Group items tagged

Print out our checklist to use with your patients to help them develop individual stress management strategies. Click here to print now! Stress is a commonly under-recognized, untreated dimension of recovery, rehabilitation and medical intervention. While all patients seeking medical care experience stress, for individuals with disabilities the dynamics are not the same.

The checklist Richard mentioned is a great resource! Thanks Richard. I plan on using this in the future. :)

Great article about how to help our patients with chronic conditions manage stress that impacts their daily activities.  Personal stories of stress management coping skills and how to help our clients identify their personal triggers. This article has some great questions for patients to ask themselves when identifying their personal stress management techniques.

This article describes our current education system of one that is inclusive to students of all abilities while at the same time struggling to find money to support students who need assistive technology to learn. There are a few technologies that can be used in the classroom that are a little cost or even free. Included are 8 tools that can be used by students with disabilities that can be used in the classroom or in online classes. A link was supplied that will help you find out exactly what is needed for the individual student and a group that helps provide technologies to students. Overall, a great resource.

We could all use a little help with our documentation right? Found this link on pinterest with some great resources to help with our wording in our documentation. We want to sound professional and educated so we get billed right? This really helped me out some!

Awesome resource, thanks for posting. Documentation is something I have to pick up speed with and being able to use the right wording helps cut down my thesaurus time lol.

This helps, this is an area I am struggling with this semester!

This is a very interesting and informative article on the pre-prosthetic treatment OT gives a client. The client will be assessed by OT for things like ROM, scar management, pain, phantom pain and sensation, and desensitization. Client interview helps the practitioner choose a correct prosthetic. Always consider the psychosocial aspect. There are different things to consider if the amputation is unilateral or bilateral. The OT will help prepare the limb to wear the prosthetic. Mirror therapy can be used as a treatment option for phantom pain. The OT will help in ADL training, stump care, prosthetic care, and psychosocial care.

Another article discussing the importance of OT in burn recovery. It's shorter than others I found and discusses a few different areas.

When we first started talking about how OT can help burn patients I did not see how we could help. This unit, as well as this article, helped me to see how important OT can be to burn survivors. Hand therapy, splinting, self-care retraining, face and neck stretching, wound care, scar massage and functional improvement are all things we can help with. In addition, helping them get back to their roles in the community.

This is a very detailed article addressing edema reduction. I found it helpful because it did not just state ways to reduce edema but it always described the etymology of it as well. I found it helpful to read the etymology and get a good understanding of it because it helped me to better understand why these named techniques helped, instead of just taking someones word for it. Its not too long but contains very good information!

Although not curable, RA symptoms can be alleviated by the same relaxation and breathing techniques we have already learned. Cold and warm compresses can be used to help with inflammation and pain. Mind/body therapies have been shown to be of great help to those with RA. Progressive muscle relaxation, visualization, meditation, and biofeedback are all good techniques to teach our clients when traditional medications are not enough. Also, these techniques can be used in many other areas.

This is a tip sheet I discovered on the AOTA website.  It provides very useful tips for helping your older parent remain at home and age in place safely, as well as ways to approach the topic with them.  I really loved the idea of presenting home modifications as gifts. This tip sheet is of particular interest to me as my mother slowly descends into the world of Alzheimer's disease.

According to AOTA, almost 1 in 5 people over the age of 65 have survived cancer. Lymphedema, a secondary problem caused by cancer, is often not addressed by physicians. However, occupational therapy can address this issue and improve quality of life for these individuals. Just another very important way that occupational therapy can make a difference.

The growing number of people with cancer has increased the need to services such as lymphedema therapy, hospice, and palliative care. OT can help in so many ways. Who needs help "living life to the fullest" each and every day more than someone with such a grim prognosis?

This article talks about how cancer care and oncology is an emerging practice for OT. We help clients get control of their lives back by helping them gain or maintain function in their daily lives. Their lives aren't just about existence (fighting cancer) but about living.

I though this was a very helpful page describing what all should be included in an advocacy letter. Scroll down to "Preparing Your Letter," this is what I found to be helpful. Hope this can help someone else too!!

Great find, Miranda!

wonderful vidoe of a man who learned to live again through his strong will, help of his OT and family. Now he helps others...

Tips from OT practitioners helping families talk to parents and help older adults stay in their homes.

Food Choices will not act as a panacea for arthritis, but they can have a positive or negative effect on the condition. This article lists 10 foods that help and hurt someone with arthritis.

this is a neat interactive tool that you can use with senior (or any age) clients to help educate them about what safety hazards to watch out for and avoid in their home. It is a fun, visual way to show and tell the client about what to look for in the different rooms (living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom) in order to reduce the risk of falling. Something different besides a checklist.

just click on the "hidden hazards house" link to help Harold find the 26 hazards

This is a handy-dandy chart of a variety of assessments that OTs can use to help determine a patient's functional limitations and how those limitations may change over time. According to fairly new rules related to Medicare, OTs and other therapists must now include a G-code which helps documents changes in patients and gives Medicare decision making abilities about the patient's future services. Originally I was looking for the use of the Barthel Index in OT settings when I found this chart and recognized some of the other assessments as well. If you are especially interested in working with older patients, this chart could be helpful.

I really like charts. I just posted one above. Thank you!

Very handy! I had thought about posting a small chart and think I will now! Thanks Beth

information on how to treat burn patients

This website provides a lot of information about the types of treatment that are provided on an outpatient basis and from what I see is very OT related. It includes info on scar control and massage, pressure garments and how to put them on, therapeutic exercises including using the PNF technique, work hardening, common interventions, modalities, ADLs , and the different splints used and why they are used.

It covers the do's and don'ts of burn rehab as well as how to administer different exercises, garments, and scar massages.

I like this website because they post the latest news about the drugs that could treat some form of cancer. All information about cancer (types, treatment, prevention). From this website I found out that every 3th person in United States gets cancer. Also we can read how to live with cancer (coping skills, advice, medical research and information about palliative care). There are also recommendations on how an occupational therapist may help with assistive devices or adapted techniques to help you perform these activities easier. I thought this website was really educational and helpful.

This article is about a study that is being researched on a new type of skin for severe burns. It has not been approved by the FDA, but it was said that mostly like it will be. This new skin is a water based formula called hydrogel. Severe burns do a lot of damage, but "This treatment promoted the development of new blood vessels and the regeneration of complex layers of skin, including hair follicles and the glands that produce skin oil," said Sharon Gerecht. So if this new study is approved, it is going to be one of the greatest things invented!!!

I found this Hub about advocating for a group call "ASAP", (Ask a Sexual Advocacy Professional). Their intention is to have a "go to" place for advice or help for health care providers and/or anyone needing help getting their sexual needs met.

I hope I'm not the only one freaking out about job hunting in the future. I found this article that will help prepare us for job interviews with some sample questions. It is always good to be prepared.

This post comes from the same OT based blog from my last diigo posting, but with all of this resume/cover letter/job talk and coming up in the very near future, I wanted to share this post as well! It is very helpful. It goes into types of questions we may encounter in a job interview and how you should go about answering them! Very helpful info to add to our portfolio of info!