Presentation Abstracts

Keynote Address:

Linking Practice, Education, & Research: Reaching our Centennial Vision 

Penelope Moyers Cleveland, EdD, OTR/L, BCMH, FAOTA,  President of the American Occupational Therapy Association

One of the strategic objectives of AOTA’s Centennial Vision is focused upon linking practice, education and research. These three components of the profession in the past have existed almost in silos such that advances in one area often have not fully informed the others. The ideal linkages will better position our profession to meet the occupational needs of society where persons are better able to “Live Life to its Fullest.” The question is what are the most important ways to influence a change in our professional culture where all practitioners begin seeking, developing, and maintaining these linkages in order to improve practice, education, and research? This change requires that everyone in the profession see himself or herself as a societal leader, writing their own leadership storyline that includes our professional values, innovative ideas, and the energy to carry out action. At the end of this presentation in order to link practice education and research, the learner will be able to:

• Determine how one can facilitate change at the personal level given one’s own motivation and ability.
• Determine how to use factors of change within networks of professional relationships.
• Determine how to make feasible changes in the system in which one works or volunteers.

Bringing Evidence and Practice Together to Strengthen OT:  Exploring Practice-Based Evidence and Evidence-Based Practice

Deepa Thimmaiah, MS, OTR and David Greene, PhD, OTR

From an historical perspective, intuitive evidence influences practice, and practice influences both intuitive evidence (clinical reasoning) and experimentation to test interventions, the results of which are published in professional journals. Evidence for practice provides concrete, reliable justification for why we do what we do and provides an ethical basis for our actions. This presentation will explore the influences of evidence and the evolutionary pressure evidence exerts on growth and progress in our field. Together we will discuss both discovering research and planning and carrying out research to investigate efficacy of commonly used practices and new treatment methods. We will consider the questions of where to search for information and how to understand that information once found in the literature. The presentation will conclude with small group discussions including the planning and problem-solving encountered in practicing based on evidence.

Occupational Therapy and Neurologic Music Therapy Collaborative Techniques

Mari Viers, COTA; Sarah Johnson, MM, MT-BC; and Krista Liley, OTR

Occupational Therapy and Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) address deficits in sensorimotor and cognitive domains using music to facilitate non-musical goals.  Research supports and defines the evidence-based practice of NMT.  Attendees will learn facilitation techniques to re-educate movement and address memory, attention and visual perception. 

Understanding and Addressing Co-occurring Disorders in Occupational Therapy

Dr. Penny Moyers Cleveland

Traditionally, individual and separate mental health diagnoses have been described in terms of highlighting the role of occupational therapy practitioners in delivering services to persons with resulting occupational performance issues. This presentation augments that learning through an emphasis on understanding persons who have at least one substance use disorder and a minimum of one mental disorder, otherwise referred to as co-occurring disorders (COD). The definition and epidemiology of COD will be explored, as will the impact of the various aspects of a health-care system that has not aggressively taken responsibility for improving research, training, insurance coverage, and evidence-based intervention programs for COD. Discussions will include ideas involving training occupational therapy practitioners to improve existing and develop new prevention and intervention programs for persons with COD that are fully integrated in terms of addressing all problems of living related to the combination of diagnoses.

Plenary Session: Sustaining a Firm Persuasion in Our Work

Wendy Wood, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA

“To have a firm persuasion in our work—to feel that what we do is right for ourselves and good for the world at exactly the same time—is one of the great triumphs of human existence.”  David Whyte (2001)

How do we, as occupational therapists, sustain a firm persuasion in our work, such that we know that it is right for ourselves and good for the world at exactly the same time? As observed by David Whyte, people often embark on careers filled with enthusiastic idealism about the good their work will do for others and themselves. But hoped for futures can be quite different from what is eventually commonly experienced. We may become disheartened about our work. We may question the wisdom of our original decisions to enter occupational therapy. We may even entertain leaving for more appealing work. But what if, given our career-related challenges, we are called to deepen our work as occupational therapists? How best might we proceed? Dr. Wood will explore these questions by presenting overarching themes from the personal-professional stories of occupational therapists who have contributed to A Firm Persuasion in Our Work, a recurring Department of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy. Guided by these themes, she will engage participants in reflecting on their personal professional journeys, and how they might nourish and sustain, over the long haul, a firm persuasion in the rightness of occupational therapy for themselves and its goodness for the world.

An Overview of Electronic Aids to Daily Living

Michelle Lange, OTR, ABDA, ATP

Electronic Aids to Daily Living provide an alternative means of controlling devices within the home environment for increased function, independence and safety. These devices include audiovisual equipment, lights, simple appliances, hospital beds, door openers and telephones. This session will provide an overview of assessment and available products to meet consumer’s needs.  

AOTA Board & Specialty Certifications: Professional Development Pathway

Suzanne Holm, MA, OTR, BCPR and Denny Bettenhausen, BS, COTA, SCLV

Board and Specialty Certifications provide a professional development framework geared specifically for occupational therapy.  During this session learn more about this voluntary process that assists practitioners in understanding and promoting their clinical practice and client outcomes as well as how to apply the Standards of Continuing Competence to professional development.

Applying THE JOURNEY(TM) Guided Meditation in Occupational Therapy

Skip Lackey and Karen Priest Barrett, OTR, CHT

Experience The Journey ™, a step-by-step roadmap of research based guided meditation for releasing repressed cell memories to help clear physical and/or emotional issues developed by mind-body healing expert Brandon Bays. Hear case studies for depression, addiction, fibromyalgia, arthritis, ADD, and cancer. Explore its applications for self-help and use in Occupational Therapy. Consider reviewing the web site pre-conference and come with questions...   http://www.thejourney.com/

Registration Regulation for CO’s Occupational Therapists

Rosemary McCool, Director of the Colorado Division of Registrations, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies and Richard Morales (DORA) 

The Occupational Therapy Practice Act (article 40.5; formally known as SB08-152) became a law in CO July 1, 2008. January 1, 2009, it will go into effect for occupational therapists practicing occupational therapy in Colorado. Requirements for Registration will be defined, the difference between Registration in the State of Colorado/DORA and maintaining certification with NBCOT (‘registered’ OTs; OTR) will be explained, and the process for applying for registration will be outlined. What is registration and what OTs and OTAs need to do in order to obtain licensure will also be identified.

Read the Act, posted on OTAC’s website at www.otacco.org.

DORA’s website is http://www.dora.state.co.us/, click on Division of Registrations on the left column.