Walk it OuT

For this assignment I chose to listen to the "Leisure exploration and creativity with veterans and service members" podcast by Glass Half Full OT. I was excited to see this episode as an option because I have been researching the work that OT's do with the military and the VA. My grandfather served for 22 years and always said the joining the Air Force was one of his best decisions. I have so much respect for servicemen and women and I am very interested in possibly working with them one day! Rusty Noesner started the War Paints non-profit to encourage veterans to engage in the creative process. Noesner, former Navy Seal, has endured two traumatic brain injuries and suffers from general anxiety disorder. He explained that during military training the brain is "rewired" to function within a unit. This deactivates the creative process and strips away the individuals' identity. He described brain function as a black and white modality that is operational and ...

As a new MOT student I have had several opportunities to explain what OT is to friends, family and many strangers. In fact, one of my PDE goals is to become more confident in my elevator speech. While I believe that I know exactly what OT means to me it can be difficult to summarize. I really enjoy how Cynthia Cooper explains the "mystique" in occupational therapy. It is hard to convey to someone who has never seen OT in action what it can actually be effecting. The tasks we may have a client perform as a means might seem frivolous to some. An example of this could be having a client play candy land. This is where the holistic nature of the OT profession comes in to play. With OT we are looking at the whole person and forming our goals based on their priorities as well as their previous/current social, educational, and vocational performance. The client playing candy land may be a grandparent working towards a goal of restoring an aspect of communication with their grandchild...

Of the OT settings we discussed in class I am most intrigued by the acute care, non-profit organizations. Specifically the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. I didn't know much about what occupational therapists do in spinal care/brain injury settings before today. I mostly observed developmental delays in pediatrics for my observation hours. However, I think the neurological aspect of OT would be neat to observe/intern in. I have a friend of a friend who suffered a brain injury due to several concussions sustained from football games. His initial prognosis was poor. While he has been through years of therapy he has shown very little meaningful movement. One thing that has given his family hope is his ability to communicate through an iPad that the Shepherd Center set up for him. While it takes him several hours to produce a sentence it is very encouraging to see that he still has the cognitive ability and will power to keep pushing through his recovery.

The ERA project we have just completed was the most entertaining and informative group project I have ever participated in. I really enjoyed seeing how OT has been impacted by societal preferences, technological trends and major events. I was most intrigued by the discussion of the 1940's. While WWII was raging on there were leaps and bounds being made by women in the workforce. The Rosie the Riveter campaign increased women in the workforce from 27% to 37%! During this time OT "school" lasted 18 months. However, the military needed help and did not have the resources or the time. Thus, the two week OT course was created. I can't even imagine how these therapists felt going into the profession with only two weeks of school! Through this demand arose one of the most influential occupational therapists of the decade, Winifred Conrick Kahmann. In WWII she served as the Chief of the Occupational Therapy Branch of the Reconditioning Division of the Office of the Surgeon G...

01/28/2020 The director of the Boling Center for Development Disabilities, Dr. Bruce Keisling, came to speak to our class today. He shared so many interesting aspects of the history of disability that I did not previously know. He started by explaining how historically disabilities were viewed as delinquency, criminality, insanity, etc. One of the most interesting stories he shared was about our former president John F. Kennedy's sister Rosemary. I had never heard of her. Apparently, Rosemary experienced several developmental issues due to lack of oxygen during birth. Her father kept her issues very quiet as it was seen as shameful to have these issues during that time. He even went as far to elect her for an experimental frontal lobotomy that rendered her mute and unable to walk. Meanwhile, JFK and the rest of her siblings had no idea! It was very intriguing to connect how his experiences motivated him to advocate for people with disabilities. The initiative he started literally...