Foundations of Occupation Centered Practice

I had the rewarding opportunity to go watch a basketball practice of the Division 1 team named Rolling Grizzlies of Memphis!  I had never heard of this team nor really knew wheelchair basketball was performed at a national level so this was all a new experience.  Before the practice began, the coach came over to us and briefly explained the concept and how they play by the same rules as NCAA College Basketball with minor differences such as two pushes on the chair counts as a travel.  He tells us about some of the players, one of which was on his way to the NBA before his injury.  Another player had some sort of disease where he was once paralyzed and played wheelchair basketball in college but is now able to walk.  Another teammate was also able to walk but we weren't given his story.  I found it interesting they were still allowed to play on the team.  As they all entered the gym, I noticed how they were transferring out of their typical chair to the...

Trans Fatty Lives is a documentary about a man named Patrick O'Brien who was diagnosed with ALS at the age of thirty.  Prior to his diagnosis, his persona was TransFatty and he enjoyed making music, films, and artistic photography and continued his passion of these things throughout his ALS journey.  At the time of his diagnosis, he was making a film about an old restaurant he loved named Howard Johnson's.  He asked his film crew to instead turn the cameras onto him once he was diagnosed with ALS.  Patrick seems to be dedicating several messages and his story to a little boy, his son, who we aren't sure about until later.  This documentary took me on a very emotional ride where I often was laughing while I had tears running down my face.  Patrick had a great way of turning the unthinkable into some odd humor that you couldn't resist laughing at.  For example, in one very powerful scene where Patrick was pleading to not have a tracheotomy as he was gasp...

Conceptual Model of OT Piktochart

"Inside the O'Brien's" was such a touching book and I am so happy I had the opportunity to read it, especially as we learn about Huntington's Disease.  Throughout the story, I oddly found myself laughing which was a weird sensation but I love the dry humor the author still applied considering the circumstances of what Joe and the family were going through.  There were many events leading up to Rosie wanting Joe to go to the doctor because things were just really off.  Getting dressed one morning, he couldn’t find his gun anywhere and was convinced his wife or kids hid it from him or misplaced it but no one had placed it where it was found.   During this incident, he expressed extreme rage to his family that took everyone aback.  Pouring drinks into the dinner glasses one night, his grip completely gave out and the glass pitcher shattered on the table with everyone looking around in confusion.   While working, he s taggered getting out of his car one day and...

Lotje Sodderland is a 34-year old woman who sustained a inter-cerebral hemorrhagic stroke as she was home alone in her apartment.   She became overcome with confusion, disorientation, and could barely bring herself to get off her bed.   She found it in herself to get out of her apartment and to a place downstairs where she collapsed in their bathroom where people saw her and were able to call an ambulance.   Lotje woke up feeling confused and didn’t remember much but she had full motor ability and showed no physical signs of stroke.   In a short amount of time, her family and those treating her noticed severe cognitive delays and deficiencies in her language, logic, memory, reading, writing, and occasionally her sensory perception.   She would begin a sentence and suddenly forget what word to use, would recognize an object but couldn’t remember the word used to describe it, couldn’t write her name or words, and couldn’t read.   As someone who used to be i...

The Sensory Integration (SI) frame of reference focuses on how the interaction between the sensory systems including auditory, vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile, and visual systems, provides integrated information that contributes to a child’s learning and adaptive behaviors. The key consideration is that children have the abilities to make adaptive responses to constantly changing sensory environments.  Interventions using the SI frame of reference include use of therapeutic equipment to provide children with various sensory opportunities, with at least two of these three sensations ( tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive ). Sensations are provided in a structured environment, graded to a greater or lesser intensity depending on the needs of each child. The outcome of successful sensory integration is the participation in daily life activities and will enhance fulfillment of the children’s roles, like being a student in the classrooms that include constantly changing sensory i...

In relation to public health, AOTA's Vision 2025 considers health to be the wellbeing of one's mental, physical, and social state in the population we serve.  Some key signs that you are healthy are having the ability and energy to perform the occupations that have meaning to you as well as when your mind isn't racing, resulting in stress.  Occupational therapy-directed health promotion is the client-centered use of occupations, adaptions, or alteration of context to maximize the pursuit of health and quality of life for people, groups, populations and communities.  There are primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions that aim to reduce threats to health that include prevention, reducing risk of a condition or injury, and limiting the impact of an ongoing illness.  OTs are set apart from other professions in health promotion by how they p rovide recommendations and training for caregivers, d etermine whether patients can live independently, a ddressing existing d...