AOTPAC, VOTE!!!

Hello All!

Well I know I haven't been writing, but I have been super busy(BS/MS school does that to you). I just recieved an e-mail from AOTPAC listing the canidates that the AOTPAC supports.

Check out the supported canidates. For some reason there were no listings for OK canidates. I may have to look into this. We need to support our profession in everyway possible.

Whether or not you vote for these individuals, please vote in the coming election. Do you civic duty, and choose our next leader. See this site for more information on the presidential canidates' health care policies.

Be well and functional!
Tim Dionne
BS/MS Class of 2010

ps. I just applied to the graduate portion of my program! Awesome!

Apologies!

I apologize for not posting recently.  My excuse is finals and end of the year projects.  I also started a summer class that's fairly work intensive. 

So to report on the recent news in the occupational therapy world.  There is a blog that has come to my attention that discusses AOTA Board and Speciality Certification.   This is a good source of information on that topic.  

In news regarding advocacy of Occupational therapy, an article in Redbook, discusses the benefit of OT's intervention of children with autism.  This is another step forward of press and the public seeing the benefit of OT.   

I am starting to rethink this blog and my intentions with it.  I'm hoping to change the shape and feel of this blog because I'm unable to come up with different ideas to discuss.  So let me know some ideas of how I can continue.  

Thanks! 

Be well,

Tim Dionne

University At Buffalo

BS/MS OT Class 2010

The Centennial Vision

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the 2008 AOTA conference in Long Beach, CA, but I learned of the some of the new things that AOTA is coming up with. Primarily the Centennial Vision which is -

We envision that occupational therapy is a powerful, widely recognized, science-driven, and evidence-based profession with a globally connected and diverse workforce meeting society's occupational needs.

That is a well constructed sentence that sums up the previously posted 10 goals of OTs. I was asked in class to answer how I would fulfill the vision. Well my first step as a student to broaden my knowledge and learn all I can about the theories and evidence on various practice areas. I think it is very important to use and endorse evidence based practice. It makes the practice of OT more professional in the eyes of other professions and the consumers. Also it can help the profession to gain a non-referral status in the health community. Second I will advocate for my profession. I like to do things like point out to my friends that the characters on different television shows would benefit from OT intervention. Also this blog. I want to open the doors of the world to the wonders of occupational therapy. I applaud AOTA, and if I could afford to donate to the AOTPAC I would.

How would you contribute to the centennial vision? (please post how you would)

Be Well and post on my blog!
Tim Dionne
University At Buffalo
BS/MS OT Class 2010

Guidelines to my Blog

As I mentioned in an earlier blog I am doing this blog for an assignment. To meet all the qualification for the assignment I have to delineate the requirements and guidelines that I will follow throughout this blog.

The guidelines for Occupational Therapy and you! :

1. All blog posts will be written in a professional style comparable to a peer review journal (AJOT, etc.).

2. All blog posts will discuss topics and issues that relate to the service delivery of occupational therapy.

3. The target readership audience will be OT professionals or anyone who is interested in occupational therapy.

4. Anyone will be able to post comments, but I will moderate them. This means that I must moderate, and accept any comments that a person leaves.

5. I will try and keep my frequency of postings a least once a week, however optimally I would like to post twice a week.

I hope that everyone will read my blog, as often as I post.

Be well! And keep visiting!

Tim Dionne

University At Buffalo

BS/MS OT class of 2010

Another outrage! Well not outrage, but another bad presentation!

I can't believe it. It keeps happening. Maybe I am too sensitive to the lack of public knowledge and information being presented to the public. I watched Comedy Centrals night of too many stars. It was a benefit show for autism. Big named stars came out for this event. Some of my favorite comedians. It was nice to see this big show of support by all these people, but I felt like the information presented was so superficial. It was not informative, and all they mentioned about any professional role were teachers and a one word slip - 'therapist.' Bah! AOTA needs to make its own benefit with stars, promoting itself!!

At least there was a lot of money raised in the name autism. Hopefully, some of it goes towards scientific research. I'm not really sure why money needs to be raised to teach teachers how to teach kids with autism. Apparently, they didn't take classes similar to mine. Maybe OTs should take on that role. Take an active role in the classroom, "push in" and provide some support for the teachers. I felt a little disappointed with this. I guess this is the first step in bringing autism to the forefront of public consciousness. Wouldn't it be nice if we jumped on the ship and told people that we provide a part of the service of early intervention. I want to stress that I don't make the assumption that OT is the only profession that does early intervention. It is a team process and should be a team process, that includes the student, the parent, the teacher, the OT, the Speech language Pathologist, psychologist, social worker, and nurse. Each child is different and has different needs.

My next problem with this Comedy Central Show was they had some clips, like I mentioned above, that showed the emotional upheaval and the issues that face people who experience this disorder. It was effective. I wrote some quotes directly from these clips down as soon as I heard them. I'm not sure many people would catch what was said because of the distressing nature of the images presented, but if you listened you would have caught this....

"who is going to help my child?" and " I don't think the health system is set up right"


WHOA! WHAT?! Maybe the system isn't set up right, but if these parents are on a TV show about their child don't you think that they would have googled "ways to help kids with autism"?

After typing this I thought, maybe I should try this. Google Search
Would that help you? I think this is an issue that we as a profession need to address.

Be Well! And tell someone about AUTISM!
Tim Dionne
University At Buffalo
BS/MS OT class of 2010

The Potential of OT and What you can do about it!

I apologize for my absence and my lack of posting. I have been very busy with my literature review, but I finished. The literature review was on an issue/topic that discussed the history of the issue, the current situation of that issue, and a recommendation of a feasible plan for the future. My topic was the role of OT in the public, and the lack of public awareness regarding OT. My final conclusions were for every OT to join AOTA and actively participate in its process. Your membership can improve the field, by providing valuable practice information for practitioners, providing vital funding for the OT PAC, and to fund media campaigns for public awareness.

Wouldn't it be nice if "individuals, policy makers, and society as a whole will recognize, value, and promote occupational therapy as the preeminent profession that facilitates safe, independent, and full participation in life through engagement in meaningful occupation, in a broad array of contexts and environments, tailored to meet the needs of individuals, populations, and society" (Kornblau, 2004, p.11).


Well if this were true, OTs would secure a practice area in almost all occupations of life. I believe that occupational therapy can have an impact on everyone in every capacity. I think it has the potential of becoming a household name, as common as the bi-annual dentist check-up. I imagine occupational therapy reshaping the medical field and the medical community. I do not want to encroach on another field's service.
However, I'm a optimist. So for now, I will settle for achieving goals 1-4 on the top ten goals for the future of OT.

Be well! And join AOTA, if you aren't already a member!!
Tim Dionne
University At Buffalo
BS/MS OT class of 2010

Update on blogging and 10 Goals for OTs

To fufill my professor's requirements and my own I started to do a little blog surfing to get a better idea of what's out there to improve my blog. I was randomly going from one link to another link. I found one blog that discussed the lack of useful information, and the blogger presented some information that was really interesting from my aspect. Another conclusion I found doing this research was that many blogs have not been updated since 2007. Several blogs, however, have been updated recently. These blogs I found to be a better example of a good blog. Here are the blogs that I found that gave me some of these impressions.

http://ingramot.edublogs.org/

http://hosmerot.blogspot.com/

http://www.bethknittle.net/WP_Blog/

http://teachingeverystudent.blogspot.com/

http://www.metaot.com/blogs/%5Buser%5D-6


From reading all these different blogs I came up with an idea of having a side bar of OT links to other blogs organized by subject category. When I add a blog link I'll let the blogger know that I've done this, and hopefully they will do the same or mention this forum. My ultimate goal is expand this blog to many areas of discussion with the purpose of convincing other OTs to expand their minds, and educate the public on OTs.

I'm doing some research for a paper, and I found an address given by the then AOTA president, Barbara Kornblau, at the Annual Confrence of June 6-8th of 2003. This address stated 10 goals for the future of OT, and our profession.

Ten Dreams for Our Future
1. No occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant will ever have to explain what occupational therapy is.

2. We will never have to worry about what the physical therapy profession is doing because we are so good at what we do, it just doesn’t matter.

3. Society, policy makers, and individuals in society value what we do and are willing to pay for it.

4. We value what we do and because we do, we feel comfortable charging for it.

5. Policy makers consider and include occupational therapy in their decision making.

6. We play a significant role in people’s lives.

7. People look to the occupational therapy profession when they are having difficulty with the performance of a
task in their lives and to prevent performance difficulty.

8. Society, policy makers, populations, and individuals look to the occupational therapy profession to help solve broad societal issues involving participation.

9. Society, populations, and individuals believe occupational therapy is a valued profession.

10. Young adults and others desire to and chose to pursue occupational therapy as a career because of the contribution we make to individuals, populations, and society as a whole.

I think these words are something we should all think about as we kick off April, the National Occupational Therapy Awareness Month. Another thing my blog is lacking is a logo. I'm going to try and make one this weekend.

Be Well! 
Tim Dionne
Univeristy At Buffalo
BS/MS OT class of 2010

Update:  I found a very useful site that doesn't have to do with OT, but with blogging. I am hoping that this site will provide me with some clues that will better my blog.

Success!!

Well I was able to get my blog cleared with my professor to let this blog count for my advocacy project. With a few caveats, I must be able to post rules and guidelines that I will follow with my blog. I will post those when I finalize them. I would post them right now, but I have a test tomorrow that I need to finish studying for.

I also wanted to say that my comment that I sent to CNN was actually posted on the website! Score one for OTs! Well hopefully someone will read it, and maybe check out what OTs can do for people with ASD.

I found another good article dealing with an OTs role with ASD.

This Wednesday is International Autism Awareness day, so many people are doing a lot for it in the media,

Comedy Central

CNN

By the way, April is OT Awareness Month. So let's promote the profession!

Also, I would like any input from anyone would like to give it.

Be well, and keep those activities functional!

Tim Dionne

University At Buffalo

BS/MS OT Class of 2010

Advocacy and you!

I was prompted with the idea to start this blog in repsonse to CNN's segment on Autism that I watched.

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/blogs/paging.dr.gupta/2008/03/autism-cnn_28.html

And I am taking a class at the University At Buffalo called OT 382- Issues in OT service Delivery. This class has an assignment where each student must do something to promote the field and by doing this assignment we can start to develop our knowledge and skills that will last into our professional career.

To begin, I was upset after watching the special segment dealing with Autism Spectrum Disorders. I felt that there was a lack of credit given to professionals who deliver the services to these kids. They only mentioned therapists. They did not mention Occupational therapy, Physical therapy, and Speech and Language Pathologists. Who clearly need recognition for their work in this field. To be honest, I don't like how the media portrays this population, being kids who have symptoms of Autism. They present the information in such layman terms that it can misconstrued in a way that is not helpful to the public, but more misleading.

I wrote a candid response on the blog at CNN.com, at the link above. This is what I said:

" It is very encouraging to see the wide range of information dealing with autism being presented to the public by CNN. I am disappointed with the lack of details on this subject matter. Specifically the professionals who are involved are not explained, nor their role in the education process. As an occupational therapy student I urge your program to discuss an OTs role in the early intervention with children who are on the autism spectrum. I also wanted to suggest that your program discuss, how under IDEA, children can receive intervention for free. You had a segment about the cost of raising a child under these conditions, and I don’t believe that you explained well enough for the public how schools pay for these services. The reason that children and their parents don’t start EI early enough is because the parents were not told that any child can have an OT, PT, and a SLP assessment. Please do the responsible thing and provide a more in depth discussion for the free services available, and the information available. AOTA.org explains in depth what an OT’s role is in early intervention.
Thanks,
Tim Dionne, OTS
University at Buffalo"

I felt that this was short and to the point. I hope whoever reads this finds some useful information. I want provide a forum for discussion on developing practice areas of OT, and discussion of our amazing field of Occupational Therapy!!

Thanks for reading,

Tim Dionne, OTS

University at Buffalo

A good summary of what an OT can do for people with ASD or PDD http://autism.about.com/od/whatisautism/a/OTBasics.htm