Graduate Student Puts Occupational Therapy Skills to Work Following Hurricane Ida

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Occupational therapy doctoral student Addy Posey traveled with nonprofit Convoy of Hope to assist with hurricane relief following Ida.

U of A graduate student Adelline Posey felt conflicted when Hurricane Ida was barreling toward Louisiana at the end of August.

She wanted to join Convoy of Hope as the nonprofit deployed volunteers for hurricane relief. But she was in the middle of an intense fieldwork rotation as a second-year occupational therapy doctoral student. She didn't think interrupting her studies was an option. However, the director of the occupational therapy program, Dr. Sherry Muir, and Addy's fieldwork supervisors encouraged her to assist the disaster services team.

Posey — who had previously worked for Convoy of Hope for more than two years and helped with relief after hurricanes Harvey, Florence and Michael — traveled with 22 others to Kenner, Louisiana, on Sunday, Aug. 29. There were 19 trucks in the convoy. "All of the vehicles and equipment enable us to be self-sustaining wherever the team is deployed, so there is a bunk trailer, a kitchen trailer and even a trailer with several showers," she said.

The organization also brings tools to help with debris removal. Most of the trucks carry supplies, though. The team distributed multiple truckloads' worth of relief essentials to communities in LaPlace and Houma, the hardest-hit areas. They provided necessities like food, water, ice, hygiene items, solar chargers and tarps to 600-800 families a day. They coordinated with local churches to serve as distribution points.

"Some families got in line at 4 a.m. the first day of our distribution even though it didn't start until 10 that morning," Posey recalled. "The storm came up quickly, so not everyone had time to evacuate or make arrangements to have somewhere to go. And to be blunt, being able to leave your home and your job and take your family away for a week or two isn't a financial reality for every family."

Posey was reminded that people are going through some crisis or disaster on any given day. "Yet none of that stops when a natural disaster occurs," she said. "It just compounds it, really."

Although Posey was away from her occupational therapy coursework for a week, her time in Louisiana served as a fieldwork experience directly related to her future career.

Occupational therapists work with a variety of people who have found their usual way of life disrupted. That could include working with a child who has a new prosthetic, an older adult after a stroke, a refugee or even someone just released from prison.

"In my mind, it's not a huge leap to see how occupational therapy could help people re-engage in the important tasks of life after a natural disaster," she said. "If someone needs to be able to cook a meal without electricity, the context may look different from a patient who has left hemiparesis after a stroke, but what we do as OTs doesn't change that much. We find ways to help people change and adapt to their environment, find additional outside supports that may be available and help them call upon the strength that they have that they used in the past but may have forgotten in the present."

This story is the latest in a series called the Dean's Spotlight, featuring outstanding students in the College of Education and Health Professions. Visit COEHP's online magazine, the Colleague, for more news from the six units that make up the college. Visit the  Occupational Therapy doctoral website for more information on the graduate program.