERaPy SERVIcES FOR yOuR cHILd cOnTacT uS

THERAPY 2000 is a home-health agency dedicated to providing the highest quality physical, occupational and speech therapy services to children in Texas.

THERAPY 2000 touches the lives of children from birth to age 21 with special needs such as down syndrome, cerebral palsy, developmental delays and children on the autism spectrum by delivering individualized health care in the comfort of their home or any place that is convenient for the family.

THERAPY 2000's own Eileen

Wade (left) was at the ball-

park for RoughRiders open-

ing day on April 4th. She

snapped a photo of herself

holding T2Ks ad from the

program (right).