1. Appreciates the influence of socio-cultural, socioeconomic, political, diversity factors, and lifestyle choices on engagement in occupation throughout the lifespan. As an occupational therapist, I see a diverse population of clients. I make sure to incorporate socio-cultural, socioeconomic, political, diversity factors, and lifestyle choices into my treatment session and to create client centered treatments. I make sure to take into account all of these factors when planning and implementing treatment sessions. I strive to make my treatment sessions occupation based and have meaning to the client based on these factors. I respect all clients, no matter what their background is.
This a final evaluation and comment from my Level IIA fieldwork educator, Molly DeLee OTR/L about how I respect diversity factors of others. She states "She is very respectful and empathetic with our diverse mental health forensic population."
2. Communicates effectively with a wide range of clients, peers, and professionals both verbally and non-verbally. At Regional One, I was able to communicate effectively to clients, caregivers, nursing staff, physical therapy, and social workers. I had been told by clients that my tone of voice and my attitude have helped motivate them to continue to get better. Below is a comment from my fieldwork educator.
Final Evaluation comment from Katie Heissman, OTR/L at Regional One Health about my communication skills. She states "Rachel is able to communicate efficiently with the therapy aid and other therapists appropriately. Rachel demonstrates good communication skills with the physical therapist who treats along side her."
3. Collaborates with clients and caregivers in establishing and maintain a balance of pleasurable, productive, and restful occupations to promote health and prevent disease and disability. One intervention I planned for my groups at Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System (ELMHS) was a Halloween Minute-to-Win It competition. I had each group compete in different activities, such as ghost themed bowling, pin the hat on the witch, ghost cup stacking competition, paper basketball competition, and puzzle scramble competition. This game was a fun way to promote health and prevent diseases as well as a good way to improve each client’s spirits. I was able to see how some of the more reserved clients came out of their shells with their competitiveness. The clients also cheered on their peers and supported them through all of the games.
Above are pictures of the ghost bowling game I made and a completed "Pin the hat on the Witch" game from one of the groups.
4. Inspires confidence in clients and team members. One of my warmups for all my groups at ELMHS throughout the month of November was to add something positive that happened that week or something that each client was grateful for in a gratitude jar in the aims of inspiring confidence. I chose to create a jar so every group member could physically see the jar growing throughout the month. At the end of the month, each client took home their list of things they were grateful for, in hopes they would continue to add to it or reference the good things when they were feeling upset. Many of these clients do not have family support and are unable to spend holidays with loved ones, so this project helped to inspire clients and remind them of the small joys in life.
Above is a picture of the gratitude jar after all the groups completed the project. Each color represents a different group. Some comments included "life", "family", and "past OT cooking group".
5. Considers client motivation when using occupation-based intervention to maximize functional independence. During my time at ELMHS, I was able to use client motivation while using an occupation-based intervention to maximize functional independence. One client was feeling discouraged one week, felt as though she would never get discharged, and reported that she thought she had mastered all of the OT skills she learned in past groups. Her motivation and attendance in group decreased, so I decided to focus a few of her therapy groups on the eight dimensions of wellness. This helped to inspire this client since she remembered learning about the domains in one of her psychology classes at university. She became an active participant in these groups and wanted a copy of her worksheet to keep for her future reference. The worksheet broke down each of the eight dimensions, which are emotional, physical, occupational, social, spiritual, intellectual, environmental, and financial wellness. Each client filled in activities they currently did that fell under each dimension's category and I provided education on how each dimension overlap to create a holistic picture of wellness. She, as well as other members of the group, stated they enjoyed this breakdown of the eight dimensions of wellness and had not heard of this description before.
McNair, E. (2023, March 15). Wellness samhsa presentation 03 15 23.pptx. SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/ElizabethMc2005/wellness-samhsa-presentation-03-15-23pptx
Wellness. (2021, July 25). NAMI South Dakota. https://namisouthdakota.org/support-and-education/wellness/
Above are pictures explaining Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's eight dimensions of wellness. The first one explains how each of the dimensions is connected and each dimension can have an impact on the others. The second picture provides a definition of each dimension.
6. Applies theory regarding the therapeutic use of occupation and adaptation to screen and evaluate, plan, and implement intervention, while establishing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship with the client. I applied theory regarding therapeutic use of occupation and adaption while screening, evaluating, planning, and implementing intervention while establishing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship with every client I worked with on both of my fieldworks. One example of that was when I was working with a client at Regional One Health who was in the hospital due to a motor vehicle crash; she had nonweightbearing precautions in her right hand and reported that she noticed some weakness in her left hand from the accident. I had her pick up circular rods and place them into a peg board using a yellow resistive clothespin. The client attempted to pick up the rods off the table, but had struggled with in hand manipulation and rotation of the rod before placing it into the peg. I could tell that she was getting frustrated, so I adapted the task to where I would hold the rods vertically on the table so that she would be successful in the task. Once I did that, she thanked me for helping her and remarked that I did most of the work. I emphasized how she picked up all of the rods and that I did minimal effort to help ensure she felt successful and to maintain our therapeutic relationship. During this task, I used Ecology of Human Performance to adapt the task. I focused on the client, the task at hand, and the context of the environment. The client's motivation and the difficulty of the task were the two aspects that limited the client's performance. By adapting the task, the client was able to improve and put forth her best performance.