The research we explore in this podcast calls pelvic floor dysfunction a significant and neglected public health issue.

The authors share a discouraging statistic: despite pelvic floor dysfunction impacting around 25% of women in the US, there is a profound lack of understanding of the disorder and how to treat it.

The good news is that OTs are perfectly poised to help meet the needs of pelvic health patients! We’ll use our primary research article to jumpstart our understanding of pelvic floor rehab, including how pelvic floor dysfunction impacts occupation.

Then, it is my pleasure to welcome Lindsey Vestal of the Functional Pelvis to join us. Lindsey is truly a pioneer in promoting OT’s role in pelvic health, and she will discuss her own practice providing pelvic floor rehab in people’s homes. At the end, we’ll also talk about the future of OT’s role in pelvic health, including which trends you should be watching.

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/pelvic-health-ot

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Burkhart, R., Couchman, K., Crowell, K., Jeffries, S., Monvillers, S., &; Vilensky, J. (2020). Pelvic floor dysfunction after childbirth: Occupational impact and awareness of available treatment. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 41(2), 108–115.

Lastly, another way you can support this podcast during the holidays is by using our MedBridge promo code. We are a MedBridge affiliate. 

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The research we discuss on the OT Potential Podcast has a recurring theme: therapy goals should always support what is meaningful to the client.

But, lurking behind this best practice is an important question: what do we do when a patient is not of sound mind?

We’ll explore an article that hits the question head on, looking at client-centered care for patients with psychosis. It’s an especially helpful read for mental health OTs—but we can all learn something from it, since every clinician sees clients whose decision making could be perceived as impaired.

The takeaway from this article is that we can always find ways to be client-centered. And, it’s worth making the effort to do so, since it always seems to improve patient engagement and outcomes.

To help us unpack this article, it is our privilege to welcome Lauren Jones, MS, OTR/L.  Lauren currently works on an interdisciplinary team as a Senior Occupational Therapist, providing services to youth, adults, and older adults in an inpatient psychiatry setting. Together, we will discuss practical strategies for keeping your interventions client-centered, regardless of your treatment setting(s).

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/client-centered-ot

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Moritz, S., Berna, F., Jaeger, S., Westermann, S., &; Nagel, M. (2016). The customer is always right? subjective target symptoms and treatment preferences in patients with psychosis. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 267(4), 335–339.

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We’ve had compelling evidence for a while now about the benefits of providing acute care hospital services from the comfort of a patient’s home. (This model is widely known as “hospital in the home.”) 

But, for us in the US, it has been hard to imagine how our complex medical system would ever change to accommodate such a fundamental shift in healthcare delivery. 

Enter: the pandemic. Now, our whole society is looking at the inadequacies of limiting acute care to the number of beds available in a hospital. 

OT is uniquely poised to deliver services in this model—and you’ll see in the research that our care is considered a central component. 

This podcast is intended to be an introduction to the hospital at home model. It’s designed to help you imagine the healthcare models of the future—and OTs place in them. We will anchor our discussion in a Cochrane review of the evidence. Then, we’ll welcome our guest Monika Lukasiewicz, who has made a career of thinking creatively about OT in the home, all while working in traditional OT settings. Whether you deliver OT in the home or the hospital, she’ll help us think through how this trend could impact your practice.

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/ot-hospital-at-home

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Gonçalves-Bradley, D. C., Iliffe, S., Doll, H. A., Broad, J., Gladman, J., Langhorne, P., Richards, S. H., & Shepperd, S. (2017). Early discharge hospital at home. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 6(6), CD000356.

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We became occupational therapy practitioners to deliver transformative care to our clients.

This is a tall order to begin with—and we also hold justice as one of our core values. So, we want to transform lives AND do so in a socially responsible way. 

This is hard and complex work. It requires that we question and move beyond overly simplistic theories of practice. The article we explore in this one-hour podcast pushes us to see beyond the concept of “individualism.” After all, limiting our lens to individuals alone can limit the care we deliver to all of our clients—and it can hinder us from seeing broader issues of injustice.

To discuss what this looks like in both non-traditional and traditional OT settings, it is our honor to welcome Dr. Adam Cisroe Pearson, who has made a career of applying his occupational therapy lens toward broader principles of housing equity and parity.

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/beyond-individualism-ot

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Gerlach, A. J., Teachman, G., Laliberte-Rudman, D., Aldrich, R. M., & Huot, S. (2018). Expanding beyond individualism: Engaging critical perspectives on occupation. Scandinavian journal of occupational therapy, 25(1), 35–43.

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The research is clear—adults living with cancer have significant unmet therapy needs. But how can we, as occupational therapy professionals, best serve this population? 

It’s a great question, and one we’ll explore in-depth on this one-hour episode of the OT Potential Podcast! First, we’ll dig into the research around disability in activities of daily living among adults with cancer. Next, we’ll be joined by Vanessa Monique Yanez, MSOT, OTR/L. Vanessa will lend her expertise to our discussion of what this information means for your real-world practice. 

Vanessa is a cancer survivor, herself. This personal experience fuels her dedication to improving the quality of life of other survivors. As private practice owner, Vanessa has valuable advice and insights to offer about the referral process, assessment and treatment of patients with cancer. We’re honored to have her with us and excited to hear her thoughts.

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/cancer-ot

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Neo, J., Fettes, L., Gao, W., Higginson, I. J., & Maddocks, M. (2017). Disability in activities of daily living among adults with cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancer treatment reviews, 61, 94–106.

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Many of us feel the benefits of spending time in nature. But, these outdoor experiences often seem pretty far removed from our traditional occupational therapy work. 

There’s a good chance you’ve already heard of nature-based therapy, as it is a hot topic in the OT world. However, you might not be aware of the breadth of research available on this topic—and you might be pleasantly surprised by how well nature-based therapy aligns with your OT practice. 

In this episode, we’ll explore a paper looking at the effects of horticulture group therapy on adults with mental health diagnoses. We’ll use this research to springboard into a broader discussion on the types of nature-based therapy, the research supporting this type of therapy, and the potential impact it might have on your practice. 

To guide us through this topic, we’ll be joined by nature-based occupational therapist, Laura Park Figueroa, whose enthusiasm for the topic will certainly leave you eager to learn more!

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/nature-based-ot

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Vujcic, M., Tomicevic-Dubljevic, J., Grbic, M., Lecic-Tosevski, D., Vukovic, O., &; Toskovic, O. (2017). Nature based solution for improving mental health and well-being in urban areas. Environmental Research, 158, 385–392

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Racial and ethnic health disparities have been heavy on our hearts over the past few years—and they should be.

We have much to reckon with, not only in terms of our own personal biases, but also regarding the structural inequities within healthcare.

In this one-hour, podcast-based CE course, we’ll look at how the Latino community is impacted by disparities around the diagnosis and care of autistic children. We’ll start by exploring some of the latest research on the topic with Catherine R. Hoyt, PhD, OTD, OTR/L and Cristina Reyes Smith, OTD, OTR/L. Then, we’ll discuss practical implications for caring for our autistic clients, including how we can work step-by-step to dismantle the disparities in our healthcare systems.

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/disparities-autism-supports-ot

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Zuckerman, K. E., Lindly, O. J., Reyes, N. M., Chavez, A. E., Macias, K., Smith, K. N., &; Reynolds, A. (2017). Disparities in diagnosis and treatment of autism in latino and non-latino white families. Pediatrics, 139(5). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-3010

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The ability to affordably track brainwave activity has opened up tremendous opportunities in occupational therapy. Regardless of where we work (or the patient populations we treat), our work has the potential to be significantly informed by this technology over the next few decades. 

In this one-hour course, we will look at a research study on brain-computer interface (BCI). The study will serve as a jumping-off point to explore the concepts and developments that OTs should follow in this space.

After our article review, we’ll be joined by Lauren Souders, MOT, OTR/L, CBIS, CSRS. Lauren works as Director of Clinical Operations for a BCI startup. 

We’ll talk with her about what is on the market for brain-computer interface, as well as what types of BCI we can expect to see coming to market in the future. And, most importantly, we’ll discuss how occupational therapy care may be improved over the next decade with the aid of these exciting new technologies.

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/bci-ot

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Kim T, Kim S, Lee B. Effects of Action Observational Training Plus Brain-Computer Interface-Based Functional Electrical Stimulation on Paretic Arm Motor Recovery in Patient with Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Occup Ther Int. 2016 Mar;23(1):39-47. doi: 10.1002/oti.1403. Epub 2015 Aug 24. PMID: 26301519.

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As autistic individuals transition from adolescence to adulthood, they encounter a new and unique set of challenges. Yet, at this critical time, the support available to them drops dramatically. This is known as the “services cliff.”

In this one-hour continuing education course, we’ll begin by looking at the journal article “Service Needs Across the Lifespan for Individuals with Autism.”

Then, to discuss how your occupational therapy skills can help bridge this service gap, we’ll invite Debora Davidson, PhD, OTR/L to discuss the research and her own experience providing transitional services in her private practice.

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/service-cliff-and-autism

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Turcotte P, Mathew M, Shea LL, Brusilovskiy E, Nonnemacher SL. Service Needs Across the Lifespan for Individuals with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 2016 Jul;46(7):2480-9. doi: 10.1007/s10803-016-2787-4. PMID: 27084080.

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Any occupational therapy practitioner knows that we often face tough questions surrounding ethics and justice.

We work in imperfect systems, and each day we see how societal systems favor some, while placing others at a disadvantage.

So, how do we process all of this? And, how do we see ourselves as contributing to the greater good?

One framework that has been taught in many OT schools involves “occupational injustice.” But, the article we will review is a critique of this familiar framework. And, instead, it will introduce you to the concept of capabilities theory. 

To discuss how these big-picture questions impact how you show up as an OT—including how your work can help address unjust systems—we’ll be talking to Antonia Suszek.

In order to earn credit for this course, you must take the test within the OT Potential Club.

You can find more details on this course here:
https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses/occupational-injustice

Here's the primary research we are discussing:
Hammell, K. R. W., & Beagan, B. (2017). Occupational injustice: A critique: L’injustice occupationnelle : une critique. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 84(1), 58–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008417416638858

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