My favorite part of the week is sharing some of the positive news and stories that I came across during the week. I hope these stories not only inform you, but also provides some good news that you can share with others. Here is some of what I found this week:
Occupational Therapy
AOTA works to prevent an up to 8% cut to outpatient occupational therapy services The tireless advocacy efforts of AOTA is amazing! Currently, AOTA is working with Congress to pass legislation to waive budget neutrality requirements that are negatively impacting outpatient occupational therapy reimbursement in the 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
Also, a new bill was introduced on June 11, 2020, the Outpatient Therapy Modernization and Stabilization Act which has two great provisions that would positively impact occupational therapy: (1) an exemption of the budget neutrality statute for the implementation of new reimbursement codes and (2) addition of occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology to the Medicare telehealth statute, which would allow these services to be provided by telehealth under Medicare after the current health care emergency waiver expires.
Thank you AOTA for advocating for our profession!
Strategy for writing numbers from a COTA. What a neat idea! Providing educators with strategies that consistently work is a great way to show the distinct value of occupational therapy. This would be a great tip to also teach parents to use with kids at home.
Myths about OT addressed! Are we all at the point where we automatically say, “We do not help people find jobs.”, when we say that we are an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant?! These responses give some great one to two liners that can quickly dispel many myths about occupational therapy.
Research
Honestly, looking at the index of each of these peer-reviewed journals catches you up to speed on new occupational therapy research…20 minutes tops to see what researchers are doing. Take another 20 minutes to read an article that piques your interest. That’s one hour to flex your evidence-based research muscle all day at work !
July/August 2020 Issue of American Journal of Occupational Therapy. I am going to break out of my physical disabilities and pediatrics box and read: Defining Occupational Competence and Occupational Identity in the Context of Recovery in Schizophrenia
List of articles from the most recent OTJR: Occupation, Participation, and Health. Two articles I look forward to reading: Validity of the Sock Test for Sitting Balance: A Functional Sitting Balance Assessment. and Independent Older Adult’s IADL and Executive Function According to Cognitive Performance.
Potpourri
10 ways to boost your immune system. It goes without saying that keeping our immune system at peak performance is important right now. These tips go a long way in keeping our immune system in top form to fight those antigens.
How to occupy kids when working from home. Support to give to parents to let their kids play!
Free advice from counselors in the areas of: Parenting Overload, Trauma Resurgence, Financial/Job Anxiety and Relationship Stress. The advice from each of these counselors is at most one paragraph, but still perfect. I would take their words and frame them. Their advice is applicable now and will be years from now.
Thanks for reading!
Have a great weekend!
Turquessa.
OT Research Corner 