Thursday 17 May 2012

Online Communities


Tut 6
Cancer touches 1 in 5 lives. Two of these online communities have helped people that I know, when going through cancer. It stops your life for a time and you need all the help you can get.
It is a huge help. Canteen’s mission is to support, develop and empower young people living with cancer through a national support network, and high quality education. They sometimes send teens on big world trips like going to Disneyland, before times sometimes becomes too short.
Online community is all about helping people out or people help other people out.



As you from the screen shot.
 The site is very interactive and you can follow Canteen on Facebook, Twitter etc. People can contribute with there time, money, or following and giving support.

I think people choose to contribute because normally they have somehow be touched by cancer, or they are just very kind and nice people.
This site deals with occupational disruption and deprivation, as peoples lives stop at times when family members become ill with cancer.Sometimes Work or occupation can' t happen due to being away from home or needing that time with the loved one. Canteen helps with this sort of things, what to prepare for  and who you can get help off.

2. Ronald McDonald House
Our Ronald McDonald House programme provides a "home-away-from-home" for families so they can stay close by their hospitalised child at no cost.  Our Houses are built on the simple idea that nothing else should matter when a family is focused on healing their child – not where they can afford to stay, where they will get their next meal or where they will lay their head at night to rest.

This is how I have known it as, they also now have a retreat house. To give the families a break. They are a charitable trust, and the money goes towards making the lives of families with sick children so much bearable. The site is like Canteen, can donate, follow different house, volunteer, also sort you just need to get on the page, follow link http://rmhc.org.nz/ronald-mcdonald-house-charities
Again it helps families deal with occupational disruption and transition. Let’s families have a home away from a home, no money worries for the accommodation and meals. Information and as much support.
Both Canteen and Ronald McDonald House are very aware of ethical consideration. They would be made to stand if they had crossed the line somewhere.
Both these communities are so geographically spread due to the extent illness affects so many people. 1 in 5 will have been affected, that is just cancer.

3. Otago Occupational Therapy Students-closed group on Facebook.
This is a page for the 2nd years to clarify and notify their whole group at Otago about extra things the lecturer have said. Reminds us to bring things to class.
Very interactive, anyone in that group can comment and normally someone is on Facebook.
You contribute by putting your opinion to a comment or asking a question in a post, or linking a helpful site onto the page. Anyone in the group can contribute.
We contribute to help each other out, treat people the way you want to be treated. Don’t want to see our classmates fail.
Studying can be occupational disruption at times, you can’t continue if you don’t know how to progress. Put up a post, get an answer or direction and disruption has gone. Also occupational transition, go from being an average student to a knowledgeable student with all the information that is provided on the page.
Sometimes there can be lack of accountability, but for the most it is pretty good. With everything in life you decide how you react to it. Benefits are instance help, limitations; sometimes the information is wrong.



5 different views on STROKES


Tutorial 5: 5 Sources about STROKES
STROKES, we will be having to deal with these a lot in out OT profession so I decide to get a better understanding of strokes.
The first is a clip is about what a stroke really is, it is a great explanation. Then goes to advertise a drug to help, not sure about that- in the last minute; stop it when you like.

In other class of ours we have been taught about ways stroke can impede on your speech. One type is Broca’s aphasia. Basically you completely comprehend what is being said to you can’t physically say the words. It would be so frustrating; to be honest if you didn’t know the girl in the video I will post. You would think she was like dumb (sorry not very pc). So it is called Broca’s aphasia because that is the part of the brain that is impeded.  Broca’s area is the inferior frontal lobe near motor cortex control of lips and mouth. Predominantly in the left hemisphere, and is associated with motor control of language.

Wow, this was an eye opener. I presumed like people over 15 like got strokes. NOOOO!!! Here is a precious little girl and her therapists explaining her progress.
Occupational therapy and stroke - Dina's story - YouTube


The clip that follows, just shows you how fast a stroke can hit, pretty scary. We shouldn’t take life for granted.

Last but not least is a blog about Kat, her loving husband, and some family. The progress since May 2007.What’s Been Happening? « kat.blog



freedom soon :)

this song makes me happy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfUYuIVbFg0

DON'T STOP BELIEVING

Thursday 3 May 2012

Assistive Technology


Assistive technology are a “broad range of devices, services, strategies, and practices that are conceived and applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have disabilities” (Cook & Polgar, 2012, p. 2).

So it is something that can help improve/ function easier a problem that the individual is facing. Don’t think it should just apply to the people whom have a disability.

Or other definition of assistive technology stated by Assistive Technology Act of 1998- “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities” (as cited in Radomski & Trombly Latham, 2008, p. 952).

It can be as simple as a solution as an easy reach or sitting down to put your shoes on.

The Wobble Switch

The Wobble Switch can be easily adapted for a variety of uses in one's environment. Can make it plug into most things with an adaptor and this allows the person when to turn on and off things. “Although it only requires a slight movement of about 6mm in any direction to actuate, the spring allows the 90mm tall lever to easily move out of the way of sweeping or erratic movements” (Kiatronics, 2009). You can mount the Wobble Switch in most places; could use velcro or permanently attach with screws to that place you wish. It cost $185.96 NZ dollars.

To me I really got a lot of enjoyment out of being part of the group when I couldn’t communicate and pretend that I only had head range of movement. I got to use a wobble switch. I can really see the benefit of these and they are very easy to set up. Dave Speden- guest lecturer stated these were used often when doing cooking or music with individuals in a group, so all could contribute in a way. Gives them control; you can add it to any device to allow control of the power.

References:

Cook, A., & Polgar, J. (2012). Essentials of assistive technology. St. Louis, Missouri, USA:            Elsevier

Kiatronics. (2009). Electronic design and manufacture. Retriecved April 25, 2012 from
           
http://www.kiatronics.com/aged-care-products/switches-and-pendants/wobble-switch.html

Radomski, M., & Trombly Latham, C. (2008). Occupational therapy for physical dysfunction. (6th ed)             Philadelphia : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Planning of our short film

Large group but we worked well together, decide on occupational deprivation. Someone point out the difficulty of using the wheelchair entrance at Knox church. It was on the side of the hill. Would struggle if doing a wheel chair transfer on the side of the steep hill or if you did it on the flat you would struggle to get up the hill to the entrance. Preplanning needs to be done for wheelchair access. But reality kicked in and we all realised a two hour class session wouldn’t allow us enough time, so we worked around the polytechnic. The aid of the storyboard helped as we had a rough picture of what we wanted to achieve from the film. Scripting was not used, rather we use captions to emphasise our occupation deprivation. An interesting point from our lecture, which you just leave people in wheelchairs on the landing and the fire warden, has to get them out. Hard thing to do, our whole occupation therapy profession is about helping people out.

Thursday 26 April 2012

baking=love
This is an example for Tutorial Seven:  Linking to blogs of interest and exchanging comments, me and Nessie exchange comments all the time. a scene shot  of communication  as a result of me postings on her blog.

She teaches me lots, not just about cooking, but ways to embrace life.

The other blogs of interest are to the side, MetaOT was great to look at assessments at.
  1. Was there an emphasis placed on the importance of shared meals/food at the child care centre you were at?
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    Replies
    1. Yes there was. It was to help with routine and what children were expected to do at meal times. The centre is one big family, it was so cool and so believes in like heaps of free play and kids discovery who they are.
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  2. Thats great to hear the child care centre is like a one big family- so important especially for the concept "belonging" :)
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    More examples of communication