Sunday, May 24, 2009

So Your Practicum Is Under Missile Attack - How to count it for clinical hours

Next Tuesday, all of Israel will undergo a "missile attack" drill, in which an air raid siren will sound throughout the entire country. Depending on one's geographical location within Israel relative to Iran, determined to be the most imminent threat, one will have between zero seconds and three minutes to take cover. In Haifa, I will have 60 seconds to get to a "protected area", be it a bomb shelter, a protected room, a hallway, or "as far away as possible from both the windows and the border with Syria." in this respect, I am lucky - If I were 1/2 an hour north, I would have zero seconds, according to the Home Front Command. Unfortunately, I didn't get placed in Eilat, where they have 3 whole minutes before all hell breaks loose.

But wait.

It gets better.

Next Tuesday, at 11 am, I will be at my clinical placement, a school for nearly 100 children between the ages of 3-21 with cerebral palsy and other severe physical disabilities. Nearly all of these children are in wheelchairs, use walkers, or are otherwise totally non-ambulatory. In the school, the children and the staff will be on one of three floors at any given time. On each floor, an area has been designated as a "protected area" to which the staff must get nearly 100 non-ambulatory children under shelter from terrorist rockets.

In 60 seconds.

Please note that to get 40 children in to classrooms from the hallways or vice versa on a normal, non-drill day, can take anywhere from 30-45 minutes, when they're all cooperating.

They never all cooperate.

This Tuesday, in order to prepare for next week's exercise, the school is undergoing a test-run, where an announcement will declare a red alert, and the staff will , in under a minute, evacuate both themselves and the students to the therapy rooms (bottom floor), the hallways (main floor), and the bathrooms (top floor).

Feel free to place bets on the actual evacuation time from the red alert to the all-clear. I will announce the winner next week.

In case you find yourself in Israel next Tuesday and are at a loss as to what to do, here is a helpful video from the Home Front Command. It's dramatically translated: Make popcorn.

Or this helpful list, aptly named How to Behave in a Rockets or Mortar Attack, other than ducking for cover.

Now, the question remains: How to fill in the clinical hours form for the drill?
a) Pragmatics (in terms of helping children deal with transitions and disruptions to their day involving missiles - a challenge even for those of us without autism)
b) Audiology (in terms of hearing loss caused by air raid sirens)
c) Voice (depending on how much shouting occurs)
d) Ancillary hours (as your supervisor was on a different floor)
e) Kick yourself for not having taken the placement in Winnipeg, where the most imminent threat to the population is the mosquito.

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