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Shared Concepts Guiding the Practice of a Community Occupational Therapy Program Serving Youth with Psychosocial Challenges
Get PDFBackground: Occupational therapy services to youth with trauma experiences and mental health challenges may follow unique practice concepts that deserve to be explored and illuminated. The study aimed to explore and identify shared concepts that have been guiding the occupational therapy practice of a community-based program serving the youth population.
Method: The qualitative study analyzed data from transcripts of one-on-one interviews with occupational therapists who serve youth clients in the community-based program. Using a grounded theory qualitative approach, the analysis aimed to highlight unique concepts that the occupational therapists employed in their day-to-day practice with youth who experience trauma and mental health challenges.
Results: Twenty-five interview transcripts were analyzed and four major themes emerged from the analysis: trauma lens, practicing attentive empathy, complex development mindset, and therapeutic unstructured structure.
Discussion: The interview data and emerged themes illuminated three interrelated concepts, which guide the occupational therapy practice of a community-based program serving youth with psychosocial challenges: the therapists’ cultivation of intellectual humility, a sense of shared humanity with their clients, and the skillful accommodation of clients’ personal and environmental contexts to promote engagement in occupation. Fidelity to these concepts during client-led occupational exploration supported youth expressions of positive identity, social connection, and valued occupational competencies, and is an approach worthy of further study
Occupational Therapists\u27 Perspectives on Nursing Home Culture and Addressing the Psychosocial Needs of Residents: Mixed Methods Design
Get PDFBackground: The purpose of this study was to explore occupational therapists’ perspectives on the culture change movement to address the psychosocial components of care among nursing home residents and identify supports and barriers to implementing the culture change movement.
Methods: We used a sequential explanatory mixed methods design. Electronic surveys were completed by 102 occupational therapists who work in nursing home facilities. Three focus groups were conducted via conference call with occupational therapists (n = 9). The survey was analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Focus groups were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results: Seventy-four of survey the participants indicated that they were unfamiliar with the culture change movement prior to `completing the survey. However, several of the participants indicated they were currently or have previously addressed factors related to culture change movement by focusing on providing client-centered care and adapting the nursing home environment to meet residents’ needs. Qualitative themes in the focus groups identified supports and barriers to address the psychosocial components of care and the importance of educating certified nursing assistants to meet the psychosocial needs of the residents.
Conclusion: Findings suggest the benefits of implementing culture change in nursing homes and the role of occupational therapy in influencing changes to better meet residents’ psychosocial needs
Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation for Infants with Neonatal Brachial Plexus Palsy: A Pilot Study
Get PDFBackground: Biceps recovery is a critical determinant for treatment decision-making in patients with neonatal brachial plexus palsy (NBPP). One treatment intervention used by therapists is neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), but its use remains controversial. This study’s aim was to determine the effect and safety of NMES on biceps function in infants with NBPP compared to standard therapy.
Methods: In this pilot, randomized controlled study, patients were randomized to the NMES treatment or control/sham group. Inclusion criteria were infants 3 to 9 months of age with a confirmed diagnosis of NBPP and biceps weakness, without other comorbidities. The parents administered the NMES (treatment or control) 30 min daily. Outcomes of active range of motion (AROM), muscle strength, and morphometric measurements were assessed by one of two blinded therapists at enrollment and 1-, 2-, and 3-month follow-up intervals.
Results: Seventeen patients (10 NMES, seven control) participated in the study. Despite equal group demographics, the treatment group demonstrated significant improvement in elbow flexion AROM after the first month of NMES compared to the control group (improvement 31° vs. -3°, P = .047). No adverse effects were reported.
Conclusion: Use of NMES can be beneficial and should be considered in the early rehabilitation protocol for infants with NBPP
Judges and the Creation of Sacred Space in Medieval Catalonia, 800–1100
No full textBetween the ninth and early twelfth centuries, judges in the Catalan counties of northeastern Iberia and Septimania adjudicated disputes using the Visigothic law code. These judges, who often lacked guarantees of litigant commitment to the judicial process, developed strategies in order to fulfill the code’s mandates and thereby keep courts functional. One such strategy was to place special emphasis on the procedural step of bringing witnesses and litigants to church altars to authenticate testimony with an oath. This practice transformed centers of worship into arenas of justice. Despite the prominence of churches in legal records and the importance of oath exaction to stabilizing particularly challenging disputes, scholars still know little about how exactly judges themselves understood the sacred spaces they used. Documents of church dedication (dotalia) offer a way forward. They reveal the close relationship between judges’ conception of these places and the broader regional attitude toward sanctuaries in the wake of the Carolingian liturgical reforms. This article explores the variety of ways in which judges participated at dedication assemblies, including as scribe, celebrant, builder/founder, and even liturgical commentator. Attention to such varied forms of involvement allows legal historians to nuance judges as a professional class and thereby to refine our understanding of the strategic resources at their disposal in the courts of post-Carolingian Catalonia
Reading The Books of Margery Kempe and Alice Pyett: Attachment and Feminist Restoration in Michelle Paver\u27s Wakenhyrst
No full textThis article examines reading, attachment, and the restoration of female voices in Michelle Paver\u27s Wakenhyrst, a 2019 novel inspired by the fifteenth-century mystic and author, Margery Kempe. The article foregrounds and analyses the author’s own response to the novel and to Paver\u27s comments about Kempe from the perspective of Rita Felski\u27s work on art and attachment (2020) and in the context of Carolyn Dinshaw\u27s reading of Hope Emily Allen\u27s championing of Margery Kempe (2012). Underpinned by a framework that draws on medievalism studies (particularly Katherine Brown\u27s concept of \u27restoration\u27), the article explores the ways in which Paver\u27s two readers in her novel (editor Edmund Stearne and his daughter Maud) respond to the discovery of Alice Pyett\u27s “Book” (the fictional book based on Book of Margery Kempe) in increasingly polarized ways: Stearne\u27s identification leading to madness and Maud\u27s to increasing autonomy and independence as a woman of her time. The article argues that in Paver\u27s dramatization of Maud\u27s developing reading practice, Kempe-as-Pyett inspires a feminist reclamation of women\u27s voices and stories that encourage the modern academic reader to similarly reflect on their own response to Kempe\u27s status, in both scholarly and popular culture
A Pen, A Pencil, or a Keyboard: Writing Center Tutors’ Perceptions
Get PDFA Pen, A Pencil, or a Keyboard: Online Writing Center Tutors’ Perceptions
Author, Adjunct Faculty, Grand Canyon University
Abstract
Writing can be challenging for some students, even those who have graduated high school and are moving forward to higher learning. Thus, an idea about students and writing support led to a study about writing centers and the individuals responsible for supporting struggling writers. This qualitative case study explored the tutors’ perceptions of online writing tutoring and investigated how tutors perceive their work using both asynchronous and synchronous online tutoring modes at a 4-year university. Though the writing center participating in this study offers onsite and online writing tutoring, the goal was to focus on online writing tutoring. Participants were surveyed, and data were analyzed qualitatively to locate common phenomena by coding participants’ responses. Through this process of analyzing data and coding, multiple themes emerged. Additional documentation was analyzed to provide triangulation to the research process. Findings focused on tutors’ perceptions, training modalities, the use of technology in online writing tutoring, and guiding pedagogy. Thus, the study showed how technology with well-trained tutors and directors could benefit students struggling with writing proficiency. Limitations occur in research, but further studies of an online writing center can promote improvement as pedagogy evolves and technological advances progress. Ultimately, the benefits of an online writing tutoring center are evident.
Keywords: asynchronous, synchronous, social constructivism, writing tutoring center, feedback, tutor perceptions, technology, online writing support, professional development, higher education, skilled writin
Committed to the Cause? Examining Social Work Education\u27s Role in Supporting Ally Behavior for Transgender and Nonbinary People and Communities
Get PDFTransgender and nonbinary (TNB) youth and adults are under attack in the United States, with at least 300 state-level anti-transgender bills introduced thus far in 2022 (HRC, 2022). Social workers, guided by professional values and ethics, play a critical role in supporting and advocating for TNB youth and adults, clinically and through mezzo and macro approaches. Given the current political context and the goals of the social work profession, understanding correlates of ally behavior on behalf of TNB people among social work students can help guide improvements in social work education. Specifically, in this study, we examine how demographic differences, social work program variables, and psychosocial predictors are related to increased levels of ally behavior among social work students. Correlates of increased ally behavior in the final multivariate model include having TNB friends, having LGBQ friends, lower levels of social dominance orientation, and lower levels of transphobia. Post-hoc analyses suggest that differences emerge based on levels of social dominance orientation. From the findings, we offer suggestions for school-level interventions that have the potential to increase ally behaviors among social work students as it relates to the TNB community
Initial Validity and User Experience of a Dynamic Assessment of Occupational Performance for Transitional Age Youth
Get PDFBackground: The Double OT (DOT) assessment is occupation-based and dynamic, designed with a client-centered format requiring skill demonstration. It was developed to support youth transitioning into the workplace. This research intended to analyze initial validity and users’ experience.
Method: This study includes qualitative and quantitative analyses of data collected from surveys from 169 client participants (APs) and 30 recipient participants (ARRs) from eight sites in the USA and Europe. AP were 14 to 25 years of age and engaged in residential, educational, and vocational settings. The ARRs comprised partners who had received DOT assessment summaries about APs with whom they worked.
Results: The APs showed high engagement and learning; average ratings for each item fell between 4.24–4.54 on a 5-point Likert scale. The ARRs agreed on the validity and usability of the DOT; average ratings for each item fell between 3.75 and 4.53 on a 5-point Likert scale. Qualitative themes indicated that the DOT is: “fun and engaging,” “vocationally informative and applicable,” and that there is an absence of commonly used assessments informing vocational transitions.
Conclusion: The results support initial validity of the DOT. Users find it to be highly engaging, with good usability, and indicate that it facilitates participant learning
2023-01-09_MichiganOverview_COVIDbedPPE
Get PDFContains the tables Statewide Hospital Capacity Report for COVID-19, COVID-19 Metrics, Statewide Hospital Available PPE Tracking for COVID-19, as well as the tables PPE Days On Hand and Patient Census