MedWorm: Occupational Therapists

Blast from the past - OT, Evidence-based

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:02:00 +0100

http://otstudents.blogspot.com/2010/05/evidence-based-practice-practitioner.htmlI was in a Google+ video chat meeting tonight with Anita Hamilton, Cheryl Morris, and Christopher Alterio tonight (Army OT guy was absent - something about this thing called a Super bowl??? ;)) - we are presenting at the AOTA conference in Indiana in April, on the Saturday morning, about social media, so we are getting our ducks in a row....we hit quite a few different topics and it suddenly occurred to me that it was ANITA HAMILTON who had once called me out on not presenting myself as evidence-based! I went back and re-read the exchange that took place and I felt like doing a blast from the past, because she spoke again today of "learning out loud" and how it takes a brave person to do that. I love ...

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Practitioners around NY State begin learning about EI reform proposals

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:08:00 +0100

Earlier this week I noticed a large uptick in Google searches regarding early intervention that were landing on this blog so I started wondering what was going on. Turns out that there was a NYS Association of Counties meeting this week and the Department of Health gave a powerpoint presentation about the Governor's proposal. Copies of the powerpoint started to make their way around the State - and that got people doing some Internet searches for more information. Here is a link to the presentation for those who have not been able to see it yet.The powerpoint doesn't offer information that is materially different than what is already listed in the proposed budget but it is in a more readable format.The largest issues proposed include:1. Providers will be approved through the Department of ...

Whooie, these are the days of our OT lives...

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:57:00 +0100

A lot has been going on in my personal life lately and it's um, to put it mildly, SUCKED. Some of it's in the private personal realm that I won't share here, but the other part I can share, which makes me very sad, is that my grandmother was put on hospice. I hope to be able to use some of my OT tricks to help ease her time left! I am going to go see her Saturday or possibly Sunday. Grandma was my best friend when I was a little girl and I've always been close to her. Going to work has been tough lately because I've been so sad about her + the other stuff, the teachers have noticed I'm really down. I had a total meltdown on Tuesday, but at recess time in my room so no kids saw me. The kids don't notice because I can be cheery to them, but in the between times I&...

Pain reduction doesn’t (always) reduce disability

HealthSkills Weblog — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:23:39 +0100

The relationship between pain and disability is a particularly vexing one in primary care. It would be great if it was possible to get rid of pain and be assured that any lingering effects on function would be similarly abolished, but it just doesn’t seem to be quite that simple. Many different approaches to managing this situation have been suggested. One is to argue that people should be referred for a quick pain reduction injection – for those who have pain that is thought to respond to this approach. Another is to just “reassure” and review often. And still another is to provide a cognitive behavioural approach usually reserved for those referred to a secondary or tertiary treatment centre. For several reasons I find the first and second options above not partic...

'Non Traditional Fieldwork' runs face first into proposed New York State regulations

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:05:00 +0100

My sensitivity for the challenges of being an Academic Fieldwork Coordinator runs quite deep; I held that position at a college for three years and experienced the difficulty with finding student placements. There never seems to be enough fieldwork placements, there are challenges with finding places that will provide a quality experience for the student, and although there have been efforts to incentivize practitioners to take students that does not overcome the practical obstacles.The repeating theme that the occupational therapy profession is not yet grasping is that there has to be some kind of understanding that services provided by students are not the same as services that are provided by licensed professionals. This has been a recurring theme for Medicare reimbursement of services ...

always new things

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:12:00 +0100

This is just a stream of consciousness of stuff I've been doing/thinking lately. I have 262 NEW!! mails in my gmail box I haven't even touched and about 400 I need to deal with. I've just been extra super demotivated lately, which is uncool considering I am helping present on social media in a few months at the April conference! Thanks for all the kind words. :) I recently found some tiny clothespins that came in a travel kit for sewing, so I had to buy it of course. Today I used yarn to make a clothesline between two chairs, then I had a child rip out a single page at a time from a magazine i found in the recycling bin (with prompts to only get one page, and to rip the page out appropriately), then fold it in half (prompts for that too), then use a clothespin to pin it to the ...

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Are three hour autism training courses helpful?

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:22:00 +0100

I received an email today from an agency that provides three hour training courses on autism required by the NY State Office of Teaching Initiatives (OTI) for all candidates seeking a Special Education Classroom Teaching certificate. The three hour course is popular because it is frequently used by CSEs as a training mechanism for educational staff who are working with children who have an autism spectrum diagnosis.I think the intent here is good - many professionals and paraprofessionals who work in special education may not have a lot of information about specific conditions and presumably anything that provides some information might be helpful.Parents who come to my office often verbalize frustration that the aides or classroom staff in schools are not adequately prepared to understand...

Understanding upcoming changes to early intervention and preschool services, Part 1

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:35:00 +0100

This report was submitted to the Medicaid Redesign Team last year to provide input about the unsustainable increasing costs of these programs.Mandated Medicaid costs are crippling County budgets, and have been for many years. Most recently the State entered into a settlement agreement with the Federal Government often referred to as the State Plan Amendment. This settlement is the contract between New York State and Federal government whereby the State agrees to administer the Medicaid program in accordance with Federal law and policy. This agreement imposed backdated requirements that made it virtually impossible for Counties to receive payments for services that should have been reimbursable as they were compliant with rules in place at the time. This placed a very large strain on this ...

wow, blogging massive fail

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:46:00 +0100

I have 158 new mails in my email box :( that i havent even seen. Literally over a 100 + from blog readers that I have read but not yet responded to. Just okayed 15 comments today. I am a blog FAILURE lately. My personal life is a little different these days so I've not been home nearly as much! BUT this week I should be home quite a bit so I hope to get caught up on blog e-mails and product reviews.... This week I have a triennial and two initial OT evaluations, but actually my schedule isn't too horrible with evaluations/reports for a few weeks (for once) which is nice. :) Normally it's pretty slammed and I'm frantically trying to get evaluations done in between treatment times etc. Lately I've been running to 3 schools a day. I know many districts have OTs that work i...

HWT Webinar

Occupational Therapy Notes — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:14:00 +0100

I've enjoyed using the Handwriting Without Tears products this year at school. In case you aren't aware, they are offering a few free webinars that may be helpful to your practice. I have signed up to attend the Response to Intervention one since that is a concept I am still learning about and would like to see develop more in our district. It is being given by 2 OTs, and while it does not specifically say so, there's no reason that it shouldn't count for continuing education on some level, just check through your state guidelines when submitting. I like to pass on good CE resources, and especially those that are free and appear to have some thought put into them, since unfortunately "you get what you pay for" in many free courses. Hopefully this one will be well done, there's no reason it...

Gratitude when you’re in pain? You’ve got to be kidding!

HealthSkills Weblog — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:57:13 +0100

Or – introducing the “parent of all virtues” (Wood, Joseph & Linley, 2007). For some time now I’ve been exploring the contribution of positive psychology on wellbeing in people with chronic pain. Positive psychology is the ” scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive”. (Seligman, ND). It strikes me that in chronic pain management, we’ve responded to the issues raised by people who don’t “live well” with their pain, leaving the group of people who do cope well largely ignored. We have much to learn, I believe, from those who have faced their situation and either been stoic – or in a surprising number, grown from their experiences. Some excellent resources in the fie...

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Occupational Therapy Notes — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:11:00 +0100

After a few wondrous days of ease in December, I made the transition to a new caseload. I say "made," but clearly I am still only "making" a transition. Jumping up from pre-K to teaching cursive writing and higher level praxis skills has been fun, but definitely an adjustment. I would like to have a time machine to go back and tell Miss Wilson that I would someday be helping others learn cursive handwriting- she might faint from the shock! I used a dodgeball on Friday for praxis skills, teaching novel dribbling drills I haven't done since high school. I also reinforced that if you want to really impress a young child, you should give them a behind the back pass. Kids eat that up. :)I had a kid who was having a bad day, really slumped in his desk and didn't want to come to therapy on his fi...

Tear down the wall: Broken models of mental health service delivery

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:52:00 +0100

I have a longstanding interest in Systems and their impact on our ability to care for people. In 2005 (I can't believe I have been blogging that long) I wrote a blog entry about foster care policy and its impact on occupational therapy.I try not to get outraged on a daily basis because it makes it a little challenging to maintain focus. If you think about foster care too much though it is hard not to get a little upset.These Systems are populated by well intentioned and kind people who have to do yeoman's work to make the System run. The problem is not with the well intentioned and kind people who work within these Systems - the problem is with the System creators who have set up a structure that in my opinion fails to meet the needs of the people being served.That's not so good.Mental hea...

Yikes

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:38:00 +0100

I've been playing for the last two weeks of break!! Have not done anything good!! Like get ready to start back at work on Tuesday! Yikes tons of evaluations coming up to work on. Anyway, will try to get back into blogging as I get back to work! I have 233 new mails though :x yikes. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

2011 Pushback against Fad OT Interventions

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:20:00 +0100

Another significant theme in my 2011 forum conversations was pushing back against fad OT interventions. I think that it is an important enough topic to be re-posted here.Some of the fad and pseudoscientific interventions that I discussed in forums this year included therapeutic listening and other auditory interventions, deep pressure protocols (brushing programs), weighted vests, and Brain Gym.Fad interventions were relatively common in health care until research came along - and now we have mechanisms to test and see if people's 'ideas' about something hold up to any scrutiny. One posting asked about the validity of 'astronaut training' which is something that I get phone calls about in my private practice. I tried running database searches on 'astronaut training' and 'vestibular-visual ...

The 2011 Social Justice Debates in occupational therapy

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:20:00 +0100

I wondered this morning how much writing I have done on various OT message boards and I started thinking that an awful lot of my opinions are probably documented all over the Internet. I visited the forums on the AOTA website and found the equivalent of over 40 single spaced pages of my writing! Then I thought it might be interesting to see what motivated me to post on professional forums this year. Here is a summary of one interesting forum conversation:The Social Justice DebatesEarly this year there was a motion to rescind part of newly adopted AOTA ethics statements; the concern was that they unnecessarily referenced social justice concepts and that the existing ethics statements already covered that conceptual material and did so without politically charged terms like 'social justice.'...

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Photo Phriday- creative style

Occupational Therapy Notes — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:25:00 +0100

I have always liked the idea if the SticKids program for making sensory plans and handouts, and now I actually get to use it! While I do have some issues with how the SticKids software works, I still think they make my job easier with the products I can create for students. Sometimes though, only your own picture will do. (this was an activity we had safety tested in the classroom) (Source: Occupational Therapy Notes)

Photo Phriday: Mat Man

Occupational Therapy Notes — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:09:00 +0100

I love the Handwriting Without Tears products (fortunately my district has plenty) and the concept of Mat Man particularly. I think there is a huge advantage to be gained in spatial awareness, prewriting, and body awareness from teaching Mat Man. There's even a cute online game that even includes the song (requires a free login). I've used the manipulatives and drawing sheets for individuals and groups of preschoolers this fall. Here's some photo results from kids who used the manipulatives or interactive game first and drew pictures onto frames second. I love the repetition to cement the ideas, and the progressively more empty drawing frames to chain the task.This drawing is by a child with autism in a 3 year old classroom with just a few prompts for parts. She drew fingers independently....

Fwd:

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:17:00 +0100

I LOVE hair tinsel and I have been getting it put in for months...I got red, green, and gold for Christmas....my OT kids (and some grown-ups) love it too.....anyway, some of the cute comments:from passing by second grade girls: "I love your bling bling!" from a kindergarten boy: "where did you get that sparkly stuff?" "can you buy me some? from a first grade girl, tentatively, after observing my hair bling and glitter eyeliner while I was observing in her class: "Were you in the Nutcracker?" awwww....lolYou could argue it's not professional but it's for the most part subtle (it looks extra sparkly in the picture because of the lights in the salon), and for another, I work in elementary schools! I remember as a kid always being drawn to the colorfu...

Lava Letters: Sizing/Line Orientation Game for Handwriting

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:41:00 +0100

See attached. You should be able to print these out as full pages. It needs to be in color. The amazing Tonya Cooley of TherapyFunZone.com fame created these for me based on the game I explained on this blog previously. I have been using a version of this all fall and without fail, all my little guys have improved their handwriting....can't say for sure there is a correlation but I like to think so. ;) Rules:1. Bumblebees live above the sky and if you write something that goes above the sky (NOTHING ever should be up there), bees attack it. 2. Lava is that middle red line. Baby letters should never go above it (ie a, e, o, r, etc). "Tall letters" such as h, k, l as well as capital letters have lava proof suits so they can go above the lava. If a baby letter goes above the lav...

Simulations of Learning Disabilities

Occupational Therapy Notes — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:55:00 +0100

It can be very difficult to understand what it's like for a child with a learning disability to participate in classroom activities, especially for a child who can't articulate all they are dealing with. I find it hard sometimes to plan treatments for kids to address some compensation methods or remediation of skills since I am still getting my feet wet. It's also hard to see preschoolers with simultaneous severe physical, visual, and communication impairments as they struggle to pick up on concepts such as identifying themselves, choosing an object, using a switch, etc. Some kids work EXTRA hard to learn, and if you were a good student and good at understanding the system (playing the game, as my Dad said) it's hard to see how something so easy for you can be so hard for someone else. So ...

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Photo Phriday!

Occupational Therapy Notes — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:54:00 +0100

So I finally got some pictures off my phone! Here are some OT-related pics that you may find amusing. It's totally unnecessary for parents to tally scoresheets themselves, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it! Can you tell this backpack belongs to a pediatric OT? This is an awesome dragon puppet that has a multitude of fasteners along his tail. Everyone loves Danny Dragon. This is a shot of the beading dowel. The little guy who did this had no problem matching colors but was just randomly lucky on getting the right shape (30% or less, all trials. Pretty sure that was the only purple bead too). This is a picture that the students made after reading "Dog's Colorful Day" where Dog encounters 1 different colored blob during each part of the adventure. Can you tell which child worked ...

What to do when a patient is “inconsistent”

HealthSkills Weblog — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:30:59 +0100

I’m a practical person, despite occasional flights of fancy dreaming of a health service that really integrates a biopsychosocial approach for pain management, sigh… Anyway, my intention with this short series of posts about “faking” and “inconsistency” is to: point out that pain is personal and subjective and because of this, we can’t know what it’s like to have another’s pain make it clear that pain and impairment and nociception and disability are not equivalent, so we shouldn’t be surprised when inconsistencies are present across various measures move detection of fraud (malingering or faking for financial gain) out of the health arena help clinicians know what to do when a patient is “inconsistent” – in a w...

Phew!

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:41:00 +0100

Challenging day done. :)Some recent events I have discovered/learned/have occurred/whatever. My black cat is providing moral support as I write this by sitting next to me purring with one paw on my chest. *Angry Birds with a therapy swing: Take one therapy swing. Take stacked cardboard boxes with "pigs" (we used lightweight small balls) hidden within the boxes. Take one weighted ball of a few pounds dependent on kid's age. Have kid on stomach in therapy swing and throw weighted ball at cardboard boxes. (We had a few other lightweight things stacked in too, so it made noise). Explosion! As always, try this at your own risk, I take no responsibility if things go awry as you need to use common sense on how safe it is with your particular swing, child, weight, etc. It was quite p...

"It's going to be very, very exciting." Not.

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:07:00 +0100

I don't mince words, mostly because I lack time to do so and secondarily because I lack interest in political correctness. Let's talk straight about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.For some background and additional reading on the debacles that occur when government intrudes into health care decision making click on the 'health insurance' topics in this blog.At the 2010 Legislative Conference for National Association of Counties, Nancy Pelosi made her now famous remarksYou've heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don't know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pa...

Fwd:

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:03:00 +0100

Here is my worm/lava/bumblee paper. Basically The blue line is sky and the brown line is dirt which is like the sky/grass/dirt paper already out there. The middle line is lava and it burns baby letters that go too high, ie a, e, r. Worms live under the lines and attack letters that go below the line that shouldn't (but they love tail letters like g, y, p, and get mad if the tail doesnt go below the line), bumblebees live on top of the lines and sting if you go too high. Sounds complicated but the kids grasp it quickly.So in the following sample, "My name" is perfect. the "i" in is went too high - above the lava - and got burnt up, ouch. The "s" in is went too low and got attacked by worms (I usually say something like augh!! worm party!!). Then the "B" is too high and got stung by bumblees...

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Visual Motor Freebie

Occupational Therapy Notes — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:35:00 +0100

I found this I Spy sheet on Scribd which can be downloaded for free. Some of the images are a little odd, but whatever. I added a document on Google Docs (here) which has a list of the items in the sheet (notations about which ones look a little odd and might be hard to identify) and has a few searches listed out to better make it into an activity. There's a screen to check the 4 quadrants, a listing of animals, and a few common letters listed out. Happy visual hunting! (Source: Occupational Therapy Notes)

Moving into winter

Occupational Therapy Notes — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:51:00 +0100

I'm coming up on my third month of being a school therapist and a homeowner, and had a few other interesting things happen recently. Here's a bit of a recap. I was feeling very over my head in the past 2 months about the conference presentations I had applied to do. I had my usual procrastination battles and feelings of not being qualified for one reason or another, really kinda getting down about it all. In summary, I was a lot more excited about presenting when I signed up in the spring than when it came time to present in the fall. But things turned around and I think they both went over well. I talked about some options when beginning a pediatric practice in a hospital based on my Baltimore experience getting mentored in the NICU, newborn nursery, pediatrics and antepartum units. I ha...

wow, so behind on OT life

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:16:00 +0100

Hi lovely readers,Wow, I so desperately need to catch up this blog. I have lots of new ideas/activities to share + some sweet stories, etc. Unfortunately I've been running around like crazy. December is a rough month. One of these days I'll get to it!!! I think of my blog with longing almost every day and all the things I need (okay want) to share!!! (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

The role of the occupational therapist in carpet cleaning

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:10:00 +0100

Jimmy was especially active and his mom was having a really difficult time keeping him occupied while she filled out his intake paperwork. His mom was a little frazzled as Jimmy darted around the room, jumped onto the chairs, pulled on the curtains (pulling them off the rod!), and banged on the windows. I intervened at the window banging for safety reasons and as I gently redirected Jimmy he lunged for his mom's coffee, and with a spray of cappuchino across the carpeted waiting room he finally paused."Oops," he said, as his mom gave him The Stare. Jimmy froze.Mom froze too, and after surveying the mess she excused herself to the bathroom. I stayed with Jimmy who suddenly realized he was supposed to be sitting quietly.Mom returned with some paper towels. The unfinished paperwork sat on the ...

Pinterest occupational therapy ideas :)

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:28:00 +0100

http://pinterest.com/funkist/ot-ideas/I updated my Pinterest.com account with a bunch of new pediatric OT ideas..check it out... (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

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Etsy occupational therapy gifts or ideas

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:01:00 +0100

I used to search Etsy for OT regularly adn nothing would pop up but now there is plenty! Great place to find presents, or get inspiration to make your own OT stuff to sell, etc... :)http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?search_submit=&q=occupational+therapy&view_type=gallery&ship_to=US (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Catching up on OT life :) LOOOOVE occupational therapy!

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:46:00 +0100

So I have two new things I've been doing a lot lately. One is "High Five". I remember reading a (fictional) Emily Giffin book about a child who was severely burnt - she had OT in the hospital. The mom recounts how one of the doctors or something got the child to give her a spontaneous high five and she deliberately put her hand up high - the daughter put her hand up higher than they could ever get her to do in therapy, to deliver the high five. Because it was a joyful spontaneous act. So I've started doing spontaneous high-fives but with a twist....I immediately go into "high four, high three, high two, high one, high zero!" where I manipulate my fingers into the various numbers (ie high four is the four fingers with the thumb in the palm...high three are the th...

Thoughts about use of weighted vests to promote attending behaviors in children

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:12:00 +0100

Please reference an entry earlier this year about seat cushions. I am essentially re-posting that earlier entry but replacing 'seat cushions' with 'weighted vests.' Let me start this post with congratulations for Amy Collins and Rosalind J. Dworkin who wrote an excellent article in this month's American Journal of Occupational Therapy.Here comes some mildly edited cutting and pasting from the previous entry - and I will take the liberty of copying my own writing because the issue is identical and this entry will likely be searched separately than the seat cushion entry!I encourage everyone to open up the current American Journal of Occupational Therapy and read 'Pilot Study of the Effectiveness of Weighted Vests.' This is a fantastic article that looks at the issue of whether or not weight...

“Faking” pain – and inconsistency in presentation

HealthSkills Weblog — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:53:11 +0100

There is a common belief amongst some people involved in pain and pain management that a person with chronic pain should be consistent in their presentation. That is, be consistent in various settings, and consistent across various measures. This assumes that if inconsistencies are present there must be something going on to cause suspicion about the validity of the person’s presentation. Returning to yesterday’s post, I discussed the distinction between nociception (activation of receptors in the nervous system), pain (the experience produced by the brain once it has interpreted the nociceptive action), disability (the changes in functional performance attributed to the experience of pain), and impairment (tissue changes). These are not the same! Today’s post refers ...

Keychain Connect 4

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:34:00 +0100

The kids think my tiny Connect 4 is the cutest thing EVER and they love it....it's insanely tiny, see how its smaller than this 1st grader's hand?Notice the child is using his middle finger instead of index finger....this tends to be typical of kids who have some fine motor issues......the middle finger is technically more aligned with the thumb and therefore a little easier for these kids, but ideally we want them to switch to their index finger as that is, biomechanically/anatomically, a better fit......I should be able to spout off musculature and stuff, but uh, I've been out of school too long. Better go review my Benbow stuff lol. I need to go work on yet another report......one of these days I promise to get to all my blog comments and emails. I do love my job and I love ...

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OT inservice

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:30:00 +0100

I did the fine motor component of our inservice! We also had a handwriting area, self-regulation, and sensorimotor break component with our 4 district OTs. :) I had lots of toys out to fiddle with! Everyone was drawn to my table for the toys although the other tables did AN AMAZING AWESOME job.....The 30+ instructional assistants who took the inservice were very complimentary of all the stations. :) (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

The vexed question of determining whether pain is “real”

HealthSkills Weblog — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:24:29 +0100

Every now and then the old chestnut of whether it’s possible to determine if a person’s pain is “real” arises. Usually it’s in the form of an insurer, or maybe an employer, who wants to know if the pain this person is describing can possibly be as bad as the person says because “they don’t look like there is anything wrong” “there are these inconsistencies” “it’s taken too long for them to recover” “they’re not participating in their rehab” For the avoidance of doubt, I have not been able to identify any readily available test or technology that can reliably determine what another person really experiences. More than that, I’m not sure that it’s helpful in clinical practice to try ...

Where did my blog mojo go?!

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:06:00 +0100

I still haven't done my three product reviews even though I keep it all next to me in my room so I am constantly staring at it, and I like them all, and I haven't blogged about the OTAC conference, etc etc....and I have over a hundred blog emails or comments to respond to. Wow. Yikes. FORGIVE ME :::flings self to floor::: I am in the midst of ten thousand evaluations with a lot of late night report writing .......is that a good excuse? I have two reports I am going to try to write up tonight so that I am not up so late on the week days....plus I've had several parents request a lot of information about certain interventions so need to gather that up, plus score a DTVP-2, etc etc.......blah blah blah. My cats are not impressed. I'm going to go shower then come back and start...

love it

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:33:00 +0100

My coworkers at this particular school (I am here every Thursday), brought me pastries last Thursday to celebrate my birthday (which was over fall break), but I was sick. So they brought cookies today (M&M chocolate chip cookies, homemade), and they had my kids sing "Happy Birthday, Miss Awesome" to me and then we all got cookies....soo sooo soo sweet! Loved it! Love my job, love my co-workers. PS: Yesterday was FREAKING INSANE schedule wise! I am so tired. I want to go into more depth later. But just wanted to send a quick YAY for now ;) (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Wooo!

Occupational Therapy Notes — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 01:10:00 +0100

Ben, AKA OTA_Stolinski is the winner of the Dycem giveaway! Congratulations! I see a turtle mat in your future! Email me at otnotes at gmail. I will definitely consider doing more giveaways in the future, (should I have items to do that with) but hopefully there will be more legitimate comments and fewer advertisements for fake universities and/or job search engines. (Source: Occupational Therapy Notes)

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augh

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:41:00 +0100

tomorrow:School 1: Self-regulation seminar, 5 kids. Then see another kid, 45 minutes.Bolt to School 2: Evaluate a kid for an hourBolt to school 3: IEP meeting (a big one)Bolt back to school 1: IEP meeting busy day tomorrow!! lots of running around! Got some big reports to work on tonight! Yikes! Feel like I am back in school doing homework! Alas it's the real world, no extensions. :O (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

weighted blanket....

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:00:00 +0100

I just got a THIRTY POUND weighted blanket!!! :) From my friend Paloma for my birthday a few weeks ago!! (I'm 29, ooooh, old). I am VERY excited! It feels good! (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

The Biggest OH NO Moment Yet

Occupational Therapy Notes — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:32:00 +0100

Worst moment yet of this job:We have a high number of kids transitioning out of early intervention and into the IEP system. More than usual. So that has led to tons o' evals, IEPs, and meetings. I've been proud of staying ahead of all that needs done. Monday, I finished up all of the evals and the entirety of the IEPs. And today, at 330pm, I discover everything has been obliterated for 2 IEPs. Completely and utterly gone. And due on Monday. (Source: Occupational Therapy Notes)

Tangentially Job-Related Goals

Occupational Therapy Notes — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:31:00 +0100

Clearly, with my job in a new field and situation I've never been in before, I have goals. I want to be competent (and if possible, awesome) at what I do. But since there are a whole host of other things going on, here are my goals that are only somewhat related to the job.Learn to Navigate the County: I have never been great at finding my way. GPS was essential in Baltimore since I would likely still be driving around North Street trying to get home. My husband does most of the driving when we're together, so I didn't get a lot of practice. Now we've bought a home in a larger-than-I-thought county and I want to know how to get everywhere. Today I went to the extreme East end, and I will regularly be covering points West and South as well. I want to know short cuts (or at least the basics)...

Hmm

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:57:00 +0100

A little boy told me today, "I get speech, and I go to reading in the resource center, and I see you. That means I do three sports at my school!" After a moment's reflection he asked me, "Is that what these are? Sports?" I said "It depends on who you ask!" He said "Is this my school job?" I said "yes, that's a great way of putting it." He asked "can I be paid?" I said "nobody gets paid in school!" and that was the end of THAT topic but I thought it was a great perspective. A few minutes later, he asked me if the people on the bottom of the world (he was looking at a globe) were upside down. I thought that was an awesome question. :) (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

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The more things change...

Occupational Therapy Notes — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 02:36:00 +0100

So I have been working tonight on an entry about the indecision I have right now about the future and the convoluted OT path I have taken up to now. At one point, it started to seem familiar. I felt as if I had quoted Thomas Merton before, and it turns out, I have, 3 years ago when I was equally wondering what the heck I was going to do with my life. Oh goodness... that's a sign it's time to stop thinking for a little while. :) Sudoku here I come! (Source: Occupational Therapy Notes)

Remote your computer with your eyes

meta-ot blogs — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:26:35 +0100

The MINDWAVE NeuroSky headset can detect Blink and thus be operated by a control software (Virtual NeuroBrain) or as a switch (Kontactor) for use with third-party software. - NeuroBrain software is at the forefront of innovation and easy to use to control his computer with one finger, a nod or pressure. It has a virtual keyboard and mouse optimized when all orders are for one single push of a button (or wink) to minimize the fatigue. This program is much more accurate and compatible with a variety of devices, switches or head pointer. Compatible with The helmet NeuroSky MINDWAVE, c Is the only French keyboard-controllable flash. ALL ORDERS USUALLY ARE POSSIBLE WITH A COMPUTER now possible with a blink: > - Total control of the computer by blinking or switch (compatible with most existin...

yikes - OT chaos

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:57:00 +0100

I had so many good intentions. I have so much to write about the OTAC conference, and the classes I took, and OT4OT, etc etc, and catching up on my 100+ blog comments/emails, but noooo...I continue to suck. :) Here is a screenshot of what my box looks like!!!! But I SHALL CATCH UP EVENTUALLY! I always do. You should see my floor - SO MUCH FILING!!! I accumulate awesome resources. Then they go into piles. Then they add up. Then I never use any of them because I have too many. I like to think of myself as organized, but once I get overwhelmed that goes out the window for a while. So......still my ultimate goal to get it under control. Especially because I need to work on a few reports etc before back to work on Monday. Anyway.......more later ;) (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO...

Join us NOW

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:05:00 +0100

http://ot4ot.com/world-ot-day-2011/We are in the start of OT4OT's big day!!! Join us! (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

The end product associated with a decided lack of true productivity

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:54:00 +0100

We have a lion in my office that was left by a child several years ago. Here is his picture:I placed him on my cable modem in plain view of everyone who came into the office hoping that someone would claim him. No one ever did, and I felt sad about it because he is a Webkinz and they were rather popular for a while and I am sure that some child was very happy at one time to have this toy. Anyway, I leave him on top of my cable modem just in case his owner ever makes a claim. He is our office mascot, and I have come to enjoy his company every day.Today I was cleaning and organizing because I couldn't settle myself into documentation. I found a bunch of stray toys. I found the following:1. a yellow clothespin that goes to a full set2. an orange sheep that is matched to a full set of parent/b...

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Don't forget- World OT Day!

Occupational Therapy Notes — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:18:00 +0100

October 27 is World OT Day! Sponsored by WFOT (now on Facebook), it's a great day to proudly raise awareness about the profession. I would rock my Super OT shirt, but I have formal meetings, so I'll wear inner-OT-awesomeness instead. :) This is the sophomore year for the OT Virtual Exchange and they have once again put together a powerhouse group of speakers for a 24 hour time frame. There is a theme of "Pay It Forward," so you should enjoy the quality talks for free and then share your OT knowledge out in the world as well! Check out the schedule here, and be prepared to tweet using the tag #ot24vx. Linda from the great blog Daily Living Skills is also running a blog carnival to celebrate! It's been way too long since we had an OT blog carnival, I'm excited to see the entries, and I hope ...

Our OT Identity

Occupational Therapy Notes — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:10:00 +0100

In celebration of World OT Day, we are discussing the Global Identity of Occupational Therapy. It's an interesting topic since there has been a lot of discussion about our national OT identity with the approaching Centennial. I think the best thing that I can share for this topic is my summary of two of the best AOTA sessions from the 2011 conference (and maybe from ever). Last spring, there were two talks that best fit with the presidential address and stood out as completely awesome. One was "OT Survivor: Protecting Your Turf in a Competitive Healthcare Market" by Pam Toto and the other was "Practicing Authentic OT: Strategies for Becoming a Reflective and Reflexive Practitioner" by Debbie Amini. These ladies are both well recognized in the field. Energy was definitely palpable in both r...

OT4OT party time :)

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:26:00 +0100

It's fitting that a recent OT Practice magazine was all about international work. I've observed OT in Colombia (for several months) and also in Norway. I've been in a lot of touch with the OTs in New Zealand, Canada, and the UK over the years. I get e-mails all the time from blog readers in foreign countries who want to touch base. In some countries OT is more understood - like in Norway, where everyone I knew made comments like "Ooh, this would be good to use in OT"....I was shocked so many people knew what it was and what we do. It was lovely. And it was great to see OTs working in Colombia who had limited resources as part of being in a 3rd world country, but still did a fabulous job of providing high quality care. One of my long-term goals will be to go do OT in a...

ouch!

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:45:00 +0100

I got this lovely gem in my box. I stand corrected. I wrote that list during one of my first semesters in OT school and I never noticed my mistake, nor has anyone else ever pointed it out. I'll edit it to correct it, but I've got to say the tone of this correction kind of stung! Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Top Ten Ways to Impress your Occupational Therapy ...": It's Case-Smith, not Case & Smith. Dr. Jane Case-Smith is an OT professor and researcher from the Ohio State University. If you're going to leave feedback for future students, at least leave correct information. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

My birthday weekend!

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 04:05:00 +0100

I turned 29 this past Friday the 21st. I'm old, yo. :) Having lots of small celebrations with family/friends this weekend. Tonight we had delicious Thai food in Pacific Beach. :) I got a Sonic Care toothbrush I've been wanting from my mom, and a Wusthof serrated paring knive I've been wanting from my dad. I also got some neat gift baskets/presents/cash plus a beautiful purse and some OT toys! My gift to myself was going to be a 21 pound weighted blanket, but my friend Paloma pre-emptively bought me a THIRTY POUND (??????) one, so I cancelled my order. We'll see how 30 pounds is, I'm a little skeptical as that doesn't fit the typical rule of thumb based on weight. (Weighted blankets can be dangerous - use carefully only with able-bodied and cognitively intact people!...

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Dycem Product Review

Occupational Therapy Notes — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 02:48:00 +0100

The good folks over at Dycem were kind enough to send me some free samples in exchange for a review. Click through to read (and win a prize!)Dycem products have expanded since I was in school, learning about their use. They have even made a special section on their website just for OTs. I got a few products and started trying them out in my practice and handing them out to others.I was a little confused by the mat that had a peel off on both sides. I am 80% sure that it was just like that for easy distribution and cleanliness, not to be adhesive. (There are adhesive strips/mats as well) I tossed one of these in my utensil drawer, because the force from me closing the drawer kept knocking the silverware tray back into the depths. I put it in a few weeks ago, and despite me purposefully slam...

Product Review: The PenAgain

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:28:00 +0100

I was recently contacted by Baumgartens who sent several PenAgain products to my office and asked if I would write a review on my blog. I told the company that I only provide unvarnished reviews and I don't accept any compensation for my reviews - and since they agreed to those terms I was willing to take a look at their products.My first impression when I saw these pens and pencils was "So, how exactly are you supposed to hold the PenAgain?"The product doesn't come with any specific instructions so I looked at the packaging to see if that offered any hints. The picture on the package seems to show a person holding the pen in full pronation of the forearm so that there is very little to no ulnar contact with the writing surface. Use of the PenAgain in this position is supported by a few Yo...

CIREC - an amazing rehab center in Bogota, Colombia

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:47:00 +0100

I spent 2 months volunteering at the rehab center CIREC last fall in the OT department in Bogota, Colombia. They treat a lot of land mine victims there. There were tons of amputees wandering around and everyone was so friendly. I loved it. I am in the process of figuring out how to donate to them. I also want to write an OT Practice article about it eventually. In the meantime, watch this 5 minute video. You'll get to see the gym where I was at and some of the staff and patients I got to see, as it's a pretty recent video. Most of it is in English. A lot of adorable kids! http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=UbW9a9HVpJg (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

oooh

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:59:00 +0100

I had a great time at the OTAC conference...California's OT Association. Looking forward to doing LOTS of blogging as I wrote down oh, 15 topics or so I need to write about!! I am definitely back into blogging mode. For right now though, I just need a little time to recuperate!!! Hopefully by tonight I will start writing! (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

When patients think their problem is mysterious

HealthSkills Weblog — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:15:32 +0100

This post is sparked off by a Facebook discussion where someone (you know who you are!) asked what to do when patients hold entrenched beliefs about the uniqueness or mysteriousness of their situation. They might say things like “I don’t think anyone know what to do with me”, or “I think because my situation is atypical, I don’t expect to respond normally”, or “herniated discs don’t usually shoot ALL the way to the foot”. Does anyone else recognise this pattern? The person who asked about this said the main problem was in trying to tell the person that his or her symptoms are not unique or weird, without taking away their “specialness”. Sometimes, in trying to give accurate information, and pointing out that others hav...

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Occupy AOTA?

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:48:00 +0100

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-09/news/ct-edit-occupy-20111009_1_protests-occupational-therapy-financial-crisis I was seeing how to find my blog on Google.com (type in Karen Dobyns, or ot student, or occupational therapy blog), and I typed in just occupational therapy. This news article linked above came up but it had to do with anguish of the Occupy Wall Street peeps. I was thinking on the way home today that AOTA needs to take advantage of this "Occupy" stuff and do a membership drive called "Occupy AOTA" or something, to get people to join! Just a thought. By the way AOTA sent out a great little 2 page pdf on sensory issues and kids during Halloween. I forwarded it to all the educational specialists at my 4 schools and asked them to send it on to teachers...

Pumpkin vs OT. Pumpkin wins.

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:08:00 +0100

My mother had me go out to her car asking me if I felt strong. She opened the car door and I said "Holy Bleep". Without the Bleep part. Then I carried it inside and it almost killed me. That is our ugly garage, don't judge. By the way, notice my roommate's blind cane glinting in the background?! :) Or is it a white cane. I should know the proper terminology. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

OTAC Conference and random OT stuff

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:07:00 +0100

1. I was out in the sunshine with a kindergartener so the sun was really showing off my hair tinsel. He asked me "Why does your hair glow up?"2. My cat IS LITERALLY TRYING TO BITE MY FINGER AND KEEP IT HOSTAGE INSTEAD OF WRITING THIS OW 3. I took back my finger and now he has SWITCHED SIDES TO MY OTHER HAND!!!!4. You know how I start OW ed a campaign to get my kids to call me Miss Awesome? (obviously a joke). Today I walked into a room with a 2nd grader who likes me a lot and his eyes lit up. He was working with an aide and the aide said "oh Miss Karen is here". He replied "No, it's Miss Awesome." AHAHAAHAHAHA 5. I should be doing laundry, showering, and packing for OTAC and yet I am sitting here blogging?!! I had an IEP meeting first thing, then an init...

Going to the CA OT Association Conference this weekend!

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:57:00 +0100

I am going to the California OT Association conference this weekend along with a fellow co-worker! My company, School Steps Inc, is based out of Sacramento, so I finally get to see homebase! I just got handouts I need to download as no hard copies will be available. I am going to bring address labels so I can quickly stick them on things at various booths instead of having to rewrite my address constantly. I also plan to bring business cards of course....and comfortable shoes! And a couple of fidgets like Tangle Jr's to mess with while I sit in course after course! I'm scheduled for all morning and afternoon Saturday and Sunday so it will be a lot of learning. Hope to network with a lot of other OTs! I'm also compiling some tiny OT gifts to give to my awesome awesome mentor Tri...

Can strainer and pipe cleaners - OT tip

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:46:00 +0100

I recently posted about using a colander with pipe cleaners which I still think is awesome and fun! But I was browsing the dollar section at CVS the other day and found can strainers for $1 that basically can do the same thing on a much smaller scale.....since space can be a premium for traveling therapists, it may be more feasible to carry around a can strainer than a colander. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

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OT Tip- mechanical pencils

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:44:00 +0100

For some kids with serious issues re-sharpening pencils or kids who need to learn to use less pressure, and/or kids who just like mechanical pencils, these are my favorites by Papermate. I've used them since I was a child and I have a student in a younger grade who uses them religiously now too. They are sturdier than most mechanical pencils. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Mini Connect 4 - OT Tip

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:43:00 +0100

I stole this idea from TherapyFunZone's Tonya Cooley. She talked about the awesomeness of using a tiny Connect 4 because it really encourages a pinch grip etc. I found this - keychain sized - and can't wait to try it out.... (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Monsters individualize fingers - OT tip

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:42:00 +0100

Monsters are great for individualizing fingers! "Blue monster, take a bow!" They are also great on thumbs for thumb wars etc as it encourages the thumb-up position so important in cutting and general neutral positioning! (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Annual obligatory rant about health insurance premiums

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:11:00 +0100

Background reading:20092010Well this year the annual increase to our health insurance costs are only 19% but the plan has a higher out of pocket maximum and slightly fewer covered benefits so it isn't exactly the same plan. I thought I would be clever and call my Provider reps for the different plans and tell them that I would be shopping and purchasing based on information they could give me regarding 2012 fee schedules. Historically, even though the cost for these plans goes up exponentially the amount of increase that any provider might see is just a tiny fraction (and often even ZERO PERCENT) of that increase. Also, what happens each year is that the co-pays are increased so even though allowable fees might go up the costs are passed entirely to the consumer with higher deductibles and...

augh!

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:30:00 +0100

i totlaly didnt share the most outstanding session of my day. lol. I work with a child who for whatever reason HATES going below the line with his letters - ie g, p, y. He has a goal to do that. I've explained to him that the worms ATTACK people because they get ANGRY because they are HUNGRY and need to eat the tails of those letters. He thinks it is funny and will deliberately go out of his way to either avoid using tail letters or will say he doesn't care if the worms attack him. So today I pulled out one of my fake worms. We were re-copying a form letter for a final draft and each time we approached a tail letter I'd make the worm dance in front of him and act obnoxious. It totally worked. LOL. THEN we used the second half of the session to work on touch typing. I wrote &quo...

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Typical school OT day for me

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:10:00 +0100

I've decided I can write a little bit about certain specific stories as long as I remain vague on identifying details. I'm going to refer to ALL my children as "he" just to avoid he/she language, and also I think most OTs have a much higher percentage of boys than girls on their school caseloads. Just an anecdotal guess. And if a child is in K through 3 I'll say lower elementary, 4-6th I'll say upper elementary. There. We have that established. And also, ALL my children are general education mainstreamed, with just special services as needed, ie one on one aide or time in the learning resource center, or speech/OT/adapted PE, etc. The other OTs in the district have special day classes meaning children with mild-moderate diagnoses in a classroom. So their days lo...

sparkle sparkle sparkle!

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:11:00 +0100

The other day a child with pretty significant ADHD (not on my caseload) walked past me in the learning center (I was sitting at a desk doing paperwork) and instantly stopped saying "Sparkle sparkle sparkle!!" She started touching my hair. I have hair tinsel because I do LOVE sparkles. :) I was like Ooh! Do I have any left? I typically get about 12 pieces put in but I hadn't seen any in a while so figured they had all fallen out. She determined I had four pieces left. Then she saw my face. "Sparkle sparkle sparkle!" she said, pointing to my eyes. I also wear glitter eyeliner. Because again, I do love sparkles. :) That encounter tickled me...she was enthralled. I've also had children with autism (notice my person first language?) look me in the eye because of my g...

When writing gives you the willies: Reconsidering 'tactile defensiveness'

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0100

For as long as I can recall most therapists talk about tactile defensiveness as being an oversensitivity to touch - and that it includes a sympathetic nervous system response that is allegedly 'out of proportion' to the incoming stimulus. The result of this characterization is that most people start looking AT the sense of touch as the primary culprit of the problem. This is why you then see therapists struggling to describe what textures a child tolerates and does not tolerate. This structural understanding of the problem is reinforced by sensory integration theory which posits that children are not able to process incoming sensory information accurately.In the real world this model is poorly described and subsequently notoriously unreliable - and again you will hear therapists explain th...

OT Only Area – Password Access

HealthSkills Weblog — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:06:12 +0100

For those who would like to gain access to the OT Only area of this blog, please click here, go to the contact area towards the bottom of the page, give your name, email address and confirm that you’re an occupational therapist, and I’ll send you the password. Filed under: Uncategorized (Source: HealthSkills Weblog)

Protected: Why I can no longer think of myself as an occupational therapist

HealthSkills Weblog — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 01:58:41 +0100

This post is password protected. You must visit the website and enter the password to continue reading. Filed under: Chronic pain, Health, Occupational therapy, Pain, Professional topics, Resilience/Health, Wellness Tagged: biopsychosocial, Clinical reasoning, Health, healthcare, Occupational therapy, Research, Therapeutic approaches, values (Source: HealthSkills Weblog)

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An open letter to an occupational therapy evaluator

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:33:00 +0100

Dear Evaluating Occupational Therapist,You evaluated a preschool child who has been receiving private occupational therapy for a year. I referred the family to their local school district because I thought it would be a better option for the family to receive services this way. Your evaluation was thorough and a fair representation of how that child functions - which is always good to see because sometimes evaluating preschoolers is tough and their performance can be variable. I was a little disappointed that you didn't make any attempt to contact me and get any input on the case. I think it is important for evaluating therapists to talk to previous therapists especially when high stakes decisions are being made, like eligibility for services through a system.The agency that you work for s...

I interrupt this OT announcement....

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:03:00 +0100

Hey wait this is an OT announcement. I finally hit over 250,000 page views on this OT blog!! It only took me like five years, cough. :) Today was a bouncing day with a bajillion kids and a bajillion teachers....I wore my cat out from afar as he is now asleep in my lap. Tomorrow is another busy day! I must go get toys and paperwork together! E-mails to be answered soon. :) (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

OT brain overload

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:42:00 +0100

Today I went to one school to do my weekly self-regulation "seminar" with some kids with various special education needs, saw one kid for half his normal time then bolted to a second school for two meetings in a row, then bolted back to the first school to do an evaluation. I brought in THREE giant bags of toys for this one evaluation - I really need to work on streamlining my evaluation tools. I read a recent article in Advance - which I typically skim and find like one interesting thing in - from this lady who talked about pulling up to schools with like a carnival in her car, but is getting away from that (ie not bringing OT clinic to school) and trying to stay more in the classroom. I agree that is an ideal situation, but there are so many variables that affect it. For exam...

"Adult Sensory Processing Disorder:" What greed hath wrought

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:33:00 +0100

I am writing this entry in the hope that it will be referenced as well as my other pages on "Adult Sensory Processing Disorder." Look here for more information.As I have discussed in the past, I advocate a conservative approach to understanding these difficulties that people report. Unfortunately, there are some rather unscrupulous people in the world who have set up websites where you pay money to take a test and then they will tell you if you have "Sensory Processing Disorder." I won't link to those sites because I don't want to drive any traffic to them.People who are having difficulties may be easily fooled by this kind of scam. It is a free world and if people want to pay money for Internet tests then I suppose that is their business - but I am also free to state that in my opinion se...

Dycem for OT

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:54:00 +0100

I am not ready for the official review because I want to include a picture I take, but I want to say I LOVE The Dycem place mats (in shapes like a turtle) because when the child is dealing with something that might fly away, like a bead or a pom-pom, those semi-sticky mats are awesome and keeps things from getting away and minimizes frustration. I am using the Dycem placemats a lot now and want to order some more, and the other OTs liked it too. More soon. Can I mention I love my job working in an elementary school system? The teachers/colleagues/SLPs/OTs/principals/etc are soo fun and awesome! I drive home smiling thinking of random events that occurred during the day. Well I guess not always smiling depending on how many meetings or crazy things happened that day, but most days. Like tod...

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Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans

Occupational Therapy Notes — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:46:00 +0100

So, I work in the school system now. I know, it's a big change. But it's not like I had anything else going on, what with the moving, quitting another job, buying a house, and moving again. Late summer of 2011 is rivaling the entire summer of 2007 for most stressful time of my life... it has already surpassed spring/summer of 2002 and that is really saying something. (sidenote- why does all my stress come in the summertime?!) So to sum up, we moved from Baltimore to have a more stable home/family life, I tried to make it work at a job, and I finally got an offer I had been waiting for, so I made the switch. And I now know that you should NOT EVER switch jobs while trying to purchase a house. Loan people don't like that. It also ended up being a much more prolonged departure from one job t...

Quotes of the day...

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:52:00 +0100

Playing a push-pin game with a kindergartener. I had a pink ball pushpin and he had a black normal pushpin. "Our pushpins are different because yours is a sphere and mine is a cylinder." Wow.Walking past a kindergarten playground at another school: "SIMON SAYS KNOCK YOUR EYEBALL OUT!!!!!" Having fun with my kids and my colleagues! Started putting pictures of the child's grasp in the OT evaluation report (just the child's hand, no identifying features) and it has been well received to have that "custom" picture. :) I've been showing a lot of the teachers the stuff with styrofoam, golf tees, marbles, clothespins, cotton balls, etc, and they are enjoying it! :) Gives them ideas for fine motor centers. I got to help a special ed teacher in training l...

Empathy, distress and mindfulness

HealthSkills Weblog — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:00:04 +0100

One of the main thrusts of the paper by Hadjistavropoulos, Craig, Duck, Cano, Goubert, Jackson, et al., is that pain communication can serve several functions – it can be an action where a message is sent or received; it can be an interaction where the message is sent, received and interpreted; or it can be a transaction where the messages are exchanged but something other than the messages exchanged actually occurs such as a verbal exchange that results in a contractual agreement. Communication as action can be something like when a person groans, rates their pain as “really bad”, or goes to a clinic. Communication as interaction can be when a person is able to communicate their distress to their partner so the partner can understand how the person is feeling. And wh...

Learn Spanish for Kids and Family

meta-ot blogs — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:52:05 +0100

The interactive lessons help studentslearn naturally by creating a visual link in your child's memory through Sight, Sound and Speech Association. By using repetitive teaching methods, exciting graphics and music, these DVDs prepare children to become fluent Spanish speakers. Get Enjoy with your Kids and Family: Box Set: 10 DVDs was $119.95, SALE $99.95 Level 1: 3 DVDs was $44.95, SALE $34.95 Level 2: 3 DVDs was $44.95, SALE $34.95 Level 3: 4 DVDs was $44.95, SALE $39.95 There are many online DVD and audio’s available for kids and adults. Such synergistic DVD’s are a best way to pick up grammar. Also, you can find many websites that offer video games to help children learn Spanish. Spanish is the third most widely-spoken language on the planet! There are about 360 million Spanish-speak...

Federal education policy: A Shakespearean tragedy

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:31:00 +0100

The players:Yorick: The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)Horatio: Education Secretary Arne DuncanHamlet: President ObamaThe plot: After overwhelming bipartisan support for education reform and an honest but failed attempt at tackling a problem, partisan hacks run for the hills and blame a former President for his education policy. Background reading here.______________Obama:Alas, poor NCLB! I knew him, Arnie Duncan; a policyof infinite bipartisan support, of most excellent intentions: it hathborne us on its back a thousand times, and now, howabhorred in my imagination it is.Here hung those standards of which I have praised I knownot how oft. Where be your requirements now? Yourpurpose? Your promise of school choice? Your flashes of expectations,that were wont to set the teacher's unions on a...

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OT cleaning

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0100

Every night I come home with about 3 bags of toys which I promptly dump all over the floor so that I can repackage for the next day. The last few days I've been bad about repacking and so things have gotten mixed together. You could barely walk in my bedroom because of all the toys. Now I've separated the golf tees from marbles from pipe cleaners from glittery poms from cotton balls from clothespins from fat pencils, skinny pencils, triangular pencils, fat short, fat long, skinny short, skinny long, pencil grips, fake bugs, yarn, straws, etc. So you can walk in here now. The bad news is, I stepped on a bamboo skewer and it really freaking hurt! I've started taking pictures of my kids' hands while they are writing, during their evaluations, to copy/paste into the report as...

Occupational therapy interventions to prevent bullying: Second in a series

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:09:00 +0100

Bullying is not just a part of growing up. Just because something happens does not mean that it is normal or should be tolerated. I am aware that many people 'live through' their bullying and think that it is enculturated into childhood - but that opinion only holds up in the mind of someone who was victimized and then grows past the problem.Not all children are so resilient - particularly those who already have differences from the 'social norm' that are causing them to be targeted.The need for a different level of bullying intervention is brought to a tragic light for us locally in Western NY because of the apparent suicide of a high school student over this weekend.Perhaps I don't have much to say, or maybe I just feel like anything I was going to say feels like it rings a little hollow...

Whew

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 03:42:00 +0100

6 meetings in 5 hours + an eval today! Tomorrow includes an IEP meeting, treatments, an eval, and an OT meeting. I guess I should go get ready for tomorrow eh? My goals for this week include writing about Dycem and Linda's book! Also catching up on blog reader e-mails. Hopefully I can meet those goals!!! PS: I saw an interesting article on a link between autism and atheism today...... (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Seeing is believing?

HealthSkills Weblog — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:29:53 +0100

I am slowly wending my way through a long, complex and incredibly important article by a group of researchers and clinicians writing about the social element of pain. The basic premise of this paper is that while pain is a private experience, we are social creatures. As social creatures, we communicate about things that are important to survival – and because pain is one way for the brain to signal to an individual that “something dangerous or might be dangerous is happening”, once pain is experienced, for the most part we begin to signal this to others around us. I haven’t a hope of trying to summarise this paper, and I urge you to read it for yourself – it really is an important piece of work. The reason it’s so important is that we don’t...

Oh my beloved neglected OT blog..and neglected readers

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 03:52:00 +0100

Somehow I've had a ton of e-mails from OT blog readers lately - I'm still down to less than 70 in my mailbox so I hope to get to them soon!! I think about my blog a lot but not much makes the leap to it since I always worry so much about privacy laws! Rightfully so, too... This week I have a lot of meetings, plus several OT evaluations, so I need to prep my evaluation tools and for the meetings tomorrow.....I should probably get going on that, eh? :)I'm still working in my head on a "typical day" post....have to kind of muddle it up a little so it's not a TRUE depiction of a day but a good representation.... (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

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Paediatric o.t job interview - any tips (u.k)

meta-ot blogs — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:04:56 +0100

I'M SOON TO GO FOR MY DREAM JOB AS A BAND 5 PAEDIATRIC O.T IN A CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE, HOWEVER I AM UNSURE OF WHAT TYPE OF QUESTIONS MIGHT BE ASKED DURING INTERVEIW AND WHAT TO CONSDIER BEFORE INTERVIEW. CAN ANYONE SHED SOME LIGHT ON THIS FOR ME AND PROVIDE ME WITH SOME TIPS PLEASE! I DESPERATELY WANT TO WORK IN THIS AREA OF O.T SO AS MUCH HELP AS POSSIBLE APPRECIATED, THANKS (Source: meta-ot blogs)

Buying OT toys left and right....

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 01:43:00 +0100

Last week I went to the teacher store, Lakeshore for some pencil grips, and then also found some awesome Faber-Castell items at Barnes & Nobles, such as pre-school scissors, and jumbo crayons. This weekend I went to a gourmet cooking store and bought some cute crocodile tongs for kids, then to the pet store to buy small tennis balls, to make tennis ball heads using the smaller tennis balls for smaller hands. :) I also bought some straws and an ice cream scooper for like, 25 cents, since you can never have too many straws for kids, lol. Blowing and sucking cotton balls etc! Also I bought some bamboo skewers to stick in styrofoam to make bead patterns on....actually now that I think about it the skewers may be too thick for my little beads. We'll see. My room is filled with sooo many...

Which comes first: Doing or knowing?

HealthSkills Weblog — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 23:43:18 +0100

Received wisdom in cognitive behavioural therapy says that to change behaviour, a person must first change his or her thinking. This has created a tension between those clinicians who emphasise the cognitive aspects of pain management – and those who focus on helping people with pain do more. Should we educate and target cognitions, particularly those sticky core beliefs – or can we use behaviour change as a way to help the person make gains? The answer is, as you’d have guessed, not black and white. In fact, as several authors and researchers have pointed out (see the references below for just two), not only is the cognitive behavioural approach to chronic pain management a mixed bag of strategies, there is very little information on the process of change that occu...

You know those EI cuts? OH NEVER MIND!

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:43:00 +0100

Proposed changes to early intervention reimbursements have been temporarily shelved. Today Brad Hutton, Director of the NY State Early Intervention Program, sent out an email stating:The Department has removed from this regulatory package the changes to the payment of home and community-based and facility-based visits. The Department remains committed to continued examination of the EIP reimbursement methodology and intends to have more discussion about this and other proposals with its Reimbursement Advisory Panel in the coming months. I know that a lot of people are very happy about this, but it is important that we consider all of the events that led up to this recent decision.As I have discussed here frequently in the past there is no question that there is need to revamp billing for t...

Play with the cute hamster!

HealthSkills Weblog — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:47:18 +0100

Filed under: Off topic (Source: HealthSkills Weblog)

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Around and around and around we go – or…back to the beginning again

HealthSkills Weblog — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:15:36 +0100

In the early days of non-medical chronic pain management, operant models of behavioural learning were used by Prof W Fordyce. At the time, this was a revolutionary approach to helping people with chronic pain reduce their disability, distress and depression by altering the reinforcement schedules operating on pain behaviour. It was such an innovation because it moved the focus from pain intensity to disability associated with pain, and in doing so, it offered hope to the many people who were otherwise thought unlikely to ever “get better”. Operant models gradually fell out of favour as cognitive behavioural approaches for managing pain became popular over the 1990′s and later. Refinements to behavioural approaches have been incorporated into ACT (Acceptance and Comm...

My tennis ball friend

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:35:00 +0100

Meet my tennis ball friend. Hold him open to give him yummy treats like pennies, then he can throw them up! The wider the mouth you make, the less resistance....I'm still on the lookout for the smaller tennis balls for smaller hands. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

cool scissors

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:34:00 +0100

I know this is a bad picture, sorry. I found these scissors today at Barnes & Noble from Faber-Castell and they are hopefully going to be great for beginning cutters! I hadn't seen any like that before in stores. I also have a few other types.... (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Weighted pencil

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:32:00 +0100

I am figuring out how to make my own weighted pencils. I took a pencil and wrapped tape around it (the way you do a ring that is too big), then I put a bolt on it and it fits snugly. I had taken pencils to the hardware store and found bolts that fit close but still a little loose, so the tape was perfect. First I tried super glue but it wasn't quite enough. Tape worked better. :) But i am not sure the best placement of the nut on the pencil, so I may do some experiments with that, and also try putting more than one nut on, etc. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

New game I made...

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:30:00 +0100

I bought this strip of cork board at Office Depot or Target or somewhere. Then I used Sharpie to make it into an alphabet game board. You use push-pins as the game pieces. You roll a die (cupping the palms and working on those arches!), move your push-pin, then practice writing the letter you land on, or possibly a word starting with that letter, depending on how advanced your kids are! (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

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Occupational therapy interventions to prevent bullying: First in a series

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:53:00 +0100

One of the biggest concerns that we hear about from parents relates to how their children are functioning socially in their schools. Most schools have 'anti-bullying' or 'bullying prevention' programs in place. Recently, there is a lot more talk about bullying in school environments but that hasn't seemed to stop the behaviors much in the perspective of many families whose children still struggle with the problem. It is important for parents to know that there are different kinds of bullying - and just because a program is established or policies are in place in a school that doesn't mean that bullying will cease to occur. Broad programmatic anti-bullying efforts like those listed on the OSEP website tend to speak to the whole school population and attempt to create a culture of respect t...

Student on Clinicals

meta-ot blogs — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 05:55:49 +0100

I am an occupational therapy student who studies in a tropical country somewhere in south east asia and am currently on clinical placement for two months. So far, going on clinicals have been rather steep learning curves each time, with everyday feeling like a constant exam.I have to apply everything I've learnt at the speed of lightning, come up with a plan on the spot for a case handed to me not five minutes ago within (what feels like) a blink of an eye. While I understand that those are the exectations placed upon on a soon-to-be therapist, it's not something easily doable, especially for a not-so great, below-average student like me. But I try! and keep on trying!!! (Source: meta-ot blogs)

A Machiavellian win for the NYS Early Intervention Program

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:38:00 +0100

Well I believe in equal opportunity blogging so when NYS does something correct with the early intervention program I have to herald the effort. On August 17 Governor Cuomo signed a bill that facilitates payment of claims by health insurers to municipalities for early intervention services. In a previous blog post I talked about the 85% denial rate that exists because the state government doesn't know how to collect from private insurance companies. This new law causes the IFSP to meet any precertification, preauthorization and medical necessity requirements imposed on benefits under any insurance policy. There are additional new rules that prohibit insurers from denying claims based on the location where services are provided, the duration of the child's condition or that the child's c...

Self management – a very vexing definition

HealthSkills Weblog — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:21:38 +0100

Self management is one of those terms that is used to describe the aim of cognitive behavioural programmes for chronic pain. It’s even in my description of this blog! At the same time, it’s difficult to arrive at a definition of self management that “everyone” agrees upon. Self management can mean helping people to be “actively involved in their health care and to provide a variety of creative and individualized strategies to deal with their health problem in their daily life and ultimately to live as normally as possible despite their symptoms” (Zuffery & Schulz, 2009) – but the Devil is in the details! What exactly does being “actively involved” mean? Can it mean accessing treatments like massage, injections, acupuncture “...

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Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:23:00 +0100

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Self Behavior Modification

Occupational Therapy Notes — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:09:00 +0100

So as I work on getting in shape, I worry about maintaining motivation. There have been a number of failed attempts prior in my (not that long) life and I'd rather not fail again. So I am busting out behavior modification all over myself to make it work. There are some great tips here, and I've listed out some of my other methods of personal mind control. (not necessarily in any order) 1) Visibility-I want to be reminded of my goals and what I know I should be doing. So everything stays visible. My box of exercise gear (yoga stuff, balance stuff, aerobics shoes) is right beside the TV, so I always see it. If there's an exercise DVD that I want to concentrate on, I'll prop the case up by the xbox so it's easily seen. We have no garage at the moment, so the bikes are sitting right beside th...

Education or a cognitive behavioural approach?

HealthSkills Weblog — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:35:42 +0100

In this study by Day, Thorn & Kapoor, the two approaches were used with a group of people from a rural area, with relatively low socio-economic status, and a reading grade level of about 8. Both groups received a group-based programme of 10 sessions of 90 minutes. They both received a workbook and additional reading material. The CBT group had home-learning and also participated in behavioural activities such as relaxation in-session, while the education group did not. Interestingly, this study presents qualitative information on how participants experienced the sessions, rather than outcomes measures, so it’s difficult to establish whether pain, disability, mood or acceptance were influenced. Instead it presents thematic analysis from in-depth interviews of the participa...

I start back TOMORROW! (Monday)

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:12:00 +0100

I went in Thursday and Friday to prepare, and the kids come back tomorrow. We don't "pull" (take kids out of the classroom) the first week, but still lots to do to prepare in terms of setting up stuff, whether it's paperwork or supplies or learning about new kids etc. :) I have to brush up on the ALERT program so I can help a classroom with it and refresh my memory on social thinking etc. I bought so many freaking toys this summer to be better prepared for this school year, and spent a lot of time finding crafts on pinterest I might do.....but I still struggle with anxiety about it all, no matter how prepared I am. :) I just always want to be doing my best work! Speaking of best work, I work for a great company based in California called School Steps, Inc. They are a smal...

Not just neural plasticity – health system plasticity

HealthSkills Weblog — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:17:04 +0100

In chronic pain management there seems to be a pretty consistent pathway for people to finally get to interdisciplinary treatment. First a referral from the primary care physician or GP to one or more specialist medical people – maybe an orthopaedic surgeon, or a rheumatologist, or a psychiatrist, or a neurologist. This person will carry out investigations, get the results, make a determination that the problem is “not theirs” – and suggest some kind of management, or a referral to another kind of orthopaedic surgeon, or a rheumatologist, or a psychiatrist, or a neurologist… who will repeat the same. Finally, after many investigations and referrals and consultations, around 3 years later, the person makes it to a chronic pain management centre. (btw I am...

Disability or Ability- TV's Alphas

Occupational Therapy Notes — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:27:00 +0100

I watch a fair amount of TV. Now that I'm home 2 extra days, I keep it on for noise during the day. One of the shows i have started watching is Alphas from the SyFy channel. Alphas so far appears to be a fairly standard superheroes kind of show in the line of XMen, Heroes, etc mixed in with some espionage and spy work. I like those kind of shows, so I can tolerate some of the less-than-awesome dialogue and recycled plots. Of the 5 types of Alphas described, even mild comic book or superhero fans could list other characters that fit these types. What spiked my interest in the show was the character who is a "transducer" and able to act as an antenna to intercept and decode messages. "Gary" is able to read all wavelengths- TV, cell phones, computer traffic on the internet, etc. This is an ...

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Low mood and catastrophising – one is bad, two is worse

HealthSkills Weblog — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:16:48 +0100

This study shows that irrespective of the measures used to identify catastrophising and low mood in people with chronic pain, there is an increased risk of disability in people who have both problems, and more importantly, this is now shown in three different countries. While the total number of participants isn’t enormous (in the 100′s rather than 1000′s), it is still a significant finding. It also shows that having catastrophising is potentially a more problematic issue than simply having low mood. What should we learn from this? I think it’s critical that treatment providers working with those who have subacute musculoskeletal problems routinely assess (or at least screen for) the presence of catastrophising. While low mood is troublesome, it seems to have ...

thoughts on starting exercise

Occupational Therapy Notes — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:26:00 +0100

So I've gotten on the exercise train for a first time in a long time. And I have boarded a new train heading somewhere quite outrageous... This is my first announcement in a public forum, but here goes. I intend to compete in a (sprint distance) triathlon next year. I'm not particularly fit at the moment, and can't yet do any of the distances for the 3 disciplines on their own, let alone consecutively. It's a process. My husband has decided to join in the fun, so we are both engaged in these struggles that can be both harrowing and ridiculously funny. There would be plenty of material for a knee-slapping gut-busting book or stand alone blog, but I just don't have time for that (how can I, when I already neglect this blog too often?) so I may share some of these stories in this forum. On ...

That last post is by Tommy Carr, not me.

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:35:00 +0100

I copy/pasted the Mind Mapping e-mail without attributing it to Tommy Carr. So oops.Summer is almost over....I go back to work next Friday. A lot to do between now and then. in a few minutes here I'm going to buckle down and re-open files and start preparing for the year! I'm a little pre-emptively stressed out as I am warned the beginning of the year is stressful with scheduling and all. But I am trying to not let that knowledge get to me. :) Sorry it's been quiet....my 1400+ mails has gone down to TWENTY....and since I haven't been working I haven't been doing a lot of OT stuff. Actually I have bought quite a few OT toys over the summer, like stamps and crafts supplies...but nothing besides buying compulsively, lol. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

In the throes of ... lots of non-OT stuff

Occupational Therapy Notes — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:35:00 +0100

Life goes marching on...Since the move, we have been trying to focus on more family time, and that has transitioned into an increase in athletic endeavors, which has been also going along with work on healthier eating. So there have been a lot of changes that we are trying to turn into healthy habits... a personal "lifestyle redesign" project, if you will. I'm not being super smart about things though since I've made lots and lots of goals, too many to focus on all at once, and no time frames. Also trying to buy a house, which is an insanely-detailed process.I've only worked 4 days at my new job (a 3 day week and a week long vacation does make it hard to accumulate time, haha) but I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things. There are computer and written portions of the documentati...

More Managing Migraines without Medication

HealthSkills Weblog — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:30:04 +0100

Anyone familiar with migraine will know the first signs of an impending attack. What might be a little less familiar is the precursor to the “first signs”, and what may also be unfamiliar is the thoughts that accompany those first symptoms. Today I want to talk about ways to manage this phase of a migraine – without medication. As an aside, some people have suggested that there are ways to completely get rid of migraine, often suggesting that one of the problems could be around the numerous nerves that innervate the face, neck and scalp. One of the common suggestions is to have chiropractic or osteopathic treatment to “do something” to the nerves in this area. I put the “do something” in quotation marks because I really don’t know what the so...

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Mind mapping OT competition :)

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:09:00 +0100

I wanted to get in touch with you again about my website - www.otstudent.info - as I am now starting a competition in which someone could win mind mapping software worth £199. Basically, in an effort to stimulate collaboration on the website and also creativity among OTs and OT students, I have started a competition for people to send in their mind maps on a subject related to OT. Any mind maps sent will be uploaded to the site (where appropriate!) and the best one will win the prize - closing date is 1st October 2011. The competition page is at: www.otstudent.info/competition (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Pinterest + OT ideas

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 05:28:00 +0100

I'm starting to obsess over wanting to do more crafts this upcoming year with my school OT kids. I started using Pinterest today http://pinterest.com/funkist/pins/ to keep track of the crafts that may be promising in some way. Like for example, cutting pool noodles into slices to make giant beads! (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Managing Migraines without Medication

HealthSkills Weblog — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 01:42:59 +0100

Ahhh, migraine – psychedelia without the high… nausea without the alcohol… The diagnostic criteria: A) At least 5 attacks fulfilling B-D; B) lasting untreated 4-74 hours; C) two of the following: unilateral, pulsating, moderate or severe pain intensity, worsening with physical activity; D) one of the following: nausea and/or vomiting, photophobia or phonophobia; E) not attributed to another disorder. (International Classification of headache disorders, 2004) (go here for one of the most comprehensive sites on migraine) The main treatment for migraine is to use medication – best evidence to date suggests: “Only two pharmacological treatments have been shown to be effective in placebo-controlled randomized trials: topiramate and local injection of botulinum to...

The best way to discharge a patient.

ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:59:00 +0100

Life is complicated enough that I try to avoid having existential crises as often as possible, but it is Monday and humans are natural meaning-makers and I can't escape my tendencies.Anyway, I was perusing Facebook this weekend and saw a partially familiar face as a 'recommended' friend. I am not certain of the algorithm and logic that Facebook uses to make these recommendations - I imagine it is at least loosely based on 'degrees of separation' computations.The partially familiar face was Freddie, who I have not seen in many years. I worked with Freddie when he was on the cusp of his adolescence. I remember him as being an intelligent and extremely likeable fellow who had some pretty tough problems with his handwriting and social skills. He made a lot of developmental progress while I wor...

Online Technology and Occupational Therapy Survey

HealthSkills Weblog — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:43:11 +0100

If you’re an occupational therapy practitioner and haven’t heard of Anita Hamilton’s survey on the use of online technology – here’s the link – what do you mean, what’s it about? Online technology and occupational therapist’s use of it. Oh, Anita’s use? She, like me, is doing her PhD. Please help her – PhD’s are just as much about tenacity as they are about academics! Filed under: Uncategorized (Source: HealthSkills Weblog)

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Using the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire

HealthSkills Weblog — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:15:16 +0100

Over the past few months I’ve been using the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ-8) as part of a battery of questionnaires used at intake and outcome measures. Along with the CPAQ-8, we use the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale, the Pain Catastrophising Scale, Pain Self Efficacy Questionnaire, and Pain Disability Index. The CPAQ-8 consists of two subscales: Pain Willingness and Activity Engagement. Together they measure “acceptance” or psychological flexibility associated with chronic pain. Let me pull this apart a bit. Pain Willingness refers to how prepared a person might be to experience an increase in pain so they can get something important done. For example, I love to dance and IR...

contracts/social story on what OT is

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:22:00 +0100

Anybody have a social story written on what OT is for? And/or a contract? For use in the school system? I only work with K-6 and this year I am thinking about starting the year with both a social story and a contract for each child, where we review what OT is, who I am, what goals they have, etc. The contract would be to work on those goals/work hard/work together or something along those lines. I think a lot of kids getting OT have no idea what they are doing (including some of mine) so I would like to address that immediately this upcoming year. I think I'm also going to make sure to e-mail the teachers at the beginning of the year (after the craziness of the first week or so subsides for them), telling them what goals OT is working on specifically for the particular child(ren) in th...

Young people in nursing homes

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:11:00 +0100

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/07/assisted-living-more-young-people_n_805772.html My friend sent this article to me (a long time ago :x) with the enclosed commentary:I thought you'd be interested in the link below. It's an article about the increasing number of people under 65 who are in nursing homes. It really is a tragedy. We have an institutional bias when it comes to long term care funding. It needs to be shifted so that most of the money is spent on community based care. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

school OT crafts I want to try!

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:37:00 +0100

One of my goals for this upcoming school year is to try more crafts. Here is a couple that look interesting that someone does with her home-schooled children. :) I especially like the first and third link, all from Angry Chicken! http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2011/06/on-a-rainy-day.htmlMaking a cloud with rainbows maybe this one too...http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2010/10/bone-digger.htmland I think this one is beautiful....rose petal drawingshttp://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2010/10/rose-petal-drawings.htmland this one for Halloween...http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2009/10/that-silly-pumpkin-head.html (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

old OT reminders

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:11:00 +0100

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OT rehab ideas

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:40:00 +0100

here were some of the ideas I had written down (some more occupation-based than others but just things to prompt my brain) while working in inpatient rehab....PS: Belly dancing/fencing were two things I was into...belly dancing is GREAT for hip/core work (find just a basic video on youtube and they can work in the parallel bars, if not shy about it of course) and fencing (with foam swords) if you use the proper stance (google that too) is great for balance and strengthening/stabilizing lower body while also incorporating upper body. :) table { }td { padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-left: 1px; color: windowtext; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: bottom; border: medium none; white-space: nowrap; }rub...

Low Vision in Children

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:44:00 +0100

I went to a seminar on August 15th, 2008 hosted by the Hamilton Eye Clinic, called "The Children's Vision Rehabilitation Project: A MultiDisciplinary Approach to Low Vision in Children" with visiting professors Terry Schwartz, MD, and Rebecca Coakley, MEd, from the West VA Eye Clinic. The seminar was for ophthalmologists, OTs, vision rehab professionals, educators, and more. One of my good friends Orli is a low vision occupational therapist at Hamilton Eye plus I always want to learn more about everything, so it was a very interesting day. I've intended to write this post for over a YEAR now. Finally got around to it. I should have written it the next day as my notes were not great so I'm missing 95% of it I feel. But I'll share what I did get out of it - note t...

Tips for NBCOT Exam

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:33:00 +0100

I wrote this in 2009 and never finished posting it...the new test had just come out, with the CST part to it. So this is relevant to the new test, but I am NOT up to date on whether things have changed in the last few years, so read this with a grain of salt. Or maybe a salt shaker. I didn't start studying nearly as early as I should have, but I used 3 sources: TherapyEd book & review course, NBCOT book + online practice exams, and friends.If you can afford it, take the TherapyEd review course. If money is an issue, it's probably still worth it IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE TESTING (the cost of that course is cheaper than re-taking the exam). If you are a strong student, you can probably get by without it. I liked the TherapyEd review book that came with the course. I basically memorized...

HELP button, staples button hack

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 22:05:00 +0100

http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/19/hacking-the-staples-easy-button/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OEFxc3zTls http://www.springerlink.com/content/v743km042677w8w0/I found these three things that might help me figure out a Staples button hack. I want it to say "help" instead of "That was easy!". By the way, kids LOVE the Staples button and consider it a real treat to be able to hit the button after an activity. Even if the activity was actually somewhat frustrating, the kid gets a ghost of a smile on their face after hitting the button. The only problem is they usually try to hit it like six times in a row. I have a child who doesn't like to ask for help....I wanted to make a Help button so she could hit it for fun. Seemed like a good idea. Only problem is, I'm...

Exerting too much pressure when writing...OT school ideas

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:53:00 +0100

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New OT blog

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:05:00 +0100

www.jezzabellasotexperiences.blogspot.comNew OT blog :) There is a blogpost a few down showing a Real Simple activity using half a balloon + a plastic cup that looks cool! (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Return to OT blog

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:15:00 +0100

I basically didn't have wireless access this past week, so no blog posts. However this upcoming week I have more time. My goal is to COMPLETELY finish responding to OT blog comments/emails etc within next week (perhaps a slightly lofty goal) + finish filing my OT work mail + organize my computer documents for work. Phew. I got contacted by Dycem and they will be sending me a few products to review and I also have a book to review! I am really excited! I love reviews!I am in Alabama one more week - back to San Diego next Sunday. Fun times in the South. I am trying to get up the energy to go work out! One of my biggest, biggest issues is almost constant low energy. Bleh. Well, this was a pretty worthless posting, but I wanted to say I am back to having wireless, back to responding to blo...

What matters: patient-determined outcomes and clinician/researcher outcomes

HealthSkills Weblog — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 19:30:31 +0100

It’s easy to forget, sometimes, that when we choose an outcome measure, we need to seriously consider who will use the measures in the end. Of course, I am assuming that we’re all using outcome measures – we are, aren’t we? If anyone isn’t, shame on you – how on earth will you establish whether what you’re doing is having an effect? And don’t come at me with “oh but I just ask them” because I don’t want to have to list all the response bias, demand characteristics, and lack of consistency problems again. kthx. Anyway, where was I? That’s right, the end-user in outcome measures. Over the past few years, interest has risen in identifying the range of outcome measures that can be/should be used in research of treatm...

I'm Alive!

Occupational Therapy Notes — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:17:00 +0100

It has been WAY too long since I last wrote. Here is an abbreviated update:1. I moved2. I'm starting a new job3. I have irons in the fire.For more details...I had to say goodbye to Baltimore. Logically, I know it's the right choice, but it has been crummy. I love the friends that I have made and the excitement that Baltimore offers, and there were so many cool OT opportunities as well. But from a personal and family standpoint, it was just not sustainable in the long term. Commutes were too long (60+ for me and 85+ for my husband) and we needed 3 days off to get home and back since we were so far away. So with potentially wanting to start our own family (in the next few years) something had to change. But knowing that logically doesn't mean that it's been easy or something that makes me ha...

Self efficacy and fear of movement mediate pain intensity and disability in acute pain

HealthSkills Weblog — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:29:01 +0100

Most clinicians working in chronic pain management are well aware that the time it takes for people to finally be referred for management of their pain is far too long and some of the readers of this blog who work with people who have acute pain may wonder whether anything I write about applies to them and the people they treat. To both groups of readers – today’s post should apply! Arguably the most common reason for people seeing a doctor is because of a musculoskeletal pain. Treatment is usually quite simple: diagnosis, pain relief, anti-inflammatories and gradual return to function. It’s this last part of treatment that seems to cause the most trouble for people - what if the pain doesn’t settle, what if I’m damaging my body, how long should I “...

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Some AWESOME men Rehab OT ideas from a good friend

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:03:00 +0100

When I was helping out in physical rehab in the rural Deep South, it was often challenging for me to find ways to engage the men! One of my good friends, who happens to be a man from the South, sent me these ideas. Like two years ago. I love them ALL. :) Now I am sharing with my blog with only minimal editing! He was meant to be an OT! It's too bad we can't bring in fake guns but I am sure that is a no no at any place. The laser refers to (probably, if my memory serves me right) doing something along the lines of fitting patient with a hand or arm weight, taping a laser light to it, and allowing them to point at a target with it. Gotta be careful about not getting it in anyone's eyes though. As always, try any of this at your own risk! Consider insurance of your work, liability...

Prison settings and related populations (mental health)

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:49:00 +0100

Did you know OTs can work in prisons and related areas? NGBRI= Not guilty by reason of insanity. Pts = patientsHx = historySC = spinal cordCP = cerebral palsyA former classmate of mine (class below me) wrote this to me a loooong time ago about one of her rotations (she wrote the first part to me on FB, I responded and asked if I could share, then she shared the discharge status part. It took me over a year to finally post though): All pts have pleaded NGBRI. I see only men and my case load consists of two higher functioning groups that I see twice a week, one lower functioning group I see twice a week, and two individual sessions one of which I see once a week and the other I see three times a week. They are all on a lock down ward that reminds me of a prison. I have warmed up to all my gr...

Q&A on OT

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:00:00 +0100

QUESTION VIA EMAIL, SLIGHTLY CHANGED TO MAKE MORE ANONYMOUS, from a few months ago: My name is Jane Doe and I am an older mother of 2 kids. I obtained an OTA degree back in the 1990s but never used the degree. I did very well in school but was unhappy in my clinical rotations. I was under two burned out therapists that didn't do anything with the patients. I also did not like the fact that no one knew what OT's did in addition to the degree being so broad; I felt it was hard to wrap my head around exactly what we did. I never used the degree and went on to pursue Bachelors/MBA degrees and then became a mom and have been home for the past 8 years. Now looking forward to going back to work when my youngest is in first grade, I applied for admission to a MOT program for...

NHS managers should be policed by a regulatory body

meta-ot blogs — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:11:42 +0100

Apathy: In the year 2004, while my father lay dying in intensive care at Northwick Park Hospital, I went to a vending machine I had seen near the hospital refectory. It ate my money and delivered nothing in return. There was a number on it, for people to call for refunds. I stored the number in my mobile phone, but figured I could save other people the inconvenience of my predicament by putting a note on the machine. I asked catering staff, a porter, security staff and a nursing sister in turn if anybody could put an 'out of order' note on the machine. Each refused any responsibility. The nursing sister was standing chatting in the main hospital corridor, but said she was too busy (too busy to stick a note on the vending machine, but obviously not too busy for social chat). It seemed staff...

“Oh wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel’s as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion”

HealthSkills Weblog — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 04:41:12 +0100

That quote from Robbie Burns. For such a long time it seems that pain research has focused only on the person having pain and less on the social context where the person is experiencing it. Pain is subjective, personal and private, and the only way I can determine whether someone is in pain is if they’re exhibiting pain behaviours. Some of these behaviours, it’s true, are automatic reflex-driven responses (nocifensive, to be pedantic) – but usually only once the brain determines that the input received is a threat. And what the brain determines to be threatening depends on a whole lot of things, including what else is going on in the environment. We have numerous pen and paper measures of pain behaviour, but far fewer tools to capture what is one of the most important e...

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A google search day in the life of an OT

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 18:08:00 +0100

I found this google searchfrom when I was an OT working in Georgia (I think I saved it to one day post as example on my blog). Clearly my google got quite a work out. :) All of it had to do with patients, whether it was helping the patient read their bible with limited hand mobility, or toileting, etc. I use a lot of paper and people resources, but Google is also really helpful for ideas as well. Clear ×caregivers personal hygeine knee abductor · Web Clear ×knee abductors for hygeine · Web Clear ×cleaning perineal area spastic adductors · Web Clear ×adductors abductor spasticity perineal hygeine · Web Clear ×abduction toileting hygeine cerebral palsy · Web Fri Clear ×apraxia kids · Web Clear ×my child has dyspraxia · Web Clear ×developmental dyspraxia children support · Web...

NY Times article on OT in schools

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 01:18:00 +0100

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/fashion/25Therapy.html?emc=eta1One on "Watch how you hold that crayon"....another possible re-post but this time I am deleting it from my inbox!! This one by NY Times on pediatric OTs working with handwriting etc. A slightly snarky article but still interesting. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Sensory processing disorder in Time Magazine

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 01:09:00 +0100

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1689216-1,00.htmlAn article on sensory processing disorder in Time magazine from a while ago. This may be a re-post, I can't remember. I'm still going through old mail. Down to less than 500. If you've written me and I've never responded, feel free to either re-send (if you sent it more than 2 weeks ago), or wait and see if it gets handled in the next 400+ mails I have left to go through. I had over 1380 old and 150+ new a few days ago, now down to 0 new and about a third of old mails, so I am glad...but still a long way to go. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

OT books to read

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 23:01:00 +0100

I got an OT blog question about some books to read before starting a master's program in the fall....things to get started. I don't think y'all should start reading textbooks before you ever start, so here are some random ideas me and my OT friend Kerri came up with for for this student...I am in Gainesville, FL visiting her. She is a hand therapist and she rocks. :) Hi "OT Student X" Do you mean like OT textbooks, or do you mean more normal books? For example, one of my favorite books is The Healing Heart about one of the first OTs, Ora Ruggles......I also like the Out of Sync Child.......and the Out of Sync Child Has Fun is the activity book that goes along with it. See if this website works for you! http://myaota.aota.org/shop_aota/ I browsed it and didn't act...

What is this thing called pain?

HealthSkills Weblog — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:04:56 +0100

As I’m busy writing up research papers for publications to “count” towards my research productivity, I’m reminded of one reason I keep on blogging – and it’s this: blogs are open to anyone. People can comment on what I write. When someone comments, whether they agree, disagree, or simply pose a question, it’s an opportunity for dialogue and reflection. That’s not nearly as easy to do in a peer-reviewed journal! As a result of comments from my post yesterday, I’m musing on ways to explain the distinction between acute and chronic pain that will make sense to someone who experiences fluctuations in pain intensity. I think I’m clear in my own mind between the two, but perhaps things are not as distinct as I’ve made them ...

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Adult SPD

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:32:00 +0100

An adult friend of mine wrote this to me when discussing her sensory processing difficulties...I thought it was good insight. A lot of us OTs could probably have stood to have a little OT when we were younger....just like a lot of psychologists went into the field to search for their own healing, a lot of OTs go into the field because of their own recognition/awareness/compassion of people with similar difficulties!! PS: I am pretty sure I am going to buy a weighted blanket (maybe 15-18 pounds) for myself! I think they are GREAT for some kids and some adults too! Wish they were cheaper though. Don't buy one without researching proper weights etc. :) "Please don't let them put me in the O.T. zoo! If they do put me in the zoo, please make sure it isn't too bright, too loud, ...

Black and white thinking must be abolished

HealthSkills Weblog — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:15:22 +0100

Black and white thinking, for those readers unfamiliar with cognitive distortions, refers to the tendency to reduce complex ideas and situations into simple, dichotomous, and mutually exclusive categories. Think of good or bad, yes or no, all correct or all wrong, acute pain or chronic pain, neuromatrix or peripheral mechanisms, cure the pain or manage the pain. It’s a way of simplifying arguments or decisions that can work well when the situation requires very fast decision-making, or where the options are very limited. It doesn’t work at all in the messy and complicated worlds of clinical reasoning, theory development, or in discussions to broaden understanding. I’m pondering this because of the way various aspects of pain management and the science of pain are misrepre...

Enlarged utensils and T-stools, do it yourself

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:28:00 +0100

http://www.instructables.com/id/One-Leg-Therapy-Stool-Autism/ I am tempted to try this! Try making this at your own risk - but T-stools in general are pretty popular with helping fidgety kids focus! Also, I feel really stupid I didn't ever do this when I did rehab! Basically shelf-liner was used to enlarge these utensils!http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-gripped-utensils/ (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))

Amazing site for OT forms

Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:08:00 +0100

http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/ocsci/nc-school-based-ot-site/guidance-documents-forms-and-practice-resources (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))