Monday 30 April 2012

Video Production Sessions part 2


While on placement un a mental health setting I was able to spend time with a group of people with different illnesses, who met once a week to socialise. My supervisor had organised a weekly games to enhance the group’s social skills, build teamwork and have fun. The group ranged in age and ability and we were able to cater for everyone we started every session with an easy warm up, this was designed to be fun and interactive.

I have found this youtube clip to show that warm ups can be fun, you lay down some cones in a big circle and tell everyone to skip round, you make one person the tagger, when they tag someone they link arms and then head off to tag some else, making a bigger chain until there is no one left to tag. Everyone has fun and gets there body ready for exercise.


After a bit of a warm up we split up into two groups this can also be made fun as well, as I mentioned earlier we had people of different ability and age so we made sure that the people who knew or thought they were good got put into a team last, this raised morale.

When the teams were picked we had a variety of sports that we adapted to make them more fun and interactive. This video shows that you can adapt sports to accommodate anyone.

We never kept score and made sure the person who had scored the point/ goal got special recognition to increase their self efficacy. In this video you can see the different ways to celebrate. Although this took rehearsal that we didn’t do but a simple high five or back pat is sufficient and we also remembered to acknowledge the person who set the goal up.

Sport is a great way to socialise and gain social skills helping people with a variety of mental illness. It allows people to express themselves and has some fun. A person can enjoy sport no matter what their ailment it just takes some modification or determination to help the person in the 3rd video we saw that able bodied people where able to play alongside wheelchair users the last video demonstrates this, through determination people are able to achieve amazing feats.



Thank you for reading blog and watching my videos, people’s love of sport allows them to push for new technology in order to reach new limitations of their ability. People in mental health settings gain new skills, express themselves and most importantly expand social networks.



Sunday 29 April 2012

Video Production Sessions part 1


For tutorial Four we put into groups and asked to make a short film (1 minute). It had to be based on one of the following topics Occupational Justice, Occupational Disruption, Occupational Transition and Occupational Deprivation.
The task sounded daunting as I had not being involved in film making or editing before but I love a challenge and learning new skills. My group consisted of Kate, Eliane and Shannon  (if you hold control and click their name you can visit their blog as well). As a group we decided to tackle Occupational Disruption this is viewed by Christansen and Townsend (2010) as a temporary condition of being restricted from participating in necessary or meaningful occupations, caused by illness, temporary relocation, or temporary unemployment.

Our group was eager to demonstrate the way an individual could be affected and we decided to show how an Occupational Therapist’s intervention could assist with recovery. The group decided to return to their much loved Barbie dolls, I am one of the few O.T guys so this did not sound like my kind of fun as my childhood involved bats, rugby balls and explosives (fire crackers), they pointed out that they needed a cameraman and that with dolls this meant our acting “kills” were not needed, I was sold. We had a lot of fun filming Barbie loves to dance, the film starts with Barbie dancing with her friends, she walks home only to be hit by a drunk driver, Ken, she loses a leg. After a short stint in hospital and intervention by the O.T she is back dancing. There was hysterical laughter from all, tears from Barbie and Shannon provided us with more laughter during the filming. The group work was a lot of fun and we produced a great movie that with Eliane’s editing skill deserves an award, or at least a minute of your time to watch.



Thank you to my group, I defiantly couldn’t have done it without you.

Christiansen, C. H., & Townsend, E. A. (2010). Introduction to occupation: the art and science of living (2nd ed.). New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education Inc

Blog Creation Tasks

My blog is up and running, I hope you enjoy the posts, and find the links easy to use. There’s a picture of me up in the corner of the blog, so for those of you don’t know me can but a face to the writing. I have put some information in to explain my blog and a little piece about myself.

Thursday 26 April 2012

Occupational Engagement, Doing, Being, Becoming and Belonging.



Tomato growing

The following slides portray how the simple tomato can bring meaning to an individual, it can take place anywhere in the world by young and old. By taking part(doing) in this occupation of being a horticulturist, a person is able to become a provider, which will give them a sense of belonging, whether that be to their peers in the community or being able to enjoy their fruits of their labour with the family at dinner time. On my placement, I observed what gardening meant to clients, not only was it therapeutic but it was a time to relax and enjoy the company of others while working in the garden.



Tomato growing

View more PowerPoint from craig.emmott
Doing, being, belonging and becoming

Wilcock, 1998 said it would be impossible to envisage the world without the word “doing”. People are constantly engaged in doing activities, bringing them satisfaction, peace of mind and happiness (Kendal, 1998 as cited in Wilcock, 1998), this can be seen in figure two, three and four where the subject is using her time to do some plant maintenance. Being can be defined as time taken to reflect, discovering oneself appreciate nature, art or music in a contemplative manner and to enjoy being with special people (Hammel, 1998), this can be seen in figure seven .Without being able to do things it would be impossible to reflect on an activity or nature. Wilcock, 1998 suggested that doing provides mechanism for social interaction. Belonging, as shown in figure 9, a social network of social support can be strengthen the ability to do and can contribute to the pleasure and meaningfulness of doing (Hamel, 2004). Becoming described by Hamel, 2003 is the idea can envision future selves, explore new opportunities clearly seen in figure thirteen. Occupational therapists are in the business of helping people become by facilitating their talents and abilities not yet in full use enabling them to do and to be (Wilcock, 1998).



Ethical considerations

I retrieved quite a few images from online sources, I referenced all these images using apa 6th edition. This allows me to credit the sources that supplied me with image. Using apa style referencing allows people to return to the website where I retrieved the image, and find out more information.

For photos that I took myself I asked my subject whether she would be a willing participant in my photo shoot. I explained that the photos would be published on my blog for the world to see, I Made sure that she understood the implications of this and if she gave her consent.

 I used photos that my subject was not looking directly into the camera. I also made sure that the photo’s I did use was morally appropriate.

References:

Click Manchester. (2012). Gardening group. Retrieved from http://images.click-manchester.com/admin/article/articleimages/1325681871-wilko.JPG


Eating Well. (2006). Tomatoes. Retrieved from http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/tomato_basil_finger_sandwiches.html

Garden designs. (n.d.). Achievement. Retrieved from http://garden-designs.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/garden-tools-for-kids.jpg

Greenroofs.com. (2011).Tomatoes on roof top. Retrieved from http://www.greenroofs.com/archives/images/gf-gwilson_changi%20_general_hospital.jpg

Hammell, K.W. (2004). Dimensions of meaning in the occupations of daily life.  Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71 (5).  

Kendall, A. (1998). An exploration of change in occupation following early retirement: Jane’s early retirement, a case study. Unpublished master’s thesis. University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.


Panoramio. (n.d.). Mass harvesting. Retrieved from http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/48384134.jpg

Practical Environmentalist. (n.d.). Gardening on wheels. Retrieved from http://practicalenvironmentalist.com/wheelchair%20gardener.bmp


The seep. (2011). Success. Retrieved from http://theseep.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/orion-tomatoes.jpg

University of Wisconsin Foundation. (2012). Tomato growers. Retrieved from http://www.supportuw.org/wp-content/uploads/Guatemala_tomatoes.jpg


William Hackfor's Food Blog. (2012). Family. Retrieved from http://willhackforfood.biz/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/family-eating-dinner2-lg.jpg

Wikipedia. (2006). Tomatina. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Tomatina_2006.jpg


Wilcock, A.A. (1998a).  Occupation for health.  British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 61, 340-345. 

Wilcock, A.A. (1998b).  Reflections on doing, being becoming.  Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65, 248-256. 

Sunday 1 April 2012

Information Technology and Ethical Issues

This post is to look at the ethical considerations we have to reflect on when using Information Technology (IT) and especially specific programs on computers. These sites open our information for the world to see, so awareness on how to use the sites is paramount. This post will look at what IT is, where we use it, how comfortable I am using it. I will look back into my brief Occupational Therapy (OT) experiences on fieldwork and look at how, where and why IT was used, and what ethical considerations were looked at.
Information Technology defined by Collins dictionary is the production, storage, and communication of information using computers and microelectronics (Collins, 2008). In my understanding IT covers everything that humans can store electronic information on, use to communicate on and build so that they can make life a little easier for the rest of the world. For example we can store information on CDs, DVDs, Flash drives and memory cards. We communicate through telephones, mobile phones, E-mails, social networks, websites and web blog posts.

We as the human race are constantly striving to have smaller, lighter and faster ways of storing our information, retrieving information or communicating with each other. This youtube clip highlights how fast social media is moving and how it does or will impact us as a race.  
I personally feel confident with most products and programs. I enjoy new items (toys) to explore and use, I love the way IT makes my life quicker and easier for example I can now go fishing, catch a fish, take a photo of my fish with my phone and send that photo as a message to my friends so I can brag, or let them know we have fish for tea, most of this is done on touch screens which is quick and painless.

I think at this point in my life (thirty odd-ish) I need to keep up with IT as we saw in the you tube clip the IT world is moving at light speed and I feel that if I don’t keep up I will be left behind. So I think age can play a part in limitations, but in the same way it may limit it also drives might drive us to keep up. The age that children get mobile phones is dropping, and communication through text message is more popular, for parents or grandparents who want to keep in touch current mobile phones are easier to use, their predecessors where complex and to send a message you would have to enter main menus to find sub-menus such an old Motorola, nowadays we can touch the screen and then touch the send button as you would on the new i-phone. The main limitation I can see though is the want and need to keep learning about all the new IT that comes out. 

IT is used in many purposeful occupations around the world it tells us that we have brushed our teeth for two minutes (electric toothbrush), that our clothes are a minute from being dry (clothes dryer) let’s see mother nature predict that one, it gives us information that the road ahead is busy or there has being a crash (electronic road signs) and my favourite, it tells me where
the fish are with my fish finder.

In my time as a student on fieldwork in the Occupational Therapy practice I have seen many examples of IT being utilized. Right from the beginning of the day when the OT checks their appointments on their phone, this lets them know where they have to be, within seconds. They then use an I-pad to write memos on and set themselves reminders. The clients often use computers to address their needs, look up information or occupy their day. I also saw the way that a Nintendo Wii was used to not only bring motor skills into action but also to create a social environment.  

With the adoption of IT systems and tools there may be a few issues. The fact that a clients delicate information is put onto a device that can be lost means that great consideration needs to be taken as to what information is on these devices. That aside the OT will need training into operating the systems effectively, this takes time and money for the employer or service provider.

Information technology  can be used in many areas of OT, I can see that the development of IT is allowing for more devices to be used in the practice of Occupational Therapy for example in this youtube  clip you can see that the Nintendo Wii is being used to rehabilitate a wide range of people with different needs. And in this youtube clip we can see how IT has helped children with movement giving them joy and a better quality of life.

Knowledge of Information Technology is crucial when it comes to enabling people’s occupation. As seen in the fore mentioned youtube clips there are many devices that will benefit clients, understanding what devices there are for the client will help them in their occupations. IT will keep growing, talking with other practitioners will help us keep up with technology and get the best results for our clients.
All practitioners will record client’s information either written, audio or video. Clients should always give their consent if their information is recorded, they should also feel safe that their information is going to stay safe whilst in the practitioners care. Education into privacy and the internet systems should always be under taken by the practitioner so they are aware of the ways they can keep their and their clients information safe.


Collins dictionary(7th ed.). (2008). Glasgow, United Kingdom: HarperCollins Publishers.