Occupational Therapy learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.  Keep pushing for your greatness!  Make your best even better.

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.  I keep pushing myself to be a better occupational therapist than I was the day before.

The Ageing and Life Course Programme (ALC) of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, identified elder abuse as a priority theme for its activities. It was clear to us that this was a neglected social and health problem that most societies would deny rather than confront. The parallel with domestic violence, child abuse and violence against women some thirty years earlier was evident. Awareness of these societal problems surfaced only once campaigns were organized based on solid evidence. For that, research was crucial – in its absence, denial prevails.

Here’s another FREE OT assessment/evaluation.  The Functional Independence Measure (FIM) is an 18-item global measure of disability. Each item is scored on 7 ordinal levels. The FIM can be used for measuring disability in a wide range of conditions. The Functional Assessment Measure (FAM) does not stand alone but adds 12 FAM items to the FIM, specifically addressing cognitive and psychosocial function, which are often the major limiting factors for outcome in brain injury FAM items are rated on the same 7-level scale as the FIM.  Hence the Functional Assessment Measure is abbreviated to (FIM+FAM).  The FIM+FAM is designed for measuring disability in the brain-injured population. The FIM data can be extracted and used on its own, for example when making comparison with populations in which only the FIM is rated. For this reason, it is important to score the FIM items as for the stand-alone scale, and the FAM items as an add-on.  

(free evaluation)

The International Institute of Therapeutic Intervention and Learning is a great resource for those utilizing brain entrainment and neurofeedback. Their soundscapes specifically target areas where a client may be having trouble. For those unfamiliar with Brain Entrainment, it refers to the capacity of the brain to naturally synchronize its brainwave frequencies with the rhythm of periodic external stimuli, most commonly auditory, visual, or tactile. The external stimuli elicit the brain’s ‘frequency following response’, encouraging the brainwaves to align to the frequency of a given medium. FFR can be useful because brainwaves are very much related to mental state. For example, a 10 Hz brainwave is associated with relaxation, so a 10 Hz sound pattern would help reproduce the relaxed state in your brain. I have successfully used it with varying conditions including; ADHD, ASD, PTSD, Anxiety, and Sensory Integration. However, one does not have to have a diagnosis to utilize brain entrainment. Positive research on brain entrainment continues to grow and expand.

Keeping with our recent current theme of FREE Occupational Therapy evaluations, here is the Routine Task Inventory. The routine task inventory can be thought of as an activity analysis and a functional evaluation instrument.  Like other assessments associated with the Cognitive Disabilities Model, the RTI is intended to assess the degree to which this restriction interferes with everyday task performance through observation of task behavior.  The Routine Task Inventory (RTI published in Allen, 1985) has been expanded to include using adaptive equipment (in the physical scale) and child care (in the community scale), a communication scale and a work scale. 

(free evaluation)

Never mistake a single mistake with a final mistake. Keep learning and striving to be an outstanding occupational therapist!

The NCCPC-R was designed to be used for children, aged 3 to 18 years, who are unable to speak because of cognitive (mental/intellectual) impairments or disabilities. It can be used whether or not a child has physical impairments or disabilities.  The NCCPC-R was designed to be used without training by parents and caregivers (carers). It can also be used by other adults who are not familiar with a specific child (do not know them well).

Descriptions of the types of children used to validate the NCCPC-R can be found in: Breau, L.M., McGrath,
P.J., Camfield, C.S. & Finley, G.A. (2002). Psychometric Properties of the Non-communicating Children's Pain ChecklistRevised. Pain, 99, 349-357.

(free evaluation)