Improving the thermal quality of housing to eliminate damp and mould and produce a comfortable temperature throughout the house has a major impact on the health of the residents. There are also financial benefits for the residents, and indirectly for the NHS.
Occupational therapists frequently cite a 'client-centred' approach as a fundamental aspect of their practice. However, there are many examples in the narratives of disabled people that suggest that the health and social care services they experience do not quite meet this aspiration. The authors propose that an understanding of disability from disabled people's perspectives is elemental to client-centred practice and that knowledge of the academic discipline of disability studies can contribute to authentic client-centred occupational therapy.
Disabled therapists may be required to engage in invisible work to communicate across cultural differences, and to educate others. Respectful openness to difference could enhance the practice competence of both disabled therapists and their non-disabled colleagues. This demands critical reflexive attention to ableism within the profession.
Introduction: Electronic assistive technology (EAT) includes computers, environmental control systems and information technology systems and is widely considered to be an important part of present-day life. Method: Fifty-six Irish community occupational therapists completed a questionnaire on EAT. All surveyed were able to identify the benefits of EAT. Results: While respondents reported that they should be able to assess for and prescribe EATs, only a third (19) were able to do so, and half (28) had not been able to do so in the past. Community occupational therapists identified themselves as having a role in a multidisciplinary team to assess for and prescribe EAT. Conclusion: Results suggest that it is important for occupational therapists to have up-to-date knowledge and training in assistive and computer technologies in order to respond to the occupational needs of clients.
Background: Occupational therapy students complete practice education placements as part of their degree programmes. Sufficient support during these placements is vital since the transition from the classroom to clinical practice can present many challenges. Ensuring support can be difficult, given that these placements occur across a wide geographical area. Blogs were identified as a possible innovative way of providing distance support and a study was undertaken to examine the usefulness of this tool in occupational therapy practice education. Methods: A descriptive investigation of a private blog at Trinity College, University of Dublin, and a public blog at the University of Limerick was conducted during one practice education placement. An online survey was used to capture quantitative and qualitative data on the students' experience of blogging during practice education. Findings: Blogging was not found to be a useful tool for developing reflection or clinical reasoning skills by this student sample, but was found to be beneficial for peer support and learning. Conclusions: The research indicates the potential of using blogging as a tool for peer support and learning. Further research on its application and the use of other social media in healthcare education is required.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.