vicky
Can anyone help me to find an assessment to use with adults with asperger's and mental illnesss in a community setting/rehab to record and identify improvements in general ADL. I would be ost grateful for any advice. Thank-you
Occupational Balance: do we practise what we preach?
Walking into the hospital where I work this morning I noticed a sign telling anybody with respiratory tract infection symptoms to stay away, to avoid infecting patients. I walked past the sign with a small cough and then blew my nose at the first available discreet opportunity. It seemed like the sign did not apply to me; it only applied to the public. During my first hour at work today I noticed a physiotherapist with a cough and a healthcare assistant with a cold. The only person to bat an eyelid at my coughing for the last two weeks was a Sister. She rewarded me with a dirty look, but said nothing. Despite frequent hand-washing, the likelihood is that I was infected by a colleague and my inconsiderate behaviour will have in turn infected many of my colleagues. The next person to use this keyboard will probably be infected, as will many others afterwards. Why have I come to work then?
Are Western Societies Guilty of Trivialising Female-on-Male Violence?
I was a little surprised to read the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’s Annual Representatives Conference 2010 motion 18:
“Conference is outraged that in 2010 violence against women is still prevalent, and in some places in the world openly tolerated. As a healthcare profession, we are in a great position to add our voice to the many who call for an end to violence against women. This Conference calls on the CSP to work with Amnesty International on its campaign to Stop Violence Against Women. Virtually every culture in the world contains forms of violence against women that are nearly invisible because they are seen as ‘normal’. Even in countries where laws criminalise violence against women, tolerance of violence may be found at all levels of society. Violence against women is the greatest human rights scandal of our times. The experience or threat of violence affects the lives of women everywhere, cutting across boundaries of wealth, race and culture. In the home and in the community, in time of war and peace, women are beaten raped, mutilated and killed with impunity. It is time we make a stand against this outrage”[1]
It seemed to me to be a sexist stance ignoring statistical evidence that men are at greater risk of violent crime than women in the UK. In England and Wales during 2008/2009 for example, men "were about twice as likely as women (4.4% compared with 2.1%) to have experienced one or more violent crimes in the year prior to interview"[2: page 43].
What does pain tell us?
1. Introduction:
My problem-based learning objective for this week is to find out how to differentiate between different types of pain. How are we supposed to do that? My general experience of occupational therapists is that if a patient complains of pain they go and get a doctor or nurse. As occupational therapists are trained in anatomy and physiology it would be great to see occupational therapists investigating pain themselves (at least on a superficial level) before reporting to other multidisciplinary team members. Hence I thought it might be worth sharing my work this week, which is intended for first-year students.
Control of movement
0. Introduction:
This is some problem-based learning work I did a while ago. Unfortunately, voluntary movement depends on the integration of several non-voluntary mechanisms so the material I had to cover seemed pretty complex to me. I thought I might as well share my work here instead of wasting it, but I am no neuro-physiologist so please do not expect any rocket science.
