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Our new topic brought to you by ADVANCE editor EJ Brown: Going Upstream.


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Get the latest news and views about the OT profession & post YOUR comments below!

Webcast Archive:

Right Click Here to download E.J. Brown: Going Upstream

Click here to download our Interview with Maureen Mulhall, IOTA Lobbyist

Click here for our special news webcast: Surviving Flight 1549

Right Click Here to download Bill Benoit, MBA, MOT, OTR/L: On the Road to 2017

Right Click Here to download Helene Lohman, OTD, OTR/L: Obama's Health Care Plan - What It Really Means

Right Click Here to download Why Banks Can't BlameBorrowers

Right Click Here to download The Word Even Webster's Doesn't Understand

Right Click Here to download Hijacking Licensure

Right Click Here to download The Closest Thing to Being There

Right Click Here to download Building the Spokes of the Wheel

Right Click Here to download People Who Aren't There Anymore

Right Click Here to download The Fred Phenomenon

Right Click Here to download Blind Sided

Right Click Here to download Why Hinojosa Went Wide



 

In re: "People Who Aren't There Anymore"
I clearly recall Irene Hollis when she visited with our students at the (then) College of Health Sciences in Roanoke Virginia, in 1996. She was living in a retirement community in North Carolina and stated proudly that she was doing more work with those "old folks" than she ever intended. I had asked her to speak with our OTA students about orthotics and how to make things for adaptive devices when all that was at hand was the everyday items of a common household.
Well, she brought with her a suitcase crammed full of devices that she had made over 40+ years, some of which (made of orthoplast long yellowed) fell to pieces during her demonstration. She brought hand splints that she'd made in Korea, out of old gasoline cans, tactile stimulation she'd made out of wire coathangers and a child's foam rubber ball and splints that were rivited and made dynamic, using cabinet hinges! She advised students to get to know tools, materials and techniques that came from craft work, plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, plastics, metal work and on and on. The more general and divierse one's knowledge, the greater the possibility of bringing something of value to the client. Irene Hollis was irrasible and a true world traveling OT pioneer who I miss as a constant source of down-to-earth, therapeutic gizmo making and wisdom.

Noel Levan,  OT,  home health agencyFebruary 12, 2008
Harrisonburg, VA



A response to "Building the Spokes of the Wheel":
As an OT practitioner of over thirty years, and an academic program director (and creator of five educational programs over eighteen years) I advocated that "every client brings mental health issues to the OT process regardless other diagnoses". With that said I made every effort to ensure that every student understood the complexities of the health illness continuum and with other program faculty, wrote curriculum content to address mental health/illness in every course. I further insisted that whether the client was a neonate, a teen, an adult or octagenarian, every one deserved to have their emotional, and spiritual needs addressed; particularly when those issues might not be clearly visible upon initial interaction with the client. Level I Fieldwork assignments always included analyses of client mental health issues as well as therapeutic responses to them. And I recall being so diisappointed when students (who really wanted them) could not secure mental health level II fieldwork placements. Those who did manage to locate and secure those "few and far between" placements were always the richer for their experiences, and for my part I feel that they have been made better therapists specifically for those expereiences. I'll support anything that AOTA can/will do to further Quality Mental Health Practitioner practices.

Noel Levan,  OT,  home health agencyFebruary 12, 2008
Harrisonburg, VA



I agree that AOTA has not been responsive to its members' needs nor respectful of the voices which would agree with JH in his desire for inclusiveness! If we would stop reacting reflexively to other professions' plans, polictics, and ranting, then we could LISTEN as in a new Practice Survey, perhaps, and really take the measure of OTs working today. Yes, I use whatever works, and the switch from U.T. to the Framework is just another attempt to 'package' the OT profession, rising not from real world examples, but a desire to force a new taxonomy down our throats. Thank you for listening1

margo Gross,  Assistant Professor,  Sacred heart UniversitySeptember 01, 2007
Fairfield, , CT




     

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