How To OT

PAWLTPD stands for People Aging with Long Term Physical Disabilities. We discuss how this population is impacted by a variety of factors and Courtney shares a practice model she developed to assist clinicians when working with PAWLTPD.

Ariana is completing her post professional doctorate at WashU. She's researched Sleep in people experiencing homelessness and program development for underserved populations including people experiencing incarceration. A list of resources mentioned during the episode is found below:

Maggie and Eric teamed up to conduct a research project titled Program Development for Neurodiverse Students in Higher Education. We discuss topics related to neurodiversity in higher education, outline their project, and the implications their research could have for occupational therapy practice.

Resources mentioned during the show:

Nina's research project is titled: Safe Sex, Contraception, and Fertility Options for People with SCI: What Clients Want and the Role of OT in Ensuring Access to Knowledge and Services

A list of resources mentioned in the episode is below:

Advocacy is essential in occupational therapy, but most practitioners don't learn how to advocate until they're thrust into an advocacy role late into their career. Allison shares her OTD research including her personal experience serving on the board of a local non-profit organization, and the development of programs to promote diversity and the attainment of advocacy experience and skills early on in an OT's education and career. 

Resources mentioned on this episode are listed below:

We explore primary care as an emerging area of practice for occupational therapy practioners, discuss how you can break into the field and how to demonstrate your OT skillset to other professions.

Resources:

On today’s episode of How to OT we discuss how to effectively implement meta-cognitive strategy training interventions, such as the Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) model, into your practice working with clients who have cognitive deficits.

Resources:

We speak with Dr. Suzy Stark about how she developed a new science measuring the impact of environmental OT interventions on occupational performance and participation. She goes into detail and provides clinical recommendations for how a practitioner can improve a client’s function and help prevent them from falling.

On today’s episode of How to OT we interview Dr. Ben Philip about the importance of neuroscience in working with people who have had brain or nerve injuries.

Resources mentioned during the interview:

Zink PJ, Philip BA. (2020) Cortical plasticity in rehabilitation for upper extremity peripheral nerve injury. American Journal of Occupational Therapy 74(3).

On today’s episode of How to OT we talk with Dr. Diane Smith about her non-traditional OT journey (0:47-7:40), summarize some of her research on advocacy and policy (7:41-12:30) and go over recommendations for focusing on the environment (12:31-14:30), increasing work participation (14:31-21:47), adaptive childcare (21:48-28:37), sustainability and climate change (28:38-35:35), and emergency preparedness (35:36-39:59). Golden nugget segment (40:00-42:12)

Resources mentioned during the episode:

Evidence-Based interventions for increasing work participation: Smith, D.L., Atmatzidis, K., Capogreco, M., Lloyd-Randolfi, D., & Seman, V.  (2016). Evidence-based interventions for increasing work participation for persons with disabilities:  A systematic review.  OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 131 (suppl.), 1-11.

Dr. Carolyn Baum details the development of the Activity Card Sort (ACS) occupational profile process, along with the creation of a number of cognitive assessments. She emphasizes the importance of functional cognition, considerations when working with clients who have cognitive deficits and shares how the medical system is looking for what the occupational therapy body of knowledge prepares practitioners to do. 

We hear from practitioner, researcher, educator and Dementia care expert Dr. Cathy Piersol. Her vision is to promote best practice in dementia care and emphasize the role that OTPs can play in dementia care moving forward.

Resources:

Dr. Laura Gitlin issues a call to OT practitioners to lead the changing of dementia care within the United States. She details interventions that provide strategies for caregivers to enhance the ability of people with dementia to engage in activities, reduce agitation and behavioral symptoms, reduce the functional disability of the client with dementia while improving the care giver’s well-being and confidence and reducing their depression and burden.

I know this episode left me feeling so pumped and so inspired about the leading role OT can play in dementia care and I hope you take out of it as much as I did.

Resources:

On today’s episode of How to OT we interview Dr. Karen Jacobs. She tells us about some of her new projects, explains the literature and research that went into her work on Project Career and breaks down how cognitive support tech can be used in therapy and to make connections that lead to interprofessional collaboration. She then dives into the ergonomic study that started the now well-known national backpack awareness day movement and shares details about how telehealth is can be an area of growth for our profession. Links to Apps and websites she mentions are included below with a link to our show listener survey:

In preparation for the Occupational Therapy Education Summit we interview Dr. Steve Taff, a leader in OT education, about the importance of philosophy in higher education and daily practice.

Links to resources mentioned on this episode are found below:

Taff, S.D., Babulal, G.M., & Bakhshi, P. (2014). The accountability-wellbeing-ethics framework: A new philosophical foundation for occupational therapy. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 81, 320-329. doi: 10.1177/0008417414546742

Literature mentioned in the episode:

OT practitioners want to provide the best client centered and evidence based care to the people they treat. But if it currently takes 17 years for research to translate into practice how evidence based can the care we provide really be? We identify some barriers to implementing research into practice and propose one way to overcome them. 

Dr. Smallfield is a fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) with an extensive background in low vision and geriatric rehab. She shares with us some of her research and recommendations and resources for working with these populations.

A link to the practice guidelines on productive aging mentioned in the interview with Dr. Smallfield is below: