Media Project

Hearing about doing the media projects on syllabus day filled me with anxious anticipation. I have never been the most creative person, so I immediately dreaded this project. After reading my case study and receiving my object the wheels in my brain started turning. I am the type of person once I get something stuck in my head it is hard for me to start looking at it in a different way, but I tried my hardest not to do that on this project. So with that said, here is a little about my media project. My client is an 83-year old married man named Maurice. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease ten years ago. He also has bilateral cataracts, which gives him extremely poor vision. The material I picked was a pair of gloves of any kind. I decided to focus on Maurice's social interaction and the wellbeing that comes with being socially active. Because of his PD Maurice has to deal with mask-like facial expressions, which means he cannot express his emotions using facial expressions. He also is having difficulty using gestures when having a conversation. Because of these challenges, I came up with a way for Maurice to express his feelings and emotions. On the finger tips of the gloves, I put different emoji like faces that represent different emotions and feelings. Whenever Maurice is having a conversation and a certain emotion is important for him to portray, he can put up the finger of the emotion he is feeling.

The ah-ha moment for me in this project was that an innovative idea doesn't have to be complicated. It can be something as easy as hot gluing an emoji on the finger tips of dollar tree gloves. The important part is finding something that is important to the client, and coming up with something that will help them live a more fulfilling life. Previously in this course, I did my case study on a woman who has PD, so I have started to become somewhat familiar with the disease. When dealing with these neurodegenerative diseases we don't need to forget how important the psychological well-being of the client is. Yes, it is important to help them with functional mobility and the biomechanic FOR things, but it is also just as important to be sensitive to their psychological well being as well. I think mindset plays such a big role in the disease process. This is why I wanted to focus on Maurice's interaction with society because I think this will really help with his feelings of isolation. It is so hard to watch life continue on around you when you cannot participate in it like you once did. I feel like this project has helped me to open my mind up to different possibilities. I have really been trying to be creative and out of the box with my thinking because that just does not come naturally to me, but this project really helped me do that. I think this new mindset will help me in future clinical settings to come up with new innovative personalized ideas for my clients.