OT Blog

I recently watch the movie The Accountant because it had been suggested to me by a friend that knows I have an interest in working with individuals with autism. I decided to write a neuro note on the movie because I think it provides a unique representation of a neurological disorder, as an action movie. The movie starts out in Christian’s childhood, as his parents take him to a specialist seeking help with this autism (ASD). Then flash forward to adulthood, Christian, is a savant with numbers and has used that to become a successful accountant, along with working as an ‘accountant’ for criminal organizations. The movie depicts how Christian goes through his life and his work with ASD. At one point in the movie Christian talks about how he doesn’t have relationships because he does not do well talking to others. He has a very specific schedule and  will panic if he cannot finish a task, shown to impact his life significantly. At the end of the day he applies sensory input (ove...

Rachel presented her case study on Allie Calhoun from The Notebook, who has Alzheimer's. I saw the movie a long time ago and didn't really remember it, so I thought it was interesting to hear about the movie from an OT perspective. I liked how she talked about an OT encouraging a client that was recently diagnosed with dementia to journal. In the movie, Allie wrote her story out and told her husband that when she forgets that she wants him to read it to her. While this was just from a movie, our group talked about how this would actually be a great thing for not only the client, but also for the family members to have that to look back on. We also had a good conversation about what Sundowner's Syndrome is, and I thought it was interesting that it seemed like most of us had an experience with an individual with dementia that experienced Sundowner's. We also talked about how it is important for an OT to help the individual and their loved ones to fully understand the dis...

Today I presented my case study on Trevor Conklin from the movie The Fundamentals of Caring. Trevor has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Before the case study I didn't know much about MD, so doing the case study was very educational. I learned that DMD is just one of 9 types of muscular dystrophy, which surprised me because I don't really hear a lot about MD. While all types are different, all affect males more than females. My group was very attentive while I was presenting the case study and had questions/comments to add. Cameron had even done a big project in undergrad on DMD, so we were able to talk a lot about the disease. Overall, I think the presentation went well, and I would recommend everyone to watch this great movie!

Huntington's is interesting because of its genetic cause, meaning that people who have a parent with the disease has a 50% chance of also having the gene expansion that causes the disease. Even if a younger person does not have symptoms, they can be tested to determine if they have gene expansion that causes the disease. I think this would be a very difficult decision, to get tested for a disease that little-nothing can be done for, or to not get tested and live life until the symptoms start (or don't). Heather (from Tim's case study) made the choice to get tested early and knows at the age of 19 that she has the disease. Tim mentioned taking preventative measures before the symptoms really kick in, like labeling things in the house and writing out step-by-step processes of things that she normally does for when the memory decline begins. After hearing the intervention measures, I can definitely see the benefits to getting tested early just out of preparation for symptoms.

After hearing about this movie for some classmates, I decided to do some research on Me Before You . This movie is about a young adult, Will Traynor, who was in an accident resulting in a Spinal Cord Injury (level not disclosed, but presumably a cervical level and complete). Before his accident, he was a world traveler and very athletic. The movie begins after his injury when a girl, Lou, is hired to be his caregiver. Because of his injury, Will has become depressed and angry, refusing to leave his house or partake in any activity that he 'used to' be able to do. Picture retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Me-Before-You-Emilia-Clarke/dp/B01GIIVF6K Before deciding to find this movie and watch it for this assignment, I did some research, because I remember there being a controversy about it. I found out that although his caregiver does all she can to make Will want to live, he choses to end his life through assisted suicide. I learned that the controversy was about t...

Starting out with anatomy and evidence based practice, I was craving to learn about OT, the whole reason I am here. This course was a great intro to the field and got me excited about the future! I like how we learned about the OTPF-3 as we were learning about ways to use ourselves and our unique characteristics and creativity to work with clients. Instead of just going exactly by some instruction sheet of how to treat a client, we went through the OTPF and then blogged about our personal experiences and views that make us unique as professionals.  Before this course, when someone would ask me what occupational therapy was, I would just throw out a jumble of words that didn't even make sense, I'm sure they walked away more confused than they were in the first place! Just last week I was with my parents at a store and the worker asked what I was in school for, and had no idea what OT was. I was able to give my elevator speech, that I learned in this class and give a clear expla...

I thought this case was interesting because Rowdy was an olympic swimmer when he was diagnosed with GBS. He was in peak physical shape when he got the disease and then made a very fast recovery. We have discussed how someone's physical state before injury/disease is important in recovery. I think that also being a person that constantly trained helped him and his commitment to rehab. Having the motivation and mental stamina helped him in recovery and he was able to qualify for the olympics again 4 year after diagnosis. In his case, I am sure that being able use a pool as a means and an end for his intervention was very helpful. Although a person's interest may not be as clear as using pool therapy to regain enough strength to swim in the olympics, this just shows how important it is for a therapist to look at the individual and their interests when planning and implementing intervention.

Before Sarah's presentation the only knowledge I had of Stephen Hawking was from the TV show The Big Band Theory, so today was obviously a more educational experience. I had no idea that he was diagnosed at such a young age of 21, being healthy and not having any risk factors. I also thought it was really interesting how he controls all of his devices (speech, typing, chair, alarm clock, etc.), using the infrared sensor that is controlled by movement of a muscle in his cheek. Sarah mentioned an OT intervention to maintain the activity of the muscle in his cheek, which I'm sure is one of his biggest goals so that he can continue to communicate and engage in his daily occupations. Lastly, I really liked that Sarah stressed the importance of OT intervention with the caregiver. Because Stephen uses so many high-tech assistive technology devices and needs assistance to take care of them, educating his caregiver(s) on maintenance of the devices is critical in ensuring that he can en...

No matter where you work as an OT, you are going to encounter someone from a different culture, or that has different beliefs than you.   While it would be nice to say that every OT should understand the exact differences in every culture that they will encounter, it’s just not possible. So as students, I think that gaining experience in the field will help us learn ways to understand people different than us and how to treat them according to their beliefs, even if they aren’t ours or if we don’t understand them. Although I am not proud to admit it, I stereotype people, for example, expecting that people from the north act different and maybe even ‘rude’ as opposed to those from the south with ‘southern hospitality’, even though I know many people from the north that are very nice, and lots of people from the south that aren’t. In order to further develop cultural competency and to be a better student/OT, I think it is important to self-reflect and realize any bi...

As mentioned in a previous blog, I am interested in the emerging area of health prevention and promotion. Looking at the AOTA’s emerging fields, I am also very interested in the population of adults with autism. In undergrad, I had the chance to do an internship at a place called Sunshine Industries, which is a place that employs individuals with disabilities when they graduate high school and finds meaningful employment in the community for them. Some work at Sunshine, but others have jobs in the community, like at Kroger. In recreation therapy, we would go as a group to the mall or to downtown for dinner. Many of the individuals at sunshine had autism. Before this internship, I did not think I had an interest in working with adults, now I am definitely interested in the field. For adults with autism, integration into the community is essential. We spent much of our time just helping them understand what things are and are not appropriate to do in public, and helping them find ways t...