Ending the week on a positive note…

The nice thing about occupational therapy practitioners is the versatility of our profession. Occupational therapy practitioners work in mental health facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, schools, and hand centers. The list can really go on if you include non-traditional sites such as community centers, transitional housing, or group homes. The list grows even longer if you begin to look at areas outside of the profession where our scope of practice brings something extra to the table. We do not see limits, we see possibilities.

I came across some great news of the work our colleagues are doing both within and outside of the profession. In each case, our scope of practice serves as a foundation to provide the best care possible to help others flourish. We are now at a time of thinking and doing things outside of the box out of necessity. We can prescribe this ingenuity in our work and community roles as well. Take some time and observe your surroundings and imagine the possibilities of what you could do with your training as an occupational therapy practitioner at work and in your community.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapist seeks council seat representing west Fayetteville Holly Hertzberg, an occupational therapist is seeking a council seat in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hertzberg’s platform is occupational therapy focused. The article notes, “… her greatest interest is in helping those with disabilities or economic disadvantages. Hertzberg also said she wants to promote active lifestyles with a variety of outdoor recreational options for all residents. She emphasized the need for playgrounds to be more inclusive for children with disabilities, such as sensory processing disorders or autism, and those with low vision or who are hard of hearing.”

Academic Minute: Occupational Therapy Mentoring for Adolescents Lorrie George-Paschal, professor of occupational therapy, details the progress achieved by adolescents in the juvenile drug court system. The outcomes from the support of the adolescents by occupational therapy, points to the benefit of occupational adaptation. Take 2 minutes for a quick listen of the benefits of this program with this population.

Houston Chronicle: How to fix your body six months into working from home Dr. April Cowan, a Houston occupational therapist who specializes in upper extremity conditions provides strategies for people to arrange their workspaces for optimal productivity and body movement. This Q & A format has some great tips that are easy to do to maintain optimal body posture when working from home.

Rehab process with coronavirus recovery The clinicians working in hospitals have a clear idea of the process when working with clients with coronavirus. However, there are some students that may be going on Fieldwork or other professionals that may be working with clients recovering from coronavirus for the first time. This video provides great insight into the process and the role of occupational therapy. There is also information on the roles of our physical therapy and speech therapy partners.

Research

NIH Inclusion Across the Lifespan II—On September 2, NIH is holding a free all-day virtual seminar that looks at evidence-based approaches to meeting the new Inclusion Across the Lifespan policy that went into effect in January 2019. The goal of the workshop is to provide evidence-based strategies for inclusion of pediatric, geriatric, and special populations in clinical studies. This seminar is being presented by NIH experts and will be a great learning experience.

Experience of Stigma Post Incarceration: A Qualitative Study This qualitative study researches stigma with post incarcerated individuals. Four themes emerged that impacted stigma: internal perceptions, external perceptions, family systems, and community systems. The researchers not only provided the thoughts and perceptions of the participants that led to the stratified themes, they also provided background information such as pre-incarceration employment, gender, years incarcerated, and length of time since release of each participant. This demographical information adds another layer of understanding to the study participants, which aids with understanding the outcomes of this study. Reading this article is also a learning experience in qualitative analysis. Great article!

Evidence for your Practice: Early physical and occupational therapy in mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients For the acute care therapists who provide much needed therapy to ICU clients, the results of this study supports your work! Increased independence, decreased delirium, and better outcomes at hospital discharge.

AOTF Fellowship and Scholarship

The American Occupational Therapy Foundation is a guiding force in supporting occupational therapy research. Below are two funding sources with quickly approaching deadlines, September 1!

If you have started, do not forget to submit! If you are thinking about it, see if you are able to make this weekend the time you completed the application that funded your research.

Nedra Gillette Endowed Research Fellowship This one-year award of $5,000 does not have any specific restrictions on its use other than it must support the research efforts of the postdoctoral fellow.

Dr. Gary Kielhofner Doctoral Research Scholarship in Occupational Therapy $5000 dedicated to establishing a research agenda to impact the advancement of science for the field of occupational therapy in focused areas such as addressing social justice, extensions of theoretical foundations of occupational therapy, including client-centered, occupation-based innovations and methods to use existing data, testing measures, or intervention approaches.

In case you missed it, another OT Research Article Spotlight has been added to the blog, summarizing the differences of visual perceptual and fine motor skills of children who use tablets and those that do not. Interesting finds and intervention strategies based on results. Summary can be found here: Differences between preschool children using tablets and non-tablets in visual perception and fine motor skills.