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sisanda96-blog · 4 years

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Role of occupational therapist in PRIMARY HEALTH CARE.

The primary health care approach is more than a method of bringing health care, but rather a philosophy of accomplishing reasonable unbiassed health that governs all levels of care within the health system, and in other segments responsible for delivering developments in the social determinants of health, South African Health Review (SAHR, 1995). The role of occupational therapy in primary health care is broad, it complies with health promotions, mental health promotions, community development, child development, the intervention of physical and psychosocial of all age groups. The of occupational therapy interventions aims are to improve their ability to perform daily occupations (i.e. activities and valued life roles at work, in the home, at leisure and socially), facilitate successful adaptations to disruptions in lifestyle, prevent losses of function and improve or maintain psychological status (Hammond, 2014).

Occupational therapist critically analysis the community by exploring and understanding a community potential or ability to address health problems, this does not only help us to identify problems, but it helps us to prioritize the most marginalized and work on their civil rights. Occupational therapy in primary health care understands the fact that illness does not only means a person has a physical illness but the well-being of an individual from their environment at home, school, work is much more important and the occupational therapist uses different approaches to intervene in such situations. It takes for the occupational therapist to use community-centered and client-centered approaches to understand and give the appropriate intervention to these clients. There are several positive outcomes from occupational therapy services in primary health care since OT was mostly for western people, bringing it to the most marginalized ones.

Media is various means of communication or passing information to people. In our days most people rely on media for knowledge. There are different types of media. Mostly used ones are Television, radio stations, newspapers, and social media platforms like (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, etc). The most identified problem that we are facing as occupational therapists in communities is that people do not know what occupational therapy does more especially in black communities. using media as a way to expand OT community-based practice might be the most effective way to reach out too many people who need occupational therapy. Many people have access to one or two media platforms, so if the occupational therapist can utilize these platforms and get the OT word to people much difference will be seen in communities.

An occupational therapist can make appointments In different community radio stations for health promotion, some mothers are not aware of their childhood developmental milestones, having educative talks in radio about different milestones and stages every child should pass can motivate the parents to seek for intervention if there are seeing problems. We can open the space for questions after the talks this will enable the therapist to see if people have heard what the health promotion was about. Social media has influence people so much and health care professionals are using the platforms to advocate for their professions, we could also use every social media platforms to do our health promotions and preventions by creating an account that will only talk about occupational therapy interventions, how people can access help and most importantly talk about our role as occupational therapists in primary health care because people are not aware. Social media can be a very good idea but lots of bad can happen also, promising things that are will benefits a certain population might be seen as being racists to other populations/communities, and having bad comments might destroy our roles in communities. Most people hate to read long texts, using short quotes can help when using social media, or using short videos can help when we are doing health promotions in social media. Most people believe information that has been researched, by having more and more literature about OT services mostly in marginalized communities, most people will have a full understanding of roles of OT in a community thus we will be more recognized and this will advocate for our professions in other health care professionals, this will benefits OTs to have more referrals from other HCPs.

Occupational therapy is the most incredible profession that cares about people's health and well-being. To us a person is more than an object that we treat and discharge, we connect with people and they become part of our growth as a therapist. This practice has taught me that working with different people in communities requires more than a qualified HCP, it needs a person who can think beyond the profession scope. This is what people should know about us we are thinkers in a health system, we make what is impossible for our clients possible because we think more than what we are taught. The concept for an occupational therapist, in particular, is our ability to do what is best for clients, which will make a difference in the lives of them, their families, and their communities.

References

Hammond A. (2004). What is the role of the occupational therapist?. Best practice & research. Clinical rheumatology, 18(4), 491–505.

Talukdar, J., Mahmud, I., and Rashid, S., 2018. Primary healthcare-seeking behavior of people with physical disabilities in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study. Archives of Public Health, 76(1).

Muir, S. (2012). Occupational therapy in primary health care: We should be there. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66(5), 506-510.

Trentham, B., Cockburn, L., & Shin, J. (2007). Health promotion and community development: An application of occupational therapy in primary health care. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 26(2), 53-70.

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sisanda96-blog · 4 years

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Success of sustainable development goals in poor communities in S.A.

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim to provide a future for the young people that promises a healthy quality of life, avenues for lifelong learning and skill- developmental opportunities that ensure a life of dignity and justice (McCabe, 2007). SDGs recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

{Sustainable development framework. (Source: UNICEF 2013)}

In this blog I will be talking about five sustainable developmental goals that I thought are a problem to the community I am working with. The five SVGs that I will discuss are:

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all age, Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, End poverty in all its forms everywhere, Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Working in low-socio-economic communities requires for one to observe and pay attention to lot of things happening in a community. As occupational therapists it is in our scope to ensure quality of life to all. The first sustainable developmental goal I will discuss will be, ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Health care services in low socio-economic communities has always been poor. People from these communities has been struggling to receive equal health care as other communities. A wide range of risk factors, including maternal undernutrition, lack of exclusive breastfeeding, lack of access to clean water and sanitation, and lack of stimulation and learning opportunities. They live unhealthy lives not only because of health services but other economic factors such as poor sanitation, poor nutrition, poor housing, they are living under poverty a list can go on and on. This affects client’s health thus there is high mortality rate in children living under these conditions. As occupational therapist there are things that we can do to promote healthy lives and well-being of all people, in community that I work in there is a park that is run by occupational therapist where children, elders, and school going children engage in different activity to enhance their health and well-being. There is still more that can be done in this community to ensure healthy lives. Opening similar projects as the park that will accommodate youth, young adults and all other community members to engage in different activities and discussion groups that will help them face challenges they are facing in their families.

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. During apartheid era the black population did have not have a right to education. Most of black parents are not educated thus they do not understand much about education system. Government has built schools across South Africa; education is available to everyone. But there are considerations that need to be looked at in black communities regarding equal education. Children from these communities still do not get equal education and this is affected by many things such as poverty, children are going with empty stomachs and they are expected to do as good as those who gets everything they need, food schemes are provided in schools but it is not enough to other children and some of them only depend to those food schemes from school. Children does not have stationary, they don’t have school uniforms, some of them go miles and miles to school and they are expected to achieve as good as those with everything. Children with disabilities becomes a problem regarding education especially in poor communities. As occupational therapist it is important to screen all babies if there are any disabilities that might cause the child to have learning disabilities, it is important for these children to be put in special schools where they will be taught things that their mental states can handle. Issues of equity and inclusivity are crucial multilevel sources of influence on sustainable development of young people. Poverty, rural location, repeated exposure to environmental and other hazards, and belonging to an ethnic or language minority or low-caste group are consistently found to be key drivers of disadvantage and to be associated with children doing less well across a number of outcomes, including growth (United Nations, 2017).

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, Zulu culture is mostly influenced by patriarchy. Women has always taken as the minority in a family, the man is the head of the house. This patriarchy has affected most women in communities they are being physically and emotional abused by their partners. Even though it is not easy to go against cultural practises, but women are now able to fight for their rights and they are now being respected for that. As occupational therapist working in such communities, we should continue encouraging woman to fight for themselves and break this patriarchy that has been happening for ages. We should make brochure and posters on how women can stand up for themselves. The other problem is that most women are financially dependent to their partners and they tolerate being abused because of that, the other problem we should look at is that women who are not educated does not where to start reporting abuse, may be financial, emotional or physical. Occupational therapist needs to do health promotions about these issues faced by women. We need to come up with programs that will empower women and girls in these communities.

End poverty in all its forms everywhere. Poverty in South Africa is high due to high rate of unemployment. Most people are still leaving under poverty. Government has done lots of things to overcome poverty, there are different types of grants given to people that qualifies for it bust still there are high rates of poverty. They lack access to health in terms of appropriate environment, balanced nutrition, sanitation, potable drinking water, and health facilities. Absence of relevant knowledge and appropriate explanatory theories about the implications of access to these resources and their inability to assume responsibility of managing life situations exacerbates the situation of living under poverty (Nilsson, 2013). In black communities we find high rates of unemployment and people are not creating jobs for themselves, they are waiting to be employed but they do not even have qualifications for the jobs that they are looking for. Black communities should shift their minds from wanting to receive everything from government they should start being responsible for themselves this will help in fighting poverty. As occupational therapists it is our role to enables people to reach their full capacities/potentials, working in a community with high levels of poverty needs intervention of health care professionals. We can open programs like leisure activities where people will be taught skills that will help them gain income, things like gardening, woodwork, business skills like opening tuckshops.

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels. Investing in people through education and healthcare, social protection interventions, technologies, infrastructure, and natural capital is at the very heart of achieving the SDGs (Dye and Acharya 2017). Poverty in childhood is related to adverse developmental outcomes and is often the root cause of deprivation in adulthood. To promote the peaceful and inclusive societies occupational therapist need to work hard in promoting independent individuals that strive for self-development, in this way communities will overcome economic factors that we have been discussing above.

With these being said, South Africa sustainable development goals should focus more on low-socio economic communities. Equality is not yet achieved; people human rights are still violated by the government. If we all have a right to clean water so why are they still people who fetch water from the dams or lakes. There is still a long way that as health care professionals needs to do to provide good quality of health in communities. children development should be the focus of everything, if they grow in a warm environment it is more likely for them to be more independent and help their families to fight poverty. Let work hard to fight for development of our black children who are disadvantaged.

References

· McCabe, P., Lippert, C., Weiser, M., Hilditch, M., Hartridge, C. and Villamere, J., 2007. Community reintegration following acquired brain injury. Brain Injury, 21(2), pp.231-257.

· Griggs, D., Stafford-Smith, M., Gaffney, O., Rockström, J., Öhman, M. C., Shyamsundar, P., … & Noble, I. (2013). Sustainable development goals for people and planet. Nature, 495(7441), 305-307.

· Sachs, J. D. (2012). From millennium development goals to sustainable development goals. The Lancet, 379(9832), 2206-2211.

· Robert, K. W., Parris, T. M., & Leiserowitz, A. A. (2005). What is sustainable development? Goals, indicators, values, and practice. Environment: science and policy for sustainable development, 47(3), 8-21.

· Nilsson, M., Griggs, D., & Visbeck, M. (2016). Policy: map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals. Nature, 534(7607), 320-322.

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sisanda96-blog · 4 years

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Success of sustainable development goals in poor communities in S.A.

{Sustainable development framework. (Source: UNICEF 2013)}

In this blog I will be talking about five sustainable developmental goals that I thought are a problem to the community I am working with. The five SVGs that I will discuss are:

References

· McCabe, P., Lippert, C., Weiser, M., Hilditch, M., Hartridge, C. and Villamere, J., 2007. Community reintegration following acquired brain injury. Brain Injury, 21(2), pp.231-257.

· Griggs, D., Stafford-Smith, M., Gaffney, O., Rockström, J., Öhman, M. C., Shyamsundar, P., ... & Noble, I. (2013). Sustainable development goals for people and planet. Nature, 495(7441), 305-307.

· Sachs, J. D. (2012). From millennium development goals to sustainable development goals. The Lancet, 379(9832), 2206-2211.

· Nilsson, M., Griggs, D., & Visbeck, M. (2016). Policy: map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals. Nature, 534(7607), 320-322.

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sisanda96-blog · 4 years

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Clashing of therapist personality and that of the clients in Rural communities

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it, by Bruce Lee. Many theorists have explained personality similarly, for example (Larsen & Buss, 2005) explained personality as a set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that influence interaction, adaptations, intrapsychic, physical and social environment while (McAdams, 2006) explained personality as the scientific study of the whole person in his discussion he included, perception and attention, cognition, memory, neurons, and brain circuitry. Both definitions are well described and correct. In my understanding and wording, I would say personality is what makes a person, Humans are different yet similar in many ways, however, some things make a person unique to any other person. Many things created my personality like my values, culture, morality, believes, interests, how I view the world, and more other things that will be further explained in this blog.

As an up-coming therapist, we have been working with different people, coming from different environments, having diverse beliefs, values, cultures, attitudes, and all other factors that determine the personality. Above I mentioned that in my understanding personality is what makes an individual unique. This is a generic statement that anyone could think of when thinking of personality, but let’s further explain how all these factors I have mentioned can shape one’s personality. Firstly picture a person coming from a poor socio-economic community how does culture shape their personality, most of the people in poor socio-economic communities in KwaZulu Natal Durban follows a Zulu culture of which like any other cultures it has its expectations and rules that one should follow or obey, for an example in a Zulu culture a minor is not supposed to look at their elders when they are talking or having a conversation with them, this is very different from other cultures because practicing this when communicating with a person from a different culture may be seen as being disrespectful or as if you are not paying attention to what they are saying. With this, it shows how important one should understand other people’s personalities and diversity in them, by simply understanding or analyzing the factors that make up the personality especially those working with people like us occupational therapist.

There are many challenges that health practitioners face when treating patients/clients due to personality traits. Differences between the beliefs, values, and cultural customs of the occupational therapist and the recipients of her services caused conflict, (Taylor ,2005). I agree that It is important to understand and consider one’s personality but let us look at the case where a white female occupational therapist got her community service training job in a poor socio-economic community. In her first session, she comes across a very stubborn Zulu man who refuses to take off his shirt for upper limb assessments. This man’s personality is influenced by his culture, environment, how he defines morality, and how his community views the position of a man and a woman. Asking this man to take off his shirt he feels like he is being disrespected by this therapist, but the only way that this therapist can provide effective treatment to this client is by asking him to take off his shirt. How then do we deal with this situation, do we refer the client to the different hospital, or we cross our boundaries and force him to take off his shirt because we know that this is what is good for him. There are many other similar examples where the client’s personalities affect occupational therapy intervention.

The underlying philosophy of the western occupational therapy approaches that have so far informed practice around the world cannot theoretically account for all cultural differences, particularly the different needs of clients from non-western cultures (Iwama ,2005). Assessing and treating children from western countries vs children from developing communities will not be the same. Most of the approaches that occupational therapy uses to assess/treat are western. This finding shows that occupational therapist working on developing communities needs to assess the community needs, believes, and values before planning treatments/programs. As mentioned in the above argument that personality is influenced by many factors one of those factors is the environment one grew up to. Planning programs in poor socio-economic community’s therapists need to consider the personality of people in the community. For the program to be successful it must be specific to every participant of the group. Planning the program of children with learning disabilities at communities with poor socio-economic, therapist have to consider the environment, resources that are available at home, the relationship between the child and the mother, so you cannot plan a program that will require fancy resources, program that requires the level amount of education from the caregiver while a child leaves with an old grandmother. Using simply available resources that are available at home/in the community is therapeutic more than using resources that the family/ the group will not be able to afford.

Occupational therapy focuses on the well-being and health of all people. To engage the community in capacity building occupational therapy practitioners must be community-centered and apply the client-centered practice to the community (McColl ,1998). Understanding one personality will allow for therapist to provide client-centered treatment. The occupational therapist needs to assess the community so that the factors that influence personality in an individual will be considered during all the sessions and programmed planned for the clients. The good occupational therapist is not measured by how fancy the treatment is but how effective the treatment is to individuals.

References

Wilding, C., Curtin, M., & Whiteford, G. (2012). Enhancing occupational therapists' confidence and professional development through a community of practice scholars. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 59(4), 312-318.

Pollard, N., Alsop, A., & Kronenberg, F. (2005). Reconceptualizing occupational therapy. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 68(11), 524-526.

Bourke‐Taylor, H., & Hudson, D. (2005). Cultural differences: The experience of establishing an occupational therapy service in a developing community. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 52(3), 188-198.

Esquerdo Lopes, R., Paula Serrata Malfitano, A., Regina Silva, C., Leme de Oliveira Borba, P., & Selma Hahn, M. (2012). Occupational therapy professional education and research in

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sisanda96-blog · 4 years

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S.A. Health needs deeper strategies to improve maternal and child health.

Maternal and Child Health is a program that is conveyed through organizations and expands on other network programs. It could be a proactive, protection, and indispensable way to deal with propelling the incredible prosperity and improvement of pregnant woman. The program focuses to arrive at all pregnant women, with long haul support for those families who require additional managements, Pamela J. Surkan,Claudina E. Cayetano,Patrick Rwagatare,Kim E. Dickson (2013). Maternal and child health is very important especially in communities where there is little or no resources.

Study conducted in brazil outlined how Maternal and child health has improved during the years, The wellbeing and nourishment of Brazilian children has moved forward quickly since the 1980s, Cesar G Victora, Estela M L Aquino, Maria do Carmo Leal, Carlos Augusto Monteiro, Fernando C Barros, Celia L Szwarcwald Maternal and child health in Brazil: progress and challenges (2011). This study shows that around the world maternal and child health has been one of the problems that affected mothers and children health. The Maternal and Child health has been put into focus by most of the countries and it has been improving over the years. Even in our communities we are seeing more pregnant women in clinics, mothers are taking their children to clinics for immunization, even though there are still people who does not take maternal and child health serous but there has been a big improvement.

Every day, 1900 children acquire HIV-1 infection from their mother in Africa, Lancet (2002); 359: 2097–104. The Maternal and Child health aims in reducing these numbers, there are ways to prevent mother to child HIV transmission by accessing HIV-1 testing, reduction of unwanted pregnancies by education of HIV-1-infected women, and antiretroviral-based prevention. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 can occur during pregnancy, delivery, and post-partum through breastfeeding, Lancet (2002). My opinion on mother to child HIV transmission is parents negligent, every town has more than enough clinics for HIV testing and pregnancy check-ups, there is no excuse the mother can make to not access the clinic, in some other informal settlements the clinics are far, but government has been providing social grants to people access their basic needs.

The proportion of women receiving antenatal care and delivering in a health facility is very high, but the proportion of children receiving all vaccines can be improved upon, as can the timing of immunisation S Af, Med J 1997; 87: 456-459. Government has been working very well and providing resources to people. There are mobile clinics that work once a week in poor communities, this means maternal and child health is improving in S.A, but the question is why there are still children who are not benefiting from all of this. The health talks have been done, the radios have been used for awareness of maternal and child health. Most people are on social media and these things are communicated there, so why do we still have children who are infected by HIV and AIDS from birth?.

Stigma is a damaging social phenomenon, study of Henna Budhwani and Bulent Turan (2017) stated that, In the case of people living with HIV, stigma has negative effects on health outcomes, including non-optimal medication adherence, lower visit adherence, higher depression, and overall lower quality of life. I totally agree with this, most people who are in townships do not go to clinics to seek medical attention because of the stigma that since they are HIV positive they are going to die, or they are not supposed to be part of community because they might infect others. This is a stigma that mothers are facing, they end up not protecting their babies because of this. This end up affecting not only the mother but the child life.

Occupational therapy in communities, feedback we have been getting from the community that I am working at now is that people do not know what occupational therapy is. One may ask so who are you working with because they don’t know what you do. This is the most challenging thing that we have been facing with this community. Despite the widespread availability of free antenatal care services, most women in rural South Africa attend their first antenatal clinic late in pregnancy and fail to return for any follow-up care, potentially leading to avoidable perinatal and maternal complications, Landon, Myer Abigail, Harrison (2003). The gap of occupational therapist in this community is very huge but no one is noticing it because they don’t know. Most children there have learning difficulties this is the sign that something is going on in this community and it needs attention, but how can Occupational therapist make a change if they are still not recognized in this country, if people are still unaware of help they have around them. Mothers are suffering with depressions; they end up not taking care of their children. Who is going to intervene in such situations in townships? How are nurses going to deal with an HIV positive mother with depression? These are questions that I want people to ask themselves specially for communities that have poor economic statuses.

In conclusion maternal and child health goes a long way than just, pregnancy and upbringing of the child. It goes deeper to family, mental health of parents and impact of community environment. Maternal and child health is improving in S.A. but department of health has not go deeper to the root of most problems regarding maternal and child health.

References

1. Turan, Bulent; Budhwani, Henna; Fazeli, Pariya L; Browning, Wesley R; Raper, James L; et al.AIDS and Behavior; New York Vol. 21 (Jan 2017): 283-291.

2. Cesar G Victora, Estela M L Aquino, Maria do Carmo Leal, Carlos Augusto Monteiro, Fernando C Barros, Celia L Szwarcwald Maternal and child health in Brazil: progress and challenges (2011).

3. Turan, B., Budhwani, H., Fazeli, P.L. et al. How Does Stigma Affect People Living with HIV? The Mediating Roles of Internalized and Anticipated HIV Stigma in the Effects of Perceived Community Stigma on Health and Psychosocial Outcomes. AIDS Behav 21, 283–291 (2017).

4. Wilkinson, D., Cutts, F., Ntuli, N., & Karim, S. A. (1997). Maternal and child health indicators in a rural South African health district. South African medical journal, 87(4), 456-459.

5. Myer, L., & Harrison, A. (2003). Why do women seek antenatal care late? Perspectives from rural South Africa. Journal of midwifery & women's health, 48(4), 268-272.

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sisanda96-blog · 5 years

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Occupational therapy research day

Research day was one of the most memorable day ever, you could literally see the fear and anxiety in the eyes of the fourth years. From the morning, the event organizer making sure that everything is in order and every one of the third years knows their role. Everyone looking ever so formal. As the keynote speaker spoke to us, I could see the love for research in her eyes. Research is an activity of systematic enquiry that seeks answers to a problem (SOAS, 2019). She so badly wanted to convince us to take on research as one of our future endeavours. But she did enlighten me on the topic at hand, she gave the field of research a face, and using her lens you could the broad aspect of research and the change you could bring out as a research, the people you could affect, the lives you could, and the knowledge you could broaden. With all this, she also highlighted what research could do for you, your career and the doors it could open for you. She spoke about the use of imagination in research, this struck heart because everything starts with imagination and if you lack imagination you will never want to do more, bring about change and innovation. Because all the biggest inventions started as someone’s imagination, the greatest research ever is written was all imagination. No one ever brought about change by replicating stuff, thus, this is crucial component research, well in order to bring about new innovative research. She also mentioned how what happens in our unique context could be something mesmerizing in the northern hemisphere, thus it is important to do research that is for our context because we tend to rely on research from the western culture neglecting the fact that we are from different contexts and different backgrounds and what works in those countries will not necessarily work in our context and for our people due to vast amount of differences. She spoke a lot of sense, especially with the diversity in South Africa in terms of culture, race and languages.

They were very informative in terms of giving me a different way or perspective to view things. We sometimes forget to look at events holistically and scrape the surface by doing this we miss the components that influence life itself. To think as an OT student, “holistically” should be my second name but still… but that’s why we read and do a literature review to get insight into other people’s ideas to build the basis of our thoughts and ideas to form a foundation for us to imagine. But still research still looks really scary but that’s life it looks scary before you dive into the deep waters and gain an understanding of how to swim, but it’s up to you to choose whether you learn to swim or you drown due to a lack of initiative and volition to better self and train self-skills that are needed for you to be able to swim. Life operates by taking it one step at a time but with that you need to strategically plan every move in order to be able to reach the desired outcome. As there is a great importance of planning in life so is there in research reasons behind the research proposals, coming up with all the topics, problem questions, aims, objectives, and methodology etc needs careful scrutiny and planning. Apart from research, I learnt a lot from the interactive session we had after the presentations, from learning from each other and teaching each other and looking after each other as a collective, because you never know what’s going in the life of others even when you think you have it worse off but someone else could be going through things you can’t even begin to imagine, so be kind, be kind, be kind, and be kind. With this being said, this also applies to our clients, sometimes you can find your client not in the mood to do anything and if you don’t carefully analyze the situation you’ll just say “no my client is lazy” but what you don’t know is that they have their own battles that they are fighting and you as the therapist as suppose to be helping them get through them and not judge them. Because some of our clients are fighting mental battles that we can’t even begin to imagine so our job is not to judge them and think that they just want attention and they don’t want to do work but to find the underlying problem because by doing this you’ll be able to find the root of the issue affecting their abolition which in turn affects their function leading to them losing their independence to function in their areas of occupation.

With all this being said, keywords, imagine, innovate and always remember to be kind at all times, we all have battles that we are fighting. We are all going through something be it academics or personal, just because I joke a lot and I’m always happy it doesn’t mean that I don’t also go through stuff, so think before you talk, listen to yourself in your mind, respect the persons you work with or come across in my case, my colleagues, my supervisors, my clients and everyone else. Because we all people at the end of the day we have feelings we hurt, and we find joy. Like we aim to help our clients find their joy let’s not take it away from others. One of the fourth years spoke other communication, and I felt that because if you don’t communicate you end up building this inside and when you explode a lot of people get hurt in the process. So be kind. That’s if for my catharsis this week.

REFERENCES

SOAS (2019). Retrieved 5 October 2019, from https://www.soas.ac.uk/cedep-demos/000_P506_RM_3736-Demo/module/pdfs/p506_unit_01.pdf

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sisanda96-blog · 5 years

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Exam prep and gaining insight on psychological diagnoses by our guest speakers

You know-how information loses its interpretation when it goes through a lot of channels of communication because everyone gives it their own perspective and understanding thus it ends up losing true meaning. You know the saying that says it’s better to hear something straight from the horse’s mouth, well I felt that when we had exam prep and speakers with the conditions spoke to us.

I found that when I listened to the speakers that didn’t have the conditions that they spoke about, it felt like I was in a lecture and I didn’t gain any new information since it was stuff that I was already taught, I’ve had lectures on substance abuse which is the harmful or hazardous usage of psychoactive substances, such as alcohol and illicit drugs (WHO,2019); I’ve had lectures on autism which is a ‚spectrum disorder (a child’s symptoms can present in a wide variety of combinations, from mild to severe) (Speaks, 2011) and I’ve had lectures on down syndrome, which is a set of physical, mental, and functional anomalies that are a product from trisomy 21, the existence in the genome of three rather then the normal two chromosomes 21 (Epstein, 1989); this led to me not feeling as if it was of any importance or relevance to me at this stage of my life. But when the persons with conditions spoke to us, I felt enlightened, I felt as if I was able to get a glance into their lives and for a second try to understand what it is to be in their shoes. Remember what I mentioned about hearing something straight from the horse’s mouth, listening to the persons diagnosed with the conditions made me gain further understanding about what they go through and how they were treated by the health system and their experiences with the different health professionals. It opened doors to understand how they want to be treated and how they feel about their conditions and how it has impacted them in their lives and not merely the definition of their diagnoses but how it feels to live with the condition on a daily basis, how other people treat you and how they look at you.

And getting a chance to engage with them in such a platform, ask them questions and get their perspectives and learn their life stories was beyond amazing. To get to know which treatment strategies helped them and what they found beneficial from their occupational therapists was also really interesting and enlightening. It also showed that our profession is not just a mere profession, every single time we get a client, we are given a chance to change a life, make a difference and leave our footprints. For most of us listening to them made us learn to love the degree if we didn’t love it anymore, for those who loved it already it made them love it much more. You see with this degree your client’s give you the strength and courage to wake up in the morning. They give reason to love the degree because all that you do is for them, to improve their function, to improve their independence, to make their lives more enjoyable and to make their lives worth living and they reminded us this. Knowing that you are able to change lives is the greatest feeling in the world, for me, the greatest gift I could ever receive is the happiness of those around me and the happiness of persons brought about by my profession gives me immeasurable happiness.

References

Epstein, C. J. (1989). Down syndrome. In Abnormal States of Brain and Mind (pp. 43-44). Birkhäuser, Boston, MA.

Substance abuse. (2019). Retrieved 28 September 2019, from https://www.who.int/topics/substance_abuse/en/

Speaks, A. (2011). What is autism. Retrieved on November, 17, 2011.

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sisanda96-blog · 5 years

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My assessments and treatment planning so far

Occupational therapy assessments and occupatuonal therapy evaluation play important role in determining the specific areas a person os experiencing a deficiency in. We use standardised and non-standardise assessments. My first at prac i did interview with both of my clients. The experience was overwhelming, i didn't know where to start. But as i went on interviewing the client i saw that there is nothing to worry about. For me assessments were not that hard if you have planned how you are going to assess the client. The problem come when there's no planning at all. Standardised assessments like MSE needed me to observe the clients, and some other assessments forms were hard to understand. What also helped me to get information for my clients was to ask collateral information from the file and nurses, i also wanted to talk with the social worker but she hasn't been available for students lately. Assessments are so important because as OT we cannot start intervention without thara assessing the client, it was a bit difficult in my case because when i went to observe the client in a ward he is so different than when i am with him during sessions. He wants to appear so perfect infront of me. For all of us it was difficult to integrate the information we got in assessments and it was also hard to come up with problem list and prioritize according to more important problems. When i planned my treatment, in my mind i had that hope to improve because this id what we were taught in class, but realistically these clients has been to this chronic hospital for such a long time, si i had to shift my focus from improving to mauntaning, stimulating and encouraging. My treatment planning has been hard since i still don't understand what my other client biggest problem. I went to read up on his diagnosis and i notised that he has positive symptoms of schezophrenia, i also read possible treatment i could implement with him. Because treatment has to be client centered i then took my assessments findings wrote them all down, then i was able to figure out what to do. I am still learning most of the things i still struggle with but i am also confident i have learned a lot from my supervisor she have been very helpful. The next few weeks that are still coming i will make sure that i use my time productively to plan and implement my treatment. I will use feedback given to me to be better for the next session with the clients. We have frameworks that underpins how we go about treating our clients, these frameworks are important because they intergrate practice with theory. I still need assistance on planning treatment and analysing assessments to plan for treatment, i somehow manage to handle sessions quite well and i respect client's as much as i expect them to respect me. In conclusion occupational therapy in mental health has a significant important, as we provide treatment that ensures clients quality of life, occupational therapy provide treatment like, life skills training, cognitive rehabilitation, sopported education, social and interpersonal skills, meaningful leisure activities. All of these kinds of treatments help clients to cope and enhance their lives as a whole. References Monica jackman,MHS, 8 oct 2018 understanding different approaches to psychotherapy

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sisanda96-blog · 5 years

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My assessments and treatment planning so far

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sisanda96-blog · 5 years

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An Occupational therapy is born

Change!!!!! From a very warm quiet womb to a world so big full of people very noisy this is when a newborn brought to the world, and this was how i felt when i entered the world of OT. Confused, anxious, excited, disoriented, scared, worried all these wordsdescribes my feelings on my first year as an OT student. Coming from a rural area to a very big city is a very big change, and as we all know change can be good and change can also be bad. For myself it was both good or bad. What was good was that OT is born😊 and this was the most exciting part of my change. Most things were very bad though, from adjusting to live by myself at res to attending very big lecture vanue putted a strain on me. I wasn't taking everything very good, i struggled to make friends both in class and at res. I had minor depression i wanted to gi back home so badly. The worse was when i wanted to attend lectures i didn't have a timetable and a phone to ask the vanue i would always cry myself to sleep because i didn't attend. I struggled to get funding, i am writing this not because i want to be pitied to but because these were the reasons that could have made me quiet and go back home. PASSION!!! this is what kept me going , passion inside me for OT is like a burning fire which it flames escalate year by year. The fact that everything was not easy at the beginning of which even now it still is hard, my understanding of OT has grown in such a way that i know OT is not about me but it about clients who are desperately needs OT services or treatment. First year academically was not a very hard year. Anatomy was a bit challenging but it was not bad as we had practicals where we see exactly what we are studying in a textbook for me first year has been the most easiest. Then second year came, everything thing was hard. Practicals were the most exciting but stressful. Second year was like a child learning to walk it is exciting but there are more falls as the child learns. OT made me to work very hard. OT made me grow so big in such a way that i now see people different i even see the world so different. I am now on my third year growing as an OT, and everything is taking it tall now, i see more people wanting to change this degree because of amount of work we have. Even myself these kinds of thoughts are coming, but i understand that growing is not easy but it worthwhile. I have just wrote my experience growing as an OT and it quiet obvious that forth year won't be easy as well but i am looking forward to grow bigger and bigger in this OT journey🤗. I have read some articles that has also made me to tackle this journey one step at the time. This is the first article i read British Journal of Occupational Therapy 66 (12), 568-570, 2003 Nanthini Sivanesan this article shortly talks about a journey for occupational therapy undergraduates experience in practical, and this article outlined that students are not always ready for such huge responsibilities and that most students fear to use knowledge learnt in class due to lack of confidence. Sylvia Rodger, Cate Fitzgerald, Wendy Davila, Frances Millar, Heather Allison Australian Occupational Therapy Journal 58 (3), 195-202, 2011 What makes a quality occupational therapy practice placement? Students’ and practice educators’ perspectives This is also a good article i read, and it gave me good understanding of Occupational therapy.

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sisanda96-blog · 5 years

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My experience of prac prep and first week of prac

"Do it again" these were words of courage from our lecture during prac prap. Occupational therapy is passion to almost all of us because we are not only thinking about ourselfs but we think mostly about our clients, that is why OT is difficult but what i learnt in prac prec was even if i have failed once i have a chance to do it again not for myself but for those clients in need of therapist like OTs. My experience during prac prep, we were tought many important things to do during our psych block practicals, every lecture or supervisor that were there was helpful in a manner that i cannot explain. The facts that we were sitting with our supervisors was also very good because we got to meet and know each other, the task that we were given about mental health in South Africa and across the world was very helpful as i got to hear different opinions about mental health and our supervisor clarified important things about how us as OT need to look mental health here in KZN as many beliefs influence how people perceive mental health. The other thing that i found very helpful was when we were given slides on how to compile our case study formulations, like how use DSM 4 and DSM 5, and which applied of references we need to look at when treating patients with mental illness the important thing that was stressed more was that we need to choose applied frame of reference as client centered meaning we need to look at client as a whole and plan which reference to use. We were tought how to come up with treatment plan, goals and sub programme, this is very helpful because even on my first day of prac i had to observe the client and on my mind automatically i was thinking problems this client has, how can i prioritize them and how can i make my treatment meets client environment. What i also liked about that prac prep was that supervisors tried by all means to make us feel confidant about going to pracs vanues, no one was harsh and negative. It was very encouraging and helpful. The mental My experience on the first week of prac. I was very anxious on which clients i am going to work with but also i was looking forward ro start my practicals and to get to know my clients better. I was well prepared and i knew that it will not be easy as that is a chronic hospital and clients has been there for years. The prac venue is very big, occupational therapy has so many running projects, this is what i liked the most. When we walked around the hospital i was so scared of patients as they were all around and some wanted to touch me and i was not comfortable at all but i tried my best to show therapeutic face so that they let go of me. When i received my clients i thought i got the worst cases ever as the client was very difficult to talk to, she is has intellectual disability her thought processes are quite slow, she takes time to respond and her responses were not clear and were not true. The other client looked fine up until i made conversation with him. He has good memory but he lies so much, he is very manipulative and he never admit the truth. I am looking forward to learn how to treat these clients and from my first week i have hope that there is different i will make i their lifes and will make sure that i treat them as best i can possibly can. My assessments went really good even though i had not enough time to look the files and gets collateral information, next week I will make sure that i finish all my assessments so that i start to plan my treatment. In conclusion the first week was difficult but as our lecture said we can do it, and if it takes to do it again that is perfectly fine as long as we are learning and one day we will be called good therapist. No reference was used in this blog as i was expressing my experience.🌸

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sisanda96-blog · 5 years

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What I have learnt on a fieldwork block and about myself so far...

OT in the chronic psychiatric hospital...., it all about maintaining quality of life.

it funny how prepared I was to come to treat my clients as tought in class, but well, I have learnt so many things that it wasn't possible to cover all in class. The word maintenance was the last thing I ever thought about when preparing treatment for my clients. This became so different when I started to assess the clients holistically, I mean when I had to consider the age of the clients, the environment they are in, their level of function and all other assessment you can think of that are the fundamentals to plan treatment in occupational therapy.

What I learnt is that in chronic psychiatric hospitals, it is important to plan treatment taking a client as an individual with unique needs. I learnt that as I plan my treatments I need to look at my clients as a human being than as schizophrenia or intellectual disability. The most important thing is to maintain quality of life as these clients have been in this hospital for years, improving client factors and performance skills are also important to improve but not as maintaining and rehabilitating them. Occupational therapy is a profession vital to helping individuals with mental illness develop the skills needed to live life to its fullest (AOTA,2012).

What I have learnt about myself is that everything that I do, I do it with love, when I plan to handle my clients therapeutic it becomes easy to do that as I do it with love. I learnt that I work so hard as I am still learning most of the things I do not know, asking questions to my classmates and supervisor has been very helpful to me as a student who is still developing.

Review of articles I read for this blog

The mental issue with the best chronicity - schizophrenia, misery, and natural disorders - are those needing a recovery centre. While suitable medication treatment essentially lessens manifestations in many schizophrenics and depressives, many are unmanageable to medications and others experience a fast backslide or proceeding with social and professional impedes even with symptomatic improvement. The negative or shortage side effects of schizophrenia, for instance, represent a to a great extent unanswered test to the pharmacopoeia. Social withdrawal, detachment, anergy, carelessness, and anhedonia don't react too to neuroleptic sedates as do fantasies, fancies, and thought issue. Neither do medications show life and adapting abilities, aside from by implication through expulsion or decrease of indications? Most schizophrenic people need to learn or relearn social and individual abilities for survival in the network. ( Robert; B, 2015)

References

M Dillard, L Andonian, O Flores, L Lai… - … Occupational Therapy, 1992 - ajot.aota.org

Robert Paul Liberman, MD; David W Foy, PhD; Philip R A May, MD

Psychiatric Annals. 1983;13(7):539-547

https://doi.org/10.3928/0048-5713-19830701-04

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