Katlyn Dupree's Blog

For my first Neuro Note I watched a TED Talk titled, “Meet the Mom who started the Ice Bucket Challenge.” The talk was given by Nancy Frates, and she shared how her son Pete Frates was diagnosed with ALS. I was interested in this topic because I participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge with my college soccer team back in undergrad. At the time I had no knowledge about who started this challenge, and the circumstances that lead this person to start the challenge. Through college I became much more aware of what ALS is because one of my roommates had a family friend diagnosed with ALS our freshman year. The progression of this disease was awfully quick, and honestly very dehumanizing. Through the course of the years my roommate would talk about her family friend it seemed the level of his functioning dwindled so quickly. Towards the end of this man’s life his ability to talk and swallow were taken away from him. This disease is very scary. Physical function is stripped away from a pe...

The theory that I chose is the Allen’s Cognitive Disabilities Model (CDM). This theory is a MoP or a Model of Practive, which means it is the toolbox. The main idea of this theory is to integrate the client’s cognitive ability with his or her functional abilities to complete tasks that they are willing and want to perform. This model uses six different levels of cognitive functioning and they are (1) automatic actions, (2) postural actions, (3) manual actions, (4) goal directed actions, (5) exploratory actions, and (6) planned actions. Each level consists of cognitive performance patterns and the scoring ranges from 0-6 (0 being generalized reflexive actions and 6 being normal functioning). The main goal of the CDM is to develop new strategies to handle their occupations while at the same time maintaining the skills they already have. This MoP is used for all ages child, adolescent, adults, and elderly. Determining if this model is functional will depend on each client individually. Th...

Today in class I learned about Health Literacy. Prior to this class I knew how important it is to use language that is understandable for clients, but I don’t think I really realized the statistics about this problem. Knowing that many people have low literacy rates really puts it in perspective how important it is to check and make sure people understand everything that you have told them. What is common knowledge to us is not going to be our clients. We also discussed about the Health 2020 vision, which we have discussed before, but it was nice to reminded how important this is. Making clients and people in general aware of health determinants, and also making them aware of how they can progress.

Before beginning OT school I got some of my observation hours at a pediatric clinic in Memphis. I really enjoyed my time here, and I felt like I got to learn a lot from my observation. This was one of the first places I got the opportunity to shadow, so at this point my knowledge of OT was minimal. Something happened on one of the days I was shadowing that left me feeling very uncomfortable. The OT practitioner left me alone with a client who was around 8 years old, who was on the autism spectrum. The child wasn’t verbal and didn’t take instruction very well. The OT practitioner told me when he left the room to make sure the child stayed in his seat while he was gone. So of course the first thing the child does when the OT left the room was get out of his seat, and he tried to leave the therapy room we were in. I had no clue what or how to keep him in his seat, and all of this made me fell really uncomfortable. Now that I know the responsibilities of OTs, OTAs, and aids, I have realize...

For knowledge check #14, I will be discussing things that I learned through the learning activities professor Lancaster provided for us.  I really enjoyed the TED Talk about “Why We Need Universal Design.” This message coming from a man who is deaf made the topic even more meaningful to me. He was speaking through experience. I like how he pointed out that we all have disabilities, whether they are temporary or not. At some point or another we all have to adapt. Universal Design, though, is creating something that everyone can use without need for adaptations. What amazing world it would be if everything could be universally designed. The podcast episode I chose to watch was Cancer Related Cognitive-Dysfunciton. This episode was really interesting to me. It seems weird to me that this disability is sometimes disregarded. They talked about how this symptom of cancer or cancer treatments normally isn’t expressed to the cancer patient, so they normally aren’t expecting this to occur...

So what is the OTPF, and what is its purpose? OTPF stands for Occupational Therapy Practice Framework, so pretty much the OTPF is there for occupational therapists, occupational therapy students, and any other healthcare providers. It is there to set guidelines that describe occupational therapy practice. In my opinion it’s main purpose is to get everyone on the same page. Whether it is an occupational therapist, a student, or a healthcare provider, the OTPF establishes common ground and understanding for all of the different aspects of occupational therapy. The OTPF contains what an occupational therapists knows, and it also contains what they do. So basically it is the occupational therapy Bible.

I had a blast today watching and participating in the era presentations. I not only learned so much about all of the decades, but I also learned so much about OT as a profession. The era presentations solidified something I have already learned in my time in OT school, and that is that occupational therapists must be adaptable. This was apparent through all of the presentations. With new inventions and new fads people’s needs will change, and OTs must be able to adapt to whatever the decades will hold. For example, the group who presented on the 1960’s talked about the invention of platform shoes, and with that invention came problems with feet. This need opened up a new area of practice for occupational therapists. Another example of adaptability is how the invention of computers and newer technologies such as video games and cell phones has caused carpal tunnel issues. This also opened up more areas of practice for occupational therapists. It is exciting to me to see how far occupati...