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 Kaplanis someone who seems to have taken Frank's advice and writes for the OT Advocacy blog. She presents theDeath With Dignity Act Implemented on March 4thAll 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.
"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
So rather than just post about it I've decided we should do it! So I'm announcing the inaugural edition of the Occupational Therapy Carnival which will be published on the 9th March.
For those of you who don't know:
A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly.[1] Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks to other blog articles on the particular topic.
But why have one? As more and more OT bloggers appear using a carnival offers an opportunity to harness our collective enthusiam and knowledge in one place. For people who dont use the internet so much it can be a great digest of recent OT blog activity and gives a way to connect. Blog Carnival explains:
There is so much stuff in the blog-o-sphere, just finding interesting stuff is hard. If there is a carnival for a topic you are interested in, following that carnival is a great way to learn what bloggers are saying about that topic. If you are blogging on that topic, the carnival is the place to share your work with like-minded bloggers.
For this first edition I welcome any submissions on any topic to get us going. I would also like people to nominate themselves to host subsequent editions, and suggest topics to focus on.
Please help make this a success by contributing and publicizing the carnival. I really look forward to your thoughts.
Use the blog carnival widget on the right hand pane to submit an article and refer to the blog carnival FAQs for more information. If you need any help or information just leave me a comment or get in touch via Twitter.
Ponderances, comments, possibly even rants! My opinions are are just that and do not necessarily reflect that of my employer or any other therapist.
I am an OT currently working in a regional specialist service for (predominately) electronic assistive technology: Environmental Control (EC), Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and computer access. I have previously worked in social care, community rehabilitation and acute services. I spent two years working in the US and would love to travel again soon!
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