typicalot

[typicalot]

What is Occupational Therapy? Please visit www.OTontario.ca for more information about what OT’s can do for you.

[typicalot]

yup that's me

[typicalot]

It's pretty sad reading this - seems like theres some occupational injustice, but this mother's advocating for herself and for her son. #keepgoing

The sign is clipped to Peters’ backpack on weekday mornings as she and Deckard make their way, hand in hand, across the city to his behavioural therapy appointment. They take the bus and two trains, followed by a walk. Seventeen subway stops and one train change. When all goes according to plan it takes about an hour. At 3 p.m., they do it all over again to go home. Peters has mixed feelings about labelling her son in public. But last fall, after almost a year of commuting, Deckard started becoming more aggressive in the crowds and delays that plague the TTC. On good days, he was a happy guy with an impish grin and a ton of energy who raced to push the elevator buttons at the station and loved to watch the trains approach. But on bad days when he was overwhelmed, he’d begun to rebel by squealing, kicking or hitting. On the bus one day, a lady told her to control him when he was swinging his legs as they dangled beneath his seat. Other passengers have scolded him and then complained “wow, he’s not even looking at me.” Children with autism often don’t make eye contact. He’s had fits after being knocked over in crowds or being pushed out of the way by passengers clamouring for seats. Peters had to do something to stop the glares, gasps and comments, which would only ratchet up their anxiety levels and exacerbate his behaviour. “Honestly, I don’t always have time to apologize to everyone when I’m in crisis mode,” she says. “I try to, but I have a kid who needs a lot of support.” The homemade sign shifts the dynamic.

http://t.thestar.com/#/article/life/2015/02/20/toronto-mom-carries-sign-to-alert-strangers-about-sons-autism.html

[typicalot]

This is perfect

[typicalot]

Reflections with flowers, cause life ain't a bed of roses. Life is about stopping by and smelling all the different flowers in your life. 

This first week of school was fast. I am simply impressed by how there was so much autonomy given to the clients, and how the therapists were making efforts in returning control to the 'patients'. I wonder if returning autonomy to the client is culture-specific. I also question my country's ability in producing such services that return the autonomy to the clients -- such that the entire programme is run by the participants themselves.

It is also my humble wish to see adults with autism to be self-sufficient. 

Today's session has shown me how to be more critical towards the occupational therapy programmes, and I am definitely thinking twice about how these programmes might fit into my country's context.

I shall type more tomorrow:)

signing off, the typical occupational therapy student

[typicalot]

“Occupational” interventions have the following characteristics to varying degrees: purposefulness or goal-directedness; meaningfulness to the individual; wholeness or finiteness, an inherent beginning, middle and end and the multidimensionality possessed by an activity in context, the human and his or her multiple systems-emotional, cognitive, perceptual and physical-interacting with the environment

pp. 354, McLaughlin Gray, 1997

[typicalot]

ICF and occupational therapy

This was this week's learning objective.

It did not sound like anything occupational therapy-ish and definitely had me underestimating its impact on my learning. THERE WAS SO MUCH TO LEARN ABOUT THE ICF><

Nonetheless, I'm really liking the learning that we're going through at my school - getting us to think about learning objectives, and then coming back together to share our findings. The generation of new questions or doubts would undoubtedly emerge and this type of learning is much more engaging as compared with the traditional mode of teaching.

The ICF seems to be moving in the direction of becoming practice based, with its recent development of assessment tools, core sets and also documentation tool. What is the WHO's real objective on developing these tools - really?

None can deny that the activities and participation factor/qualifiers is not comprehensive enough to encompass the subjective components to participation, and the person's ability to make decisions about which occupations to engage in. This is the direction that we should be advancing towards - to delivering occupation-based intervention and treatments. And ultimately leading to clients being satisfied with therapy outcomes and resulting in eudaimonic well-being. Really hoping for occupational therapists to have a larger say in the next revision of the ICF. 

Lets go, lets make a difference!

signing off, the typical occupational therapy student

[typicalot]

Children, too, have the right right to enjoy running. 

Just love this picture. Disability doesn’t mean inability. 

[typicalot]

Thank you otloving for sharing this article, made me think a lot about how people with disabilities do have the same rights to enjoy life. They are nothing less than everyone and they have the basic rights of being human. Being human can be subjective in everyone's perspective, but generally I suppose all of us are given the freedom of speech, the right to enjoy meaningful ADLs and the right to love. This sharing was inspirational, and I do hope to see more of this happening in our urban society :)

“He’s like an angel. When he was younger, he would pass by our store everyday. He couldn’t speak back then. He couldn’t even say his name, but he always passed by the store and gave off the warmest feelings. My father began to invite him in, and soon he was coming by the store every day to play. When he started spending time with us, he began to improve very quickly. We told him we needed his help with the shop. We think that all he needed was something to hope for. He began to tell us all about his feelings. He visited with everyone who came into the shop. He learned bits of English and Japanese. He changed our lives so much. My father loved him like a son, and he loved my father. They would always laugh together and dance together. When my Father died, he was very sad for five months. He still prays for my father every time he eats a meal. Lately, all he can talk about is a girl in his class that he wants to marry. She also has Down Syndrome. Every day he talks about the wedding he will have, and he invites everyone he sees. He has invited over 5,000 people so far. He tells each person what they are supposed to bring to the wedding. His father will not allow him to get married. But we are thinking about having a ‘wedding party,’ and inviting everyone in the town.”

(Jerusalem)

[typicalot]

Goals that individuals view as important, and to which they are committed, are effective because these goals are self-relevant and self-defining.

Christensen, 1999, p.553

Relevant quotation from AJOT, 1999 article on "Defining Lives: Occupation as Identity: An Essay on Competence, Coherence, and the Creation of Meaning" by Charles H. Christiansen.

I've been learning a lot about meaningful goals. This paragraph from his essay highlighted the power of moving towards our 'possible selves'; and this triggered my thoughts - because we have individual 'possible selves' that each of us yearn to move towards to. Occupational therapists therefore ought to spend more time with our clients, understanding their 'possible selves' or 'goals' that they would like to achieve - so that we may harness this motivation within the individual whom we are working with.

Timely reminder, indeed.

signing off, the typical occupational therapy student

[typicalot]

Given their (occupational therapists') experience in the therapeutic use of occupation to foster health and life satisfaction, occupational therapists are ideally situated to play a major role in the design and administration of preventive health care for elders

Florence Clark, 1998 (at the 2nd Australasian Occupational Science Symposium in Perth, Australia)

[typicalot]

fourth & fifth week

just realised i did not write any reflection notes for week 4, whoops!

week 4 marked the last week of my Irish professor's presence, and I pretty much presume we would still see him when we're in Dublin. We wrote notes to state how much we'd miss him and I wasn't sure how much of that was necessary initially, until this week. (O well, I kind of miss his sharp and critical comments) I daresay his sharp & critical comments undoubtedly triggered my thinking and forced me to think more critically. on hindsight, this also means I need to be critical of my own thinking, to sharpen my thoughts and hopefully sharpen the words i share during groups.

otherwise, week 4 went pretty fast. attempted to do more research on the usage of the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance - Engagement on Asian population -- and to my dismay, little studies reported the usage of CMOP-E moreover on Asian populations.

this week will be a fast week too, with today being Diwali or Deepavali - a gazetted public holiday for my country. and with two days left of this week - what could be more difficult? lets go, lets go, lets go! :)

signing off, the typical occupational therapy student

[typicalot]

Occupational Therapy is the art and science of enabling engagement in everyday living, through occupation; of enabling people to perform the occupations that foster health and well-being; and of enabling a just and inclusive society so that all people may participate to their potential in the daily occupations of life.

Townsend & Polatajko, 2007, p. 372

[typicalot]

third week

the third week went past really quickly, possibly owing to the fact that it was a 4-day week for all of us. 

significant events include digesting the Model of Human Occupation and really attempting to understand the applicability of this model in the local context, and it was interesting to participate in a conversation on the applicability of MOHO in different practice settings.

I also enjoyed looking at 'occupation' from Kielhofner's point of view, and that humans are occupational beings. I enjoyed the week overall - though nasty things happened with the scholarship as well. 

One thing's for sure, God is in control.

signing off, the typical occupational therapy student

[typicalot]

Life takes on meaning in the minute-by-minute reality in which we experience ourselves achieving the ordinary things….

—Gary Kielhofner (1949–2010)

[typicalot]

First day of week three

So I spent my weekend figuring out client-centered practice and attempted to pull out relevant chunks of information that strengthened the need for occupational therapists to be client-centered from the 3 assigned articles. 

It was undoubtedly a feat, and I thought it was a good one that had allowed me to consolidate two weeks' worth of knowledge. 

I am still getting used to this entire structure of problem-based learning, and I have no doubts that it would improve our soft skills - in areas of team-work, actively listening to our team mates. I also liked that we were in charge of our own learning, though many may argue that the flip-side would mean countless readings to enrich your learning. Two weeks of setting into this new routine.

Week three here we go! I am sure this week would pass by without me noticing it. Positive thinking only!

signing off, the typical occupational therapy student

[typicalot]

Clinicians have to be able to continually evaluate the care they give and be accountable for providing the best possible care

Christensen, 1996