Rehabilitation for burn survivors in Taiwan

For someone who sustained a severe burn injury,returning home after hospital discharge can be quite a challenge. Apart from having to do daily wound dressing changes, burn survivors are often limited in their ability to carry out daily activities like showering, putting on clothes, etc. Sunshine Half-Way House is a place where burn survivors can stay while undergoing rehabilitation at Sunshine Foundation and receive daily care services and independent living training.

Leaving one’s family for a group home can be difficult, but Sunshine Half-Way House has Chun-Mei, a Senior Care Attendant, who takes burn survivors under her wings and cares for them just like a mother would.

Chun-Mei herself is a burn survivor, she went through a period of distress and depression, then came to Sunshine to undergo rehabilitation and resided at the Half-Way House. There, she started to regain confidence in herself and eventually, after completing her rehabilitation, she joined Sunshine as a Care Attendant, undergoing rigorous formal training and receiving numerous professional accreditations.

For 19 years, she has accompanied the residents of Sunshine Half-Way House in their efforts to regain daily living independence. When new residents join the House, she’s the one who welcomes them and helps them familiarize themselves with their new environment. When residents are limited by scar contracture and deformities from doing things by themselves, she’s the one who helps them shower, brush their teeth and put on pressure garments. When residents see their physical functions improve, Chun-Mei starts to train them in regaining the ability to do things independently. Throughout, she gives encouragement and support, she listens to clients when they need to confide in someone, and offers a shoulder to cry on.

Chun-Mei's job is much more than housekeeping and helping clients with their personal needs. She wants to make clients feel like they are coming home. Seeing clients today: "I can understand their pain, because it reminds me of how I used to be." So she tries to make their living environment as comfortable as possible. She is also there to listen to them and share her own experience in the hope that it will bring them encouragement. As a burn survivor, her words often resonate more strongly with clients and she is happy when she sees the positive effect she has.

Although clients are away from their family and face many uncertainties, the motherly presence of Chun-Mei gives them a sense of stability, security and hope for the future.

Thanks to the support of donors like you, Sunshine Foundation can help burn survivors rebuild their lives so that like Chun-Mei, they can give back to others and pay it forward.