This blog began as a journal of a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travel Award visit to the USA to study how Lifestyle Redesign could be used in Occupational Therapy to improve the hospital/home interface for older people. It has continued to record developments and inspiration gained from that experience since returning from Los Angeles early in 2012.

3 Reasons to follow this blog...

Be Inspired-
WCMT travel awards are open to all British citizens

Be Involved- learn about Lifestyle Redesign programs and contribute to the discussion about the potential of this approach.

Be Information Technology savvy- just learning how blogs work is a new skill for many of us!


Thursday 22 September 2011

Blogs about OT

I have been hunting around on the web for other blogs about OT. There aren't very many yet, but I found this list on the New Zealand Association of OT website.

Wednesday 14 September 2011

What the study visit is about...


 
As an Occupational Therapist (OT) working with older people in hospital, I am aware of the challenge of the ageing population.
Lifestyle Redesign, an innovative approach developed in the USA, has produced convincing evidence that occupational therapy can provide sustained, cost effective improvements in the health and wellbeing of older people. I had read about it and heard Professor Clark speak at the the College of Occupational Therapists conference last year. I applied for a WCMT award (see first post) to allow me to travel to the US to study the approach in detail and was very fortunate to be successful
I have been in contact with the research team at University of Southern California (USC); this has helped guide my preparatory reading. I will formulate specific queries that will allow me to achieve the aims of my project. We will discuss and agree a programme that will give me the opportunity for a range of experiences. I expect these to include ‘hands on’ within the projects, discussion with Prof. Clark, the research team, the Occupational Therapists delivering the programme and the clients themselves.

I envisage that main beneficiaries of my experience will be:

• Older people who receive effective services that put them in control of their own lives.
• Occupational therapy staff who gain greater job satisfaction from using their unique skills more effectively.
• My employer through more effective, sustainable results and so better value for money from the OT service.
• Occupational Therapists working with older people nationally through sharing of my learning via the Specialist Section for Older People.
• Myself through renewed commitment and enthusiasm and a greater understanding of the potential that I and my profession have to improve the lives of older people.
 


 

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Occupational concerns of older people

I have been re reading the Lifestyle Redesign book (reference in profile for this blog) and thinking about the fact that the 'well elderly' people involved in the original studies identified the occupational domains that were of concern to them. These included things that we would usually address in occupational therapy, but also things that would not usually be addressed. The example discussed is the concern of 'adaptation to multicultural environments'.  It is clear that this did have an impact on people's ability to engage in activities they wanted to participate in.
I can see that I will have to think about how we identify which areas of function are of most concern to older people around the time of hospital discharge (and maybe prevention of admission) and consider how to actually address these. At present the focus is very much on the basic activities of daily living needed to get out of hospital.

Saturday 10 September 2011

First ever blog post!

This is literally the first post I have ever made on a blog. my own or anyone else's. This is going to be a steep learning curve which is why I am starting this blog now, so that when I set off on my travels in January hopefully I will know how to use it. I promise to persevere so it will improve...


3 Reasons to follow this blog


  • Be inspired- WCMT travel awards are open to all British citizens.

  • Be involved- learn about Lifestyle Redesign Programs and contribute to the discussion about the potential of this approach.

  • Be Information Technology savvy- just learning how blogs work is a new skill for many of us.