LIH Olivia's Place » Lis Ringrose

Formal Assessments for 4!

OPadmin — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:09:15 +0000

Shanghai LIH Olivia’s Place worked together last month with a local cerebral palsy foundation to support a family with quadruplets diagnosed at birth with cerebral palsy. The family is from Anhui province and the four children are now almost 3 years old. Until now, they have had limited resources for assessment and therapy.

Lis Ringrose, Physical Therapist

On the morning of March 29, we warmly welcomed the family and CP foundation staff at Shanghai LIH Olivia’s Place. Our multi-disciplinary team had carefully planned for the visit over the previous two weeks. Speech Therapists Yi Lien and Shirley Zhou, Occupational Therapist Anna Tan Pascual, Physical Therapists Lis Ringrose and Zili Wang, and Counselor JingJing Du participated in the assessment. Led by Clinical Manager Dr. Becci Dow, the assessment of four siblings proceeded in a very orderly way and the children were immediately comfortable with our team. The whole family was relaxed, enjoyed the toys offered as part of the assessment, and interacted well with the evaluators.

The team used several formal assessment tools including the Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP), Rossetti Infant Toddler Language Scale, and the Preschool Language Scales (PLS-5) to gather information about the children’s development. After the assessment, the family’s therapy team met with the parents and the volunteer who accompanied them on their trip to Shanghai. The therapists provided advice on daily activities the family can do to help their children’s developmental needs. A formal written report will also be provided for each child.

A reporter from an Anhui TV station accompanied the family during their visit and interviewed our CEO, Nelson Chow, and the family’s therapy team. Video of the family’s time at LIH Olivia’s Place will be aired in Anhui in the future.

The post Formal Assessments for 4! appeared first on LIH Olivia's Place.

Run In Blue: Our Shanghai Team Turns Out to Support Autism Awareness

OPadmin — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 16:05:27 +0000

On a sunny Saturday morning, we gathered together at Shanghai Yichuan Middle School to run for raising awareness and supporting families with children with autism. “Run in Blue” was held on 9 April 2016, organized by Rotaract Club of Shanghai. Shanghai LIH Olivia’s Place was a sponsor of the event and many of our employees and their family were engaged very actively. The team insisted on running all the way, encouraging each other and working hard. It was a really fun and meaningful run which was enjoyed by all participants.

Cathy Xu, Marketing, Liam Zhang, HR, Sophia Guarracio, SLP, Angela Cooper, Psychology Intake Coordinator, ChiHui Yong, SLP, Lis Ringrose, Chief Therapy Officer/PT, Linda Wu, Operations, Becci Dow, Clincal Manager/Psychologist & Families of our Team

Linda Wu and her Daughter

At the Finish Line

Angela Cooper

Sophia Guarracino

Liam Zhang

YiFei, Daughter of Cathy Xu, Marketing

The post Run In Blue: Our Shanghai Team Turns Out to Support Autism Awareness appeared first on LIH Olivia's Place.

Promoting Lasting Change: How We Act on Our Mission

OPadmin — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 20:39:39 +0000

In addition to directly serving children and their families, another large part of our mission has always been to promote and further rehabilitation and therapy in China. There are a many ways we are working towards this. Since the merger of LIH and Olivia’s Place our efforts toward this goal have become more intentional and faster paced. Lis Ringrose, a long standing member of the Olivia’s Place clinical team, was appointed Chief Therapy Officer across the company. She is tasked with ensuring clinical quality across the company and also to coordinate the work needed to underpin the expansion of services. Through development of LIH Olivia’s Place’s services, we can build clinics that demonstrate how best practice rehabilitation can be achieved in China.

Another element of this work is to develop training and teaching programs to up skill locally qualified staff. (Rehabilitation professional qualifications – OT, PT, SLT – in China are only just starting to be taught to a depth standard that is internationally accepted.) Due to culture differences and the fact that these programs are designed to be used with already qualified clinicians, a different approach to that of a western undergraduate program is needed. Lis has put together a team of experienced clinicians from across each profession to develop a structure and write the content for this program. The plan is that these programs can then be used in hospitals across the country which want to up skill their staff.

This month we also welcome Dr. Susan Cadzow. In the position of Director of Developmental Behavioral Pediatric Services, Susan’s role will be to develop a parallel fellowship training program for doctors who want to specialize in developmental pediatrics.

These training programs, while focusing on the individual skills that each profession brings, also emphasize a family centered team approach. All professionals have the opportunity to be supervised by an experienced clinician of their own profession while in an environment where they can learn about and from the other professions.

To support this training structure, a teaching program is being developed for participants to learn about common pediatric presentations and treatment approaches in multi-profession teaching sessions. Teaching resources are being developed to enable use of this program outside of LIH Olivia’s Place in line with the company’s mission to effect change within rehabilitation across China.

The post Promoting Lasting Change: How We Act on Our Mission appeared first on LIH Olivia's Place.

International Cooperation Makes a Difference for the Smallest Babies

OPadmin — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 17:59:13 +0000

Lis Ringrose, Physiotherapist, Chief Therapy Officer, LIH Olivia’s Place

Xinhua staff practice new skills.

One of the longstanding mission areas of Olivia’s Place has been to impact therapy throughout China and it is an area that is close to my heart. Earlier in the summer I was privileged to be part of a team leading a professional development course at XinHua Hospital. The course was jointly led with Pacific University, Oregon, US and focused on care for babies born prematurely. We were able to provide the course for free through a grant secured by the university.

The course was divided into two parts. The first was online study with articles and teaching materials to be read and assignments to complete. This lasted for four weeks with an hour online discussion with the U.S.-based professors each week. The second part was a three day workshop. The university professors flew over for this. I helped with translation, cultural adaptation, and coaching during the practical elements of the workshop. It was so encouraging to watch the skills and confidence of the participating therapists grow as they first practiced on dolls and then older babies and finally the very small premature babies on the NICU. Having therapists work on NICUs in China is more or less unheard of and everyone had the sense that we were all part of something new and exciting for the therapy professions as well as for the children and parents. When we asked when they planned to use their newly learned skills, ‘tomorrow’ was the answer. As far as we know, they will be the first service of this kind in China.

The course was considered a success by those who both taught and learnt on it. A second is already planned for this fall focusing on another skill area. It can also be provided with no charge due to the grant. We already hope that these two courses may be the beginning of something bigger and even more therapists can continue developing their skills in the future.

The post International Cooperation Makes a Difference for the Smallest Babies appeared first on LIH Olivia's Place.

Olivia’s Place Speaks at Xinhua Hospital Conference

OPadmin — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 03:23:03 +0000

Lis Ringrose, Physiotherapist and Olivia’s Place Clinical Director, speaks on 24 Hour Postural Care at Xinhua Hospital.

Anna Tan Pascual, Lead Occupational Therapist, provides a demonstration for participants.

Olivia’s Place has been honored to receive a number of invitations of late to speak at academic conferences and training events around China. In September, Dr. Du Qing, the Chief Physician of Shanghai’s renowned Xinhua Hospital, invited Lis Ringrose, Clinical Director/Physiotherapist, and Anna Tan Pascual, Lead Occupational Therapist (Shanghai), and Nelson Chow, Founder/President to speak at a conference on rehabilitation medicine at Xinhua. Nelson shared with experts from all over China about the mission of Olivia’s Place and work we have been doing to help build up the fields of pediatric therapy in China. Lis spoke about 24 hour postural management and Anna spoke about evaluation and treatment of upper limbs for children. We are delighted to have these opportunities to fulfill our mission of bringing high quality pediatric therapy to China.

The post Olivia’s Place Speaks at Xinhua Hospital Conference appeared first on LIH Olivia's Place.