Group items tagged

Individuals experiencing mental health disorders are susceptible to impairments in occupational functioning due to decreased concentration, memory, thought processes, insight, judgement, decision-making, reality orientation, regulating emotions, understanding perception, motivation, and psycho-motor activity. This is a quantitative study out of the South American Journal of Occupation Therapy that studied the effects of slow vs. fast tempo of music on symptoms of psychosis during occupation. There were 160 individuals with diagnosed psychological disorders in a psych hospital in South Africa. The subjects participated in a leatherwork activity while listening to either fast paced/upbeat music or low tempo/slow music. Attention/focus, ability to follow instructions, directedness towards the activity, and motivation were measured in groups of individuals who had psycho-motor agitation or psycho-motor inhibition psychosis. The study found that listening to music during an activity has the ability to improve all three variables in both agitation and inhibited-motor psychosis. Fast-paced tempo significantly improves attention in individuals with inhibited motor-psychosis. The ability to follow instructions improved in both fast and slow tempo music for both agitated and inhibited individuals. Directedness and motivation did not significantly improve in any of the groups. This study indicates that music can improve the ability to perform occupations and activities in individuals with mental health disorders. Music is very individualized and it may be difficult for OT practitioners to work with groups of individuals when introducing music. IT is important for an OT to gather a good understanding of a patient's preferences and determine if they would be a good candidate for the use of music during therapy. More research is recommended in this area to further determine the effects of music on occupation in this population.

This article focused on the importance of having your heart, mind, and soul behind you and your profession in order to present professionalism within the occupational therapy field. The heart of professionalism in occupational therapy, focuses on doing Good Work and/or ensuring that what we are doing is right for us as well as improving another's life. The mind of professionalism in occupational therapy, this idea is centered around working to broaden the scope of knowledge within occupational therapy as well as providing EVP to your clients because they deserve more than the routine BUE exercises. Lastly, the soul of professionalism within occupational therapy, this involves collaborating with other individuals within the profession, critically evaluating, and brainstorming to ensure that the highest standard of practice is being used within the clinics. These three components are interwoven. Therefore, if one piece, the heart, mind, or soul is missing then the level of professionalism you portray decreases.

As we engage our hearts to do Good Work, strive to nourish our minds, and to cultivate the authenticity of our souls we can help make the field of occupational therapy stand out and be a pillar of professionalism. Wendy Wood's article is inspiring and is a good read to give you a little boost.

The author's purpose of this article was to promote professionalism as heart, mind, and soul at all level so that all we do in the name of occupational therapy not only remains right for ourselves and good for the world, but also grows more so over time. He described professionalism as especially important for the well-being of individuals or of society at large, having a value so special that money cannot serve as its sole measure: it is also simply good work. The author was captured by the magic of occupational therapy as a counselor at a summer camp for autistic children, which was a truly inspiring story about how he fell in love with the profession. He emphasized how personal professionalism is; so personal, in fact, that he uses the metaphors of heart, mind, and soul to depict its most vital elements. Any field claiming professional stature must be just as dedicated to cultivating its mind as it is to nourishing its heart, as the two are wonderfully symbiotic. I loved this article, and it truly depicted the meaning of and what it means to be an occupational therapist at a personal level.

This article aims to use a qualitative descriptive study to describe occupational therapists experiences and improvements in work after adopting the Occupational Therapy Intervention Process Model (OTIPM). The OTIPM is a client-centered, top down, occupation-focused OT model of practice. The assumptions of the model are that every person is unique, has the will to engage in meaningful occupations, occupations are the primary therapeutic means and engagement in occupations in the central focus in OT. The study was conducted in an acute care hospital in Sweden starting in 2001. They were selected because the therapists wanted to improve OT services and promote evidence-practice in their hospital. The participants participated in a total of six semi-structured focus interviews in which the occupational therapists were asked to describe their experiences of the long-term improvements in work, attitudes toward improvements work and thoughts on how this improved work impacts the goal to change to a more sustainable and evidence-based OT practice in their setting. The first three interviews were in 2006 and the last three were in 2011. The interviews were analyzed and broken down into common themes among therapists. The first theme is that the therapists found their thoughts and actions were transformed on an individual and group level after adopting the OTIPM. The second theme discovered how the therapists dealt with conflicting feelings and attitudes toward change. The final theme describes a shared professional culture. In conclusion, the investigators discovered from the 10-year study and testimonies of Swedish therapists that the use of OTIPM can lead to the integration of evidence-based knowledge that has long-lasting achievements in practice.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/11038128.2013.872183?journalCode=iocc20 I found the article through a SSU library search. The content may not show up on this site, but if you log into the library and search the article you will have access. Here is another resource as well.

In this letter to the editor in AJOT, an OT working in a mental health setting describes the difficulty of proving the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of OT in mental health. When asked to provide such evidence at her work place, even with the help of some of the prominent mental health OTs she was unable to find enough research. She makes a call for those interested in the mental health profession to begin to do more research in the area in order to protect OTs role in the setting.

This article highlights the increased pressure placed on occupational therapists to utilize evidence-based practice when working with patients. The main purpose of this article is to provide occupational therapy practitioners with the knowledge and skill sets to utilize evidence to support their treatment and provide the best possible care to their patients. According to the authors, evidence-based practice requires occupational therapy practitioners to synthesize their clinical expertise, with the best evidence available to them through systematic review, as well as considering their patients' values and preferences. This article presents a framework that occupational therapy practitioners can utilize in order to create a more evidence-based practice. The first step includes asking clinical questions and then searching the literature in order to discover answers to the question. When gathering research information the occupational therapists must then place the research in hierarchies, deciphering what studies are more reliable and valid and what studies will provide better support to answer your clinical questions. This part of the process includes critically appraising the research to decide which studies are strongest and have the most sound evidence to support the clinical question. Throughout the entire process it is important for the therapist to utilize their clinical judgment in order to make the best decisions, as evidence-based practice requires a collaboration between research, clinical expertise, and patient preferences.

Bennett, S., & Bennett, J. (2000). The process of evidence-based practice in occupational therapy: informing clinical decisions. Australian Therapy Journal. 47, 171-180 This is a very helpful article from the Australian Therapy Journal that describes the process of evidence-based practice in occupational therapy. It emphasizes the importance that our profession now has placed on building our foundation in evidence-based practice and how we must have "sound evidence" to back up our treatments and interventions. The article discusses the framework to use with evidence-based practice, clinical questions to ask in research and the types of evidence to focus on at this point in time for our profession. This is a very valuable resource for newcomers to the profession as well as individuals who graduated in the past without the research component who may be interested in research at this point in time. Bennett and Bennett (2000) walk the reader through how to search for evidence based practice articles and then how to critically appraise them. It addresses the clinical importance and validity and how to know when you have a good study. Finally, it helps you to gauge how to know when you can use the evidence for individual clinical decisions.

I found this article very helpful in understanding the usefulness in botox when working with patients, especially stroke patients, who have extreme spasticity in their upper limbs. This articles discusses the reliability and effectiveness in the use of botulinum toxin A when used in managing spasticity post stroke. The studies provided in this article support chemodenervation with botox A which helps with treating focal muscle over activity and spasticity post stroke. Botox A was most effective in the elbow flexors, ankle planter flexors, and intrinsics of the hand and wrist. It was noted that repeated injections of botox A resulted in longer waits between each injection without change in next dose. I found this useful when working at my site these past 12 weeks because I had a patient who had spasticity in L UE and recently received botox in L UE. The patient now how some grasp/release control and is able to initiate biceps in order to flex at the elbow.

In working in a school system with many COTA's, I am learning the responsibilities OT's have in supervising COTA's. I found these frequently asked questions about the responsibilities of OT's and COTA's in a school system and I think its something worth looking at if working in a school system. Unfortunately, these are through the state of Nevada board of OT. I tried looking up information on Ohio's responsibilities but could only find a PowerPoint, which I could not bookmark for Diigo. If interested further in OT and COTA's responsibilities, look into comparing the state of Nevada and Ohio's regulations.

This article describes the challenges that OTs face when treating the whole person in an acute care setting. It is difficult to have other disciplines understand in this setting that mental gains are just as important if not more important to work on in this type of setting. A recent pt had a stroke and was high functioning before...pt had been in inpatient rehab for two weeks and treatment sessions weren't improving d/t mental state. Pt got a decent discharge date and therapy goals were attained in no time!

This article from AOTA discusses the role of OT in palliative care and relates to the psychosocial needs of clients in this area. It examines the occupational therapy approach in meaningful occupations as holistic and client-centered which "fosters a sense of independence and self-efficacy amidst the challenges of living with debilitating symptoms. The ability to carry out activities of daily living (ADL) is an important goal for patients with life threatening illness, and also has implications for work, social life, relationships, and family and home structure." The article provides examples of intervention for clients in palliative care including, ADLs, IADLs, rest and sleep, play, leisure, social participation, and interpersonal. I think the interpersonal, leisure, and social participation aspects of OT in palliative care going along with clients psychosocial needs. Engaging clients in discussion, coping strategies, and encouraging communication among family members are essential roles of an OT in palliative care.

This article was located on AOTA's website. It is about the role of occupational therapy in palliative care. The article defines palliative care, occupational therapy, and how the two are connective. The areas of occupation are outlined, and the role of OT in these occupations. The author discusses the importance in not only providing physical comfort to clients in delivering palliative care, but providing psychosocial comfort as well. The article highlights meeting psychosocial and emotional needs of clients as well as families of clients and their caregivers.

This assessment is based on observation of a patient in a more natural environment/setting and looks at if they initiate expected activities such as, turning off appliances, closing doors when they leave, doing dishes, prepping dinner.. etc within 15 min of expected time. This is looked at and recorded each day of the week. In acute care this is just not very applicable, as we don't watch patients all day, every day of the week and the Vets are in an unfamiliar setting where they likely won't initiate such activities even if cognition is unimpaired. Even the activities that do occur in the hospital setting, such as eating lunch, don't apply very well because the score is acquired by adding up how they did each day of the week and it is not very practical to see a patient every day for the entirety of their lunch for a week straight. This may be a nice assessment for the nursing home to use in some instances.

This article discusses professionalism, and is a speech delivered diruing the 2010 Frances Rutherford Lecture in New Zealand. We as OT practitioners have the responsibility to promote and embrace the principles of our practice. We are responsible for how the public views our profession. Our actions should take root in the principle that taking part in occupations benefits the health and well-being of our patients. The author states that our professional responsibility is to always question and examine our role in healthcare, so that we can grow and practice in the most meaningful way.

This study aims to discover the impacts of an occupational therapy driving intervention with returning combat veterans. A single-subject design with three phases was used and conducted by a certified driving rehabilitation specialist. The three phases included a baseline pre-test, intervention with three 1-hr training sessions, and a post-test. Participants were recruited from several VA clinical in northern Florida. Inclusion criteria for participants included service in OEF or OIF, presence of a mTBI or orthopedic injury with PTSD, participation in driving prior to medical condition, valid driver's license residence in community, score of a least 24/30 on Mini-Mental State Examination. Outcome measures included the OT-CDRS and Optec 2500 for visual abilities, Useful Field of View for visual attention and processing speed, MMSE for general cognitive abilities, Trail-Making Test Part B for shifting, foot tap test for peddle control in car and right lower extremity ROM. One subject was selected and showed improvements in outcome measures. The subject showed improvements in visual search skills post-intervention. Patient also showed improvements in his appropriateness of searching skills post-intervention. Patient was also shown to improve on his on-road communication skills and recognition of need to inform other road users of intended actions. Although there were improvements in the veterans driving abilities, the threats to internal validity pose limitations to the study. The investigators intend to use data and address limitations in the hopes of conducting a random-controlled trial with more participants.