Happy Juneteenth! On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, freeing slaves, a pivotal point in the Civil War. The Civil War ended April 9, 1865. On June 19, 1865, the Union soldiers made it to Galveston, TX, a border state, with news that the Civil War had ended and that all slaves were free. So, today we celebrate this important day in Black history.
I recently found this picture above on Mellody Hobson’s Twitter feed and I could not agree more!
There are important movements that are occurring today in our world. People are making their voices heard to impact change, which is an important part of our democracy. But change is hard and difficult to achieve. It can be challenging to find occupational and mental balance during this time. Part of finding that balance starts with keeping abreast of what is occurring in the world to understand your role to help impact change. But it is also important to step away from the stories when it gets overwhelming to take a breath and refill your cup, which are also important components to being involved. Hopefully, these stories can help to refill your cup to help with getting back to the important tasks at hand.
This week, I found some great stories related to occupational therapy, research, and in general for my Ending the week on a positive note segment. Without further ado, here are those stories:
Occupational Therapy
COTAD Book Club—I do not think there was ever a book club I didn’t like. The Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD) is having their first book club! Details can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBhU5bWhujh/ The first book up for discussion: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I have borrowed the e-book through Overdrive: https://www.overdrive.com/ and cannot wait to ‘meet’ to discuss this story!
AOTA Practitioner Well-Being Decision Guide—this is so timely. Practitioner burnout can be an issue in these times of multiple roles, responsibilities, and restrictions. You cannot pour from an empty cup is something that I hear quite a bit. AOTA has made available a Decision Guide on Practitioner Well-Being to address the very real issue of acute stress and anxiety with practitioners : https://www.aota.org/~/media/Corporate/Files/Practice/Health/Addressing-Acute-Stress-Anxiety.pdf The entire document is great. But, I especially love page 2 that has a concrete checklist to show signs of burnout, page 9 that has a flow chart of things to avoid, address, limit, and plan with addressing your time, and pages 11 and 12, which has a concrete plan to help with planning your time with examples. Take the necessary steps to prevent the overwhelm.
Occupational Therapy Practice Framework, 4th edition—coming to an AJOT near you in August 2020, the new OT Practice Framework! Per @AOTA, this new Framework, features, “…an increased focus on group & population clients, cornerstones of OT practice, & expanded examples of practice.” The link to the document can be found here: https://twitter.com/AOTAInc/status/1273002424354119682 You do have to be an AOTA member to access the document. But, being a member has many, many benefits such as supporting AOTA’s advocacy efforts with insurance companies (they read 300+ legislative documents so we don’t have to), access to OT Practice and AJOT, and access to a plethora of OT documents that guide practice. It is best $18.75 a month I spend!
Research
Teaching Millennials—What are the most effective ways to teach today’s OT student?Teaching Millennials in OT Programs provides some insight. Is active learning and peer collaboration the way to teach today’s OT student? Read and see what the research says!
Future research—Research has shown that spirituality is an area that impacts client outcomes (Naghi, 2010), however, there is uncertainty with the best methods of addressing spirituality in occupational therapy practice (Taylor, Kenan, & Tacker, 2000; Morris, Stetcher, Briggs-Peppler, Chittenden, Rubiro, & Wismer, 2012). The role of occupational therapy practice with spirituality has always intrigued me. So, it was great to see this survey that is researching how occupational therapy practitioners understand and address spirituality in their occupational therapy practice across settings: OT and Spirituality If you are an OT practitioner, take a few minutes to help the group out!
June 2020 Table of Contents of British Journal of Occupational Therapy:
https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/BJO/current There are some great research outcomes being presented this month. Choose one from your practice area and one outside your practice area and give it a read. It is always a great idea to keep up with what is new in OT research to guide practice. I will review these two: Places visited for activities outside the home after stroke: Relationship with the severity of disability. and Grip strength and pen pressure are not key contributors to handwriting difficulties in children with developmental coordination disorder. Bonus: the second article is open access!
Potpourri
This tagline is everything: https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1273012531183919107
Plant-based pantry on a budget tips from Harvard Health Publishing, yes please: Plant-based on a budget
Advice to the class of 2020 from frontline works: Frontline workers give advice to the class of 2020 So nice to read the advice provided by these essential workers.
I hope you have a great weekend!
Turquessa.
OT Research Corner 