This month at our monthly member meeting we welcomed guest speakers and post-doctoral fellows in neuropsychology Maral Aghivinian and Lily Kamalyan to our monthly meeting where they presented on how the environments we live in can affect our brain health. Maral and Lily are co-founders of Meedk, an organization “dedicated to increasing knowledge, education, and research related to brain health among the global Armenian population.” Their presentation to our team of therapists was pertinent and informative.

Cognition plays a major role in a patient’s ability to access rehabilitation services and as therapists, PTs, OTs and SLPs must take this into consideration during our initial evaluation and throughout treatment plans. We often treat patients with cognitive differences or deficits due to acute brain injury or else chronic conditions, and we study the brain in order to better understand this. When it comes to studying the brain, we cannot separate the external factors from the internal ones. Our environment is one of the largest external factors we must consider and this presentation helped to highlight the many ways this can manifest in a patient. Thanks to Maral and Lily’s presentation, our team has some new food for thought to consider when it comes to addressing brain health!

Therapists for Armenia is excited to announce our new partnership with the Meghri Rehabilitation Center. Meghri is a town in Syunik Province bordering Iran, which is known for its picturesque, mountainous landscape and abundant persimmon and pomegranate trees. The distance from Yerevan and treacherous mountain roads make it difficult to reach Meghri, resulting in a substantial gap in rehabilitation services in the region. The opening of this new rehabilitation center will provide much needed services to the region and we are proud to be a part of this development.

We would like to thank Dr. Ara Babloyan and Dr. Gohar Khachatryan from Arbes Health Care Center for their support in this endeavor. We look forward to collaborating with these new clinicians and in turn supporting the population of Meghri.

Therapists for Armenia hosted our inaugural ECHO Session, featuring a collaborative case discussion using a real case from Armenia, presented by a physical therapist working with the patient. A multidisciplinary group of Physical Therapists (PTs), Occupational Therapists (OTs), and Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) from US and Armenia came together to discuss the case of a current pediatric patient. We reviewed the patient’s medical history, consulted with her therapy team, and shared educational resources, along with evidence-based strategies to supplement the current efforts. After the session, the specialists received a comprehensive report of all the recommendations made, which can be used to guide future treatment plans.

The ECHO Model is an evidence-based virtual education approach from the University of New Mexico. It enables health care providers from around the world to connect virtually and share their expertise through a case consultation model in which we discuss and problem solve a real case collaboratively. For providers in remote areas of Armenia access to evidence based practices can be limited, making it challenging to serve patients with multiple comorbidities and limited resources. The ECHO model offers invaluable support by connecting these providers with a network of experienced specialists—at no cost to them. These events are open to all specialists and students in the rehabilitation field.

For our first session we had an overwhelming turnout of 100 participants from every region of Armenia- that’s representation from all 11 regions! We also had great positive feedback with participants reporting a 66% increase in confidence to support children with cerebral palsy and 98% of participants said they will use what they learned in their own clinical practice. 

Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to the discussion. We look forward to seeing you all again at our next ECHO event this Spring.