Monday 9 March 2009

Occupational Therapy Blog Carnival Edition #1!

Welcome to the March 9, 2009 edition of occupational therapy. This is the inaugural edition so it's very exciting! Thanks so much to the contributors and those people who have offered to host upcoming editions.

I was a bit worried about not specifying a topic for this first edition but I didn't want to scare people off submitting a post. I'm really pleased to say that we have a great series of posts which capture the exciting range and diversity of the profession.

Theory
Angela Hook presents Core Values or Core Skills ?........... You decide posted at Salford University Occupational Therapy Education Blog. Not only was it a fascinating post tackling a central issue for OTs, but created lots of discussion, both on the blog and on Facebook. Defining what we do, our skills and beliefs has always been one of the great challenges for our profession. On Twitter @HeatherOT and I wondered about asking OT twitters to define OT in a tweetable 140 characters. Heather came up with
"PTs will teach you to walk, OTs will teach you to dance. We focus on higher level functioning to be able to perform all ADL"
Building on this theme Adiemusfree (Bronnie Thompson) presented Talking about roles in pain management posted at HealthSkills Weblog, saying, "Thanks for starting this carnival!" Bronnie highlights the importance of balancing core skills with the ability to share skills as part of a cohesive team. Interdependence, as opposed to independence as a strength in a team approach.


Frontiers of practice
Andy Levy presents The best book I never read posted at Gosh, that's neat! which he describes as "A pseudo-review of Occupational Therapy Without Borders: Learning from the Spirit of Survivors" The book he describes is written by Frank Kronenburg, the daddy of looking outside the OT box. As Andy underlines, his inspirational view of OT serves as a call for all OTs to "go forth and occupy"!


Alece Kaplan
is someone who seems to have taken Frank's advice and writes for the
OT Advocacy blog. She presents the Death With Dignity Act Implemented on March 4th All OTs working with people facing terminally illness should be aware of the legal and political drivers in their country of practice, as well as their own feelings, prejudices and anxieties around the complex area of suicide/euthanasia.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Centre for Brain Fitness at Baycrest: Interview with Dr. William Reichman posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, "we have an opportunity to make major progress in Brain Health in the XXI century, similar to what happened with Cardiovascular Health in the XX, and technology will play a crucial role". OTs are have excellent skills in using technology to meet our clients goals and we should consider the expanding role we may be able to play in the area of "brain fitness". OTs are already engaging well with the concept of Wiihabilitation and the benefits it can play in a range of practice areas.



Learning in Practice


Margaret Rice presents 10 Things They Don't Teach You In School - Learning on the job as a school based therapist posted at Your Therapy Source. Although Margaret has a background in Physical Therapy her practical advise is great for all therapists and therapy students starting work in an educational setting.

And another thing......

I thought it might be good to also feature a news article related to OT which caught my eye. Take a look at this dutch study which showed the effectiveness of OT interventions for people with Alzheimers.
"The Dutch folks found, first, the OT treatment program was considered a substantial success about one-third of the time. Next, they found the average cost of care of the group that had the OT program was about $2,600 less than the regular treatment group."
I think that OT's (in the UK at least!) often worry a lot about marketing and evidencing their service. This encouraging research demonstrates that good quality therapy can also be cost effective. We shouldn't be afraid to "describe by the dollar", in fact we must to ensure the future of OT in an increasingly financially pressured world.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of occupational therapy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

The next edition of the carnival will be hosted by Bronnie Thompson at the Healthskills Weblog.
The closing date for submission is 3rd April and the carnival will be published on 6th April.

Subscribe to the carnival at it's permanent home here

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13 comments:

  1. This is awesome! I can't wait to read them all. I'm going to post it on my blog. I feel really, really sheepish - I've been mulling over a topic for the blog carnival but I had this idea it was still a while off. I was shocked to see it show up today!! I guess I lost track of time. I am sorry!! Alright, enough excuses - will start reading. Congrats to all who participated and THANK YOU SO MUCH to *YOU* for putting this all together, it was a wonderful idea. :)

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  2. Wow how speedy are you! Thanks for the feedback, on a high!!! Need you there next time for sure - how about hosting an edition?

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  3. This is a great idea... really interesting - thanks

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  4. This is great, I really enjoyed reading all of the blogs. Thanks so much for including me-I can't wait for the next Carnival :) (Also, YES, I would love to host one!)

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  5. Thanks Alece, will def ask you to host an ed too. Thanks for your support.

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  6. Woohoo! you did it! Way to go, and an excellent roundup.

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  7. well done - sorry I missed this go-around..

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  8. Thanks for hosting this really useful collection! I found some great new OT blogs I hadn't known about before. I have to admit that I was skeptical about this format having never seen it before. I am now a believer! Allow me to be so bold as to say (pun intended): THERE CAN BE NO DOWNSIDE TO ANY ACTIVITY THAT PROMOTES THOUGHTFUL DISCOURSE AMONGST US. I humbly offer my site for any future editions should anyone find it worthy.

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  9. Thanks everyone for your positive comments (and for your conversion Andy! - will take you up on the hosting offer!). It would be great if everyone can promote the carnival to really get it going. I am going to speak to WFOT and see if there is some way we can add a feed for the carnival to news part of the site. What do you think? Great way for people to get an overview of what new in the world of OT.

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  10. it was a great collection of blogs.....a eyeopner sort off.....thankyou.

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