In relation to Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapists are interested in getting people to do things, or being occupied. While mindfully participating in cooking over the last nine weeks I have also thought about the relevance it has on occupational therapy. Cooking is a good activity to get people involved in, as it can be done one on one or in a group. It is a life skill which needs to be learnt, and for the client, they get an end product - food! For them what could possibly be better?

It can be used by an occupational therapist in nearly any setting, as education, intervention and an assessment. By watching someone cook you are able to assess their motor and process skills, and also how safe they will be doing this independently in their own home. From here you can make recommendations on the equipment or adaptive methods they could use while cooking - an example of using cooking as an in intervention.  By cooking with someone you can simply to get them involved and interacting with you or a group. Cooking as education can again be done it a variety of settings, for example in a youth setting cooking may be taught when preparing people to be independent in a life skills sessions that are run in this setting.

Cooking is a great activity, and having thought about it in more depth over the last 9 weeks, there is not much chance it is an activity I will be giving up in the near future.

In relation to ambience, cooking comes under the umbrella of labour, as it is necessary for survival, and needs to continually be completed.

So turns out I missed this post - Affordances II

But is a continuation of the original post of affordances, but this post takes a slightly different slant on affordances. The following post will no longer look at communication, connections and moral asepcts, but aesthetics, spirituality and health. To break these down, the English oxford dictionary (2011) defines aesthetics as “The branch of philosophy which deals with questions of beauty and artistic taste”, so aesthetics is the feeling of something through your senses, whether it be the smells, tastes, how it feels, sounds, or looks. Looking at spirituality many people think of religion and beliefs, in this sense, it refers to how you connect more deeply with this activity. And health is pretty self explanatory, especially when related to food, as there are clear foods and way foods are eaten that are good, and not so good for your health.

Here is another quick story about my cooking which relates quite well to ergonomics, Saturday night and I had decided to go home for the weekend to the farm, Mum had asked me to get her some groceries and it was decided we would have burgers for dinner, and there would be about 6-9 people at home for dinner. After spending far too long deciding how many burger buns to buy it was time to cook. Burgers are one of my favourite things to cook at home, because both Mum and Dad help, and they are easy and everyone likes them. So really with Mum and Dad both in the kitchen, I didn’t really end up doing mum cooking at all. However the biggest part of cooking burgers is putting them together.

In many ways, burgers are aesthetically pleasing; the smell of bacon on onion cooking is mouth-watering, as these burgers were so full with fillings the look of them alone was mouth watering, however visually some of the burgers failed a bit as they didn't stay together too well. That sounds somewhat contradictive, but I guess what I am trying to say is although visually some were a bit of a mess, they still looked as though they would taste good. And of course they did taste good. The feel and sound of burgers is not so obvious, sound wise, there is the sound of the bacon cooking in the pan, and the sound of people eating (not so nice), but also the conversation and laughter that comes with having a gathering of people round for dinner. Feel is very much up to the person, whether or not they like the feel of the burgers when they eat them. While cooking there is the feel of the raw bacon and the onion on your eyes which is not so pleasing.

Spirituality, this here was harder for me to relate to my cooking, however when Mum invites my brothers and staff around for dinner, she often does cook burgers, as you can add in and leave out food to peoples likings. There was no vegertians and we had grown all the meat used on the farm. Having a family dinner shows a sense of caring and connection between the family.

Health – cooking for my family is easy as nobody has any health issues which are effected by diet or on any weight loss programmes, however food quite directly relates to energy levels, my brothers have very hard manual jobs and eat very big meals, where as mum and I don’t eat as much, and don’t need to. There are health factors when cooking e.g. 5+ a day, and I think burgers aren’t too bad in this respect with a decent serving of onions, mushrooms, beetroot, pineapple, lettuce. Then there is all the vitamins and minerals, which all effect health in different ways, I currently don’t know much about this at all, but so far I have been mostly healthy, simply by following my mothers instructions “everything in moderation”.

It’s amazing what you can get from a family feed of homemade burgers when you pull it apart.

Posted 10/10/11

English oxford dictionary. (2011). Retrieved September 29, 2011 from http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/aesthetics

Class members blogs,

As part of our assignment we are to post comments on other class members blogs, below are the links to comments on other peoples blogs, alternatively these links will also show you some similar blogs, content discussed should be very similar but they may have taken a different slant on it - feel free to also read the some of my friends blogs!

http://pipsotblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/ramble-ramble-ramble.html#comments

http://participationnicole.blogspot.com/2011/09/tutorial-2.html?showComment=1317950892602#c5258920393404952313

http://alicesotblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/aesthetics-spirituality-and-health.html?showComment=1318805352304#c2484563360207328439

http://janinesparticipationinoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/needs-and-labour.html?showComment=1318805985996#c4623425388436451524

http://gracefairhall.blogspot.com/2011/10/burgers-yummm.html?showComment=1318806783551#c8346895933129018202

Food for Survival

This week’s topic is what is the need for our chosen activity in my life? When that question was asked I thought it was quite obvious, if you don't eat you don’t function well then die, therefore cooking in necessary for survival. As Baines (2006) state “Humans need fuel to live, it provides energy the body needs to grow, stay warm and think” (p.7), but I thought considering we are having a whole class there must be more behind it, turns out I was right.

This is where I tell you another story of when I last cooked, then go through and analysis it.

It was Wednesday afternoon and mince was the only meat left in the fridge. I was a bit disappointed because I am not a huge fan if mince, when I was younger it was always the last meat left in the freezer meaning we would have nothing other than mince for a month sometimes. Then I moved to a boarding school, I think it was decided mince was cheap and they really knew how to make it taste bad!! But back to my cooking, I decided I would make Tacos with it, when I got to the supermarket that changed to wraps, but close enough.

I’m a bit of a fan of making wraps, mainly because they are quick easy and normally they taste yum. Today really was no different. Chopped up an onion and cooked that with the mince, then spent the next 5 minutes trying to make all the lumps in the mince go away, added the packet of seasoning (yes I cheated) and let it simmer, just long enough to cut tomato, cheese and lettuce, and wash the very few dishes I had used, then it was time to call the rest of the flat for dinner, and leave the rest of dinner up to the individual.

Many years ago there was an expectation that if you were a woman you did all the cooking, and although woman still do 75% of the cooking (Price, 2007), these statistics are changing, so why do I choose to cook.

The need for cooking - I cooked because I was hungry, so there is the basic need of survival, but when you put more thought into it there really is more you can get out of it, it was not only tending to the needs of myself, but also my flatmates, I was feeding them too. Our flat meals which are supposed to happen 4 times a week most often lead to everyone in the flat sitting round in the lounge talking for longer than we should, dinner tonight lead to everyone talking, but only for the time it took to eat dinner – so cooking brings people together. Mince was the meat that had been bought as we are living within a budget, which is not very big, and thankfully nobody in my flat needs to be or is by choice on any special diet. More personally to me, cooking gives me a sense of achievement and reinforces that I am now independent. I am living independently and am required to cook for myself.

On special occasions food can be celebratory, and then often it is also cultural, tacos come from Mexico, so for me not a cultural food, but for others it could well be. Food giving a cultural identity, can be both good as it offers a sense of your upbringing and identity however as illustrated by Schlosser (2001), this is not always the case. Much of the American culture is based around food and this is killing the American people. Cooking also gives one something enjoyable to do.


References

Baines, J. (2006). Food for life. London: White Thompson.

Price, A. (2007). Woman still do most cooking and shopping. Retreived from September 30, 2011, from http://www.anythingbutwork.com/society/women-shopping.htm

Schlosser, E. (2001). The fast food nation; The dark side of the all American meal. New York, NY: Library of congress, Cataloguing in publication data.  

Posted 30/09/2011

Affordances,

It is quite common that the kitchen in any home often transforms to being the living room (Gdula, 2008). This relates to affordances. The kitchen provides so much more than just a place to create food (Gdula, 2008). When cooking there is the chance for teaching and learning skills, gossiping, humour, talking and so much more. This post will give an example of the last time I cooked, and throughout there are examples of affordances relating communication, connections and moral aspects.

Relating aspects of affordances to my chosen activity of cooking, I found it easier to look at the last time I cooked as that was the freshest in my mind. I was in a different environment, I was cooking at my friends place instead of my own, however there they have a communal kitchen, and they don’t know the other people that use that same kitchen well. I was cooking marinated chicken kebabs and rice. My friend was busy at the time so I cooking dinner, I didn’t mind as she had bought the food. When I was cooking I met one of her flatmates, I found out he was from Thailand, and as I have previously lived in Thailand we shared stories of places we had both been to and places which we would like to experience both in NZ and Thailand. My friend’s kitchen supplies were also low, and as I thought the chicken would be a lot nicer if it was marinated, I began to make some marinate, the flatmate lent me some sauce he often used when cooking, and I mixed that with some other sauces that I found in the kitchen, a good blend of borrowing and stealing. When the chicken was cooked and ready to serve the rice should have been too, but it wasn’t it was this way that I learnt that brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice.

I said goodbye to my friends’ flatmate and went to see my friend with the cold kebabs and the freshly cooked brown rice. Although the meal could have been timed a bit better so the chicken was warm the chicken had a great flavour to it. I had a good catch up with my friend over dinner, we both moaned about how much work we had to do. Although the plan had be to cook dinner together, have a chat and head off, things didn't go to plan this night, they never seem to with this friend, she was sick of doing work for the day, and dinner wasn’t as filling as she had planned it to be, so we began the 20min walk to Rob Roy for dessert. The night really wasn’t as early as I had planned it to be, it was on those nights that conversations of primary school teachers came up as did other students, which lead to the classic task of facebook stalking. Before the dinner date finally came to an end.

So you might be thinking that is a lovely story but what does it all mean?

Well my point I am trying to make from all that is although when we think of cooking as a means to eating, there is nearly always more to cooking. From that one night alone I made a new friend, stole and borrowed some sauce, caught up on gossip, moaned about workloads, chatted and supported each other, laughed and reminisced on past events and even attempted to see what old friends are up to these days and went for a walk to Dunedin’s favourite ice creamier, this all emerged from the necessity which is cooking.

Gdula, S. (2007). The warmest room in the house. NY: Bloomsbury

Posted 21/09/2011

Ergonomics

Three words the continually seem to pop in class, person, occupation and environment, and participation in occupation II is no different.

It relates to ergonomics, in Greek, ergon - work and nomics - law.

Dul and Weerdmeester 2008 state ergonomics “aims to design appliances, technical systems and tasks, in such a way to improve human safety, comfort and performance” (pg 1). Performance will be optimum when there is a good fit between these 3 aspects.

This is what it looks like in relation to my activity - cooking

Person – that's me

Although I am not the best cook out, I am more than capable of doing the cooking, my main issues is that I am a little lazy and occasionally pushed for time, so more often than not the meals I put out are fast cheap, and mainly easy. When I have the means and the time to cook the meals I cook are quite good, and as I am young these things will most defiantly change over time, as will my cooking skills.

Occupation

Cooking - the process of adding ingredients together, often adding heat forming a chemical change, to make an outcome – dinner.

Cooking is an activity that can be adapted a great deal in order to suit the person who is engaging, the difficulty, the intensity, the time and the skills required can all easily be adapted by changing what you cook, this is turn also adapts the outcome, alternatively there is a lot of adaptive equipment which can be used to alter the skills required and difficulty of cooking.

Environment

This is a student flat, and although for me this has its advantages, in that other students there aren't picky eaters, it also has its disadvantages; the budget is tight this often limits what can be cooked, and means as a flat we tend to stick to what we know. The kitchen in the flat itself is small, more than often very messy and well under equipment, with only the necessary items making baking a struggle. But the atmosphere in the kitchen is nice, it is open to the lounge allowing you to chat with people in the lounge while cooking, or watch TV, being mindful this can also be a distraction.

Reference

Dul, J. & Weerdmeester, B. (2008). Ergonomics for beginners: A quick reference guide. (3^rd ed.). Boca Raton, Florida: Taylor & Francis

Cooking!!

My chosen activity to discuss is cooking, as it is something which I do regularly, and normally I enjoy cooking.
In class we were asked to write for a couple of minutes about our experience or thoughts on our chosen activity, this is what I had;
I participate in cooking dinner most nights at the moment, however I enjoy baking more than cooking, but I don't do baking as much, because I have limited time, and it is not as much of a necessity.
I consider the meal planning and the clean up required all part of the cooking, and cooking to me is preparing or making anything that can be consumed, therefore baking is a form of cooking.
I began cooking when I was young and used to cook most of the family dinners when I was about 11, however I feel as though I was a more competent cook then, than as I am now as I never cooked throughout high school because I was not required too. My favorite things to cook are foods that I enjoy eating, and are quite fast to make, like burgers or wraps.


Now I must participate in cooking for at least 2 hours each week, this has some practical considerations which must be taken into account. 
 - Firstly time, two hours a week would be considered a long time for some occupations, but cooking is something which is done daily, and over a week it will easily add up to 2 hours. 
 - The second consideration is the budget. As I am being more mindful when I am planning and cooking my meals I may feel like cooking different things which will increase my budget. I will need to need to be mindful of costs when planning meals, and only have expensive meals on special occasions to keep to my budget. Generally food that costs the least to cook, isn't as good for you, and it is the same with time, often it takes longer, and more energy, and creates more dishes to cook meals that are better for you. 
 - The resources, as we have a small kitchen will hardly any storage space, we do not have much of a range of equipment, this will limit some of the baking that can be done in the kitchen, as I am not going to make a pavlova with a whisk. We also have a shortage of oven trays and dishes which needs to be taken into account when planning a dinner. 


Posted 06/08/2011

New Paper

Participation in Occupation I has now come to an end, however in second semester participation in occupation II also requires us to use a blog, I have decided to continue on with this blog. The focus on the posts to follow will be around a chosen activity, which we participate in regularly, and where we will be required to be mindful of while participating,

Tutorial 7 - Linking with Blogs of Interest

This week we were expected to link with blogs of interest and leave comments on them. I was already linked with some from my class so I linked with some other OT blogs that are available on the internet and commented on some of them, particularly around the areas where i have been in placement and other areas of OT which I am interested in. Below is an example of the communication on a blog that I commented on. It is a classmates blog for a post she had explaining OT through the use of a youtube clip.This communication illustrated that we both have difficulty at times explaining exactly what is that Occupational Therapists do.





 
If you are reading through this blog and have something to say, please feel free to leave you comments of any of the below posts. 

Tutorial 8 - Assistive Technology

Occupational Therapist often get clients with a variety of disabilities to use equipment, some of this can be refereed to as assistive technology. Following having a guest speaker who was an occupational therapist at a school speaking to us, the blog entry to be written was about assistive technology. 

Assistive technology represents the “broad range of devices, services, strategies, and practices that are conceived and applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have disabilities” (Cook & Hussey, 1995)

So put into my own words, an simplified a bit, assistive technology is all the technology and equipment which can help people with disabilities to lead fulfilling and active lifestyles.

There is a rather wide variety of adaptive equipment available. One piece of equipment I found interesting was the talking photo album. The allowed you to put photos into a normal looking album, and then add a note to it in speech. This could be used for someone that was expected to lose their speech, and could do this before they lost their speech so they could still tell their story in their own voice. However the way our guest speaker showed it being used, was at a school where the teachers would take photos of the student who was unable to talk. The photo was then developed, put in the album, them a voice memo was added to it. This album would them go home to the parents so they could see and hear what their child was doing while they were at school. This link is a youtube clip that shows a talking photo album and how they are used. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMLV409Sbdw

Through some assistive technology companies talking photo albums can be expensive, however they are becoming more and more common and not just for people with disabilities, so this is bringing the price down. They can be purchased over the internet for about $65.00 US dollars.

References

Cook, A., & Hussey, S. (1995). Assistive Technologies: Principles and Practise. St Louis: Mosby.

Tutorial 6 - Online Communities

For the following tutorial we were required to look at online communities that in some way relate to occupational therapy, I chose to look at online games as play is the main occupation for children and it is something that many others choice to participate is as a leisure activity or when they have free time. Or my personal favorite procrastination technique when i'm supposed to be studying.  

The three sites which I will explore in more depth are

-       http://www.rummikub.com/

-       www.mindjolt.com

-       www.nick.com/games

Rummikub is a site where individuals come together to play a game against each other. The only game which can be played in rummikub which is a rummy game involving coloured d numbered bricks. Most often you will play against people from other countries who you do not know. It is suitable for a range or age groups from about 8 years upwards. The intention of this site is well met, as it is to allow people to enjoy playing rummikub against other internet users in a safe environment.

MIndjolt games is another gaming site, however it differs from rummikub in that it offers a wide range of games, and these games are mostly one player and played against yourself where you gain a high score, and can then compare that to the high score to that of others. Other games on mindjolt games will be played again the computer.

Nick.com is the website for the children’s television channel nickelodeon. This site like mindjolt games, offers a huge range of different games. The majority of these games however are aimed at a younger audience and involve the characters off the television programmes shown on nickelodeon. These games are also played against the computer or against yourself. Here you are able to join the nick club and leave comments on the site, chat with other members, vote for a variety of things and receive newsletters with the latest updates on the nickelodeon site.

People from all over the world are able to access these sites and play these games, the intention for all of the above sites is to offer games which the consumers will enjoy, and they also provide games which are not restricted to a certain age group due to violence or bad language.

The way in which you contribute is playing the games, and this is the same over all sites, however, in rummikub you are playing with other people and are able to chat with them at the same time, sometimes see a photo of them and see their previous statistics of how they have gone in other games. Mindjolt is the least interactive site, in that there is less for individuals to contribute aside to playing games and sharing scores. For each game they have a list of all the high scores, both for the week, and since the game opened, if you get a high score you name will be on this list. As mentioned earlier people are able to comment on the nick website, and enter draws and vote. However a lot of the interaction is based around the entire website rather than just the games present on the website. When on any of the above mentioned websites, you will be interacting, but not necessarily with other people.

People visit the site to have a fun time, and play games, people contribute to all of these sites as a leisure activity, and it is the fun they get out of it that keeps them returning to the site. No personal information is shared through either mindjolt or nick, unless individual’s choice to share it, only minimal information is shared on rummikub as you need a profile to play. You can see the profile of others that you play against.

Being able to play these games, gives individuals the opportunity to compete directly or indirectly against people they wouldn’t be able to in their geographic community. They are able to complete at a higher level, and against more people. In the case of rummikub players can find more people who are at the same level as them and playing can provide a sense of company. For the Nick site, it allows children to play games, and fill in time, when they don’t have company of means of playing other childhood games. As there is a variety of games all in the one site individuals have a lesser need to purchase new games frequently to keep children occupied. Online games are virtually priceless other than the cost of the internet, and they are easy to play when tired or sick.

Although there are positives of online games, there are also some negative factors that should be mentioned. Not everybody has access to the internet, and therefore some people do not have access to these games. Some software is required for the mindjolt games. When playing these games, individuals are constantly sitting down, not using much energy, and often eating at the same time, other more traditional games required players to be physically active. Online games could be considered a factor of the rising obesity rate. For many people, these games can be addictive, and they will spend a lot time in front of the computer, whereas other games not on the computer require people to use more social skills. Traditional communities would often have the individuals running around playing games where you have to interact in a different way to online games, this can teach children skills like sharing and social skills. Online gaming communities also had an age limitation, as young children cannot work a computer and therefore will be excluded from this community, this could also be the case for some elderly, not wanting to use computers.

Ethical issues have been addressed by nick, it is very important for them especially, to look at ethical issues, as their targeted population in young children. They have set up a page for the parents and outlined the steps they have taken to ensure their site is safe, and do not allow kids to be indentified when chatting with others. Other sites allow your real name to be noted, however no contact details, or locations can be seen.

Tutorial 2 - Digital Imaging

Digital imaging can be stored, transferred and manipulated through the use of technology,

Often photos that look unrealistic and photos of perfect faces on magazines are not completely authentic. The use of technology has allowed us to adapt photos to show in these magazines exactly what they want to be shown.  Storing images in something than can primary be done through the use of hardware. Photos are often taken on cameras and either stored in the camera or the memory chip of the camera; however it is becoming more common for people to use other devices to take photos like laptops and cell phones.  The photos are then stored on this hardware. They can also be transferred to CDs or USB sticks to be stored. Manipulating digital images can be done on a program as simple as paint, if the user wants to make it obvious the photo has been manipulated however for a more professional and discrete effect, Photoshop can be used. Through Photoshop you are able to change the colour and contract of the photos, add people and items into other photos and change the body shape, skin tone and height of people.

“A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature”

Digital cameras seemed to be quickly adopted by many when they came out following the era of when most used disposable cameras; the digital cameras were clearly superior. In nearly every way possible they were better, you could take an many photos as you wanted but only had to print the ones which you liked being among the biggest highlights of the digital camera. But the film or disposable cameras still has their advantages. When a new technology is first bought out it is always going to be expensive, as were digital camera. Digital cameras ran on batteries which needed to be charged unlike the old cameras. And when getting the photos developed from film cameras it was always more exciting to see the photos as you were unable to see them before.  However new technologies are always being developed and modified. The prices have dropped significantly since they first came out making them more accessible to a wide range of people, they have increased the length of time which the batteries last for, made a higher quality photo, increased the zoom and decrease the time it takes to take a photo all while decreasing the size of the camera.

With technology on the rise ethical considerations need to be considered, people need to be mindful what they are taking photos of, and following this, what they are using the photos for. It is considered unethical to take pictures of the inside of private property without permission and it is also considerate to advise people that are in photos if you plan to share them, specifically over the internet. With the use of the internet it is easy to see others photos and copy them, many of them are covered by copyright laws and therefore must not be copied. Some other images have limited rights and therefore can be copied, but must not be adapted.

Digital cameras are currently being used in occupational therapy in the areas of housing modifications and client assessments. In housing modification they are used to take photos of the area which is to be modified and this helps to explain the modification which will take place, these are also used in the applications for funding, and stored with notes. Digital cameras can also be used when assessing client. Photos can be taken when the client is referred to a service; these original photos can then be compared after the client has received therapy to show progress. 

Tutorial 5 - Video Production

For the following tutorial we looked at video production and youtube, we had previously made a video ourselves and were not required to look at others available on the internet. I choice to look at youtube in more depth. Youtube is a popular internet site which anybody can upload videos to, and anybody can watch. On youtube there is a varity of TV shows, music and music videos, as well as amature clips and blogs uploaded. You tube was only created in 2005, by three paypal employees. (Wikipedia, 2011).
As part of tutorial 5 we were required to explain a topic of interest, and use related videos. As I am an occupational therapy student I frequently get asked what occpational therapy is, so I chose the topic of explaining what occpational therapy is. Below are  variety of youtube clips which are all related to occupational therapy, the first one is a rap which explains the physical side of occupational therapy well, so for those of you who struggle to understand what occpational therapists do, watch the clip. Following on from there, there are a variety of clips of occupational therapist working in different areas, with clients of different ages and different conditions.

Reference
Wikipedia. (2011). Youtube. Retreived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

OT Rap

Occupational Therapy Practice: Lifestyle Redesign

Below is a clip on an occupational therapist who works in lifestyle redesign explaining her job. Lifestyle redesign is a broad area of occupational therapy and involves both physical and mental health.

Occupational Therapy Practice: Lifestyle Redesign®

Occupation Therapy in Stroke Rehabilitation

Below is an occupational therapist working with a client who has had a stroke and lost some of the movement down one side of their body. They use a variety of exercises which interest the client in their rehabilitation.

Occupational therapy and stroke - Dina's story

Occupation Therapy in Mental health

The below video in a youtube clip of an occupational therapist who works in mental health and prominently works with young males.

Occupational Therapy Practice: Mental Health

Wii in Rehab

The below clip is looking at therapy through the use of the video game Wii. Wii is able to offer an alternative method of rehab, or Wii-hab as it has become called. Wii-hab is becoming more common especially across USA, and there is a variety of clients which Wii-hab can help including clients post surgery, poor balance, clients with low coordination, Parkinson’s disease, and muscle weakness. As shown in the clip below, it did not take long for clients to engage in Wii, and it has become a favourite rehab exercise for many involved, due to the fun and interactive aspect of Wii. Wii can be used for a wide variety of age groups as children most commonly play video games; however, it is shown below that the elderly also enjoy playing Wii. There are a lot of other clips on Wii-hab on the internet, along with websites and blogs.
For more information check out http://www.wii-hab.com/0 - a Wii-hab website,
Or http://wiihabtherapy.blogspot.com/  - a Wii-hab blog.

Wii-Hab: Video Game Therapy

Tutorial 4 - Video Production

For this tutorial we were to make a short clip on adaptation, we had one fun period trying to make this, and have some talented acting apparent.
The above video clip is a short movie on adaptation. This clip shows an individual becoming frustrated with the slow computer system provided by his education provider. To overcome this he purchases  his own laptop so he is no longer required to use the frustrating computer system.
To prepare to make this film a group of us discussed what we were going to make and then transferred our ideas onto a story board so when we came to film the clip we knew exactly what shots we were required shoot.

Movie Maker Video Editing Tutorial

Tutorial 1; Information Technology, Its uses in Occupational Therapy and the Ethical Issues to be considerate of;

‘In the broadest sense, information technology refers to both the hardware and software that are used to store, retrieve, and manipulate information. At the lowest level you have the servers with an operating system. Installed on these servers are things like database and web serving software. The servers are connected to each other and to users via a network infrastructure. And the users accessing these servers have their own hardware, operating system, and software tools.’ (marioalexandrou, 2011)

In simple english information technology is anything that relates to computering technology and related items such as the software and hardware, internet or networking as well as the people who use and work with this technology.

Generally I am comfortable using technology, as I rely on it for part of my work, study, communication and socialization. Personally the more access I have to technology and the more time I spend using it, the more comfortable I feel using it. When given a digital camera, a laptop, cell phone, and even some software like moodle, the online learning system the polytechnic uses or Microsoft word, I feel perfectly comfortable using them and can do so with ease. But it is the technology that I have never had the chance to use that I find hard to use and often frustrating. Video cameras, touch screen phones, some MP3 players and much of the software on computers are just a few of the examples of these. I find the most effective way to learn to use new technology often is to play around with rather than having someone try and teach it to you. So to become competent in using more of these technologies would involve access to the items and time to practice.

The use of information technology in Occupational Therapy,

As new technologies become more and more common in our every days lives, It is also becoming more and more common in the practice of occupational therapy. Housing modifications are one of  the areas which OTs work in, and to help them in their applications for funding, drawings and communicating with other staff in their team, often digital camera will be used to take photos where the adaptation of the house is and what it currently looks like. Before and after and often some during photos are kept for documentation. Cell phones are common to most people and most people carry them with them when they are working or away from home or work. This is also common practice for an occupational therapist who works with people in their own homes and in the community. These are a fundamental piece of equipment for both the safety of the OT and are also important in case the OT needs to be urgently contacted for any reason.

Some hospitals and other settings where OTs commonly work have computer systems which have to be used when writing notes from sessions and interviews with clients. Emails is also used within setting to let the entire team know of meeting and reminders, emails can also be sent to some clients to remind them of their appointment. Legally these notes have to be written and many settings have adopted software for the input and storage of this task.

Lastly in some settings, technology will be used as part of the intervention for the client. I have seen internet shopping being used where clients are less mobile but still want to have the freedom or doing the majority of their shopping. WII is another intervention

As you can now see the use of technology is prominent in occupational therapy and in my opinion it will continue to grow as more technologies continue to adapt, grow and become available, therefore for an OT to keep ahead in their practice it is fundamental that they continue to use and review the use of technology in their practice.

Ethical issues in the use of technology,

The internet is considered a great source of pictures and information, however when copying these photos individuals must be aware of the copyright issues around this information. Many of the photos and pictures on the internet are copyright and cannot be reproduced. Also when taking photos and sharing or posting them on the internet, people must respect issues of identity and privacy. If people are not okay of aware of pictures of them or property that identifies them going on the internet, the picture should be adapted so both them and their property is not identifiable. An example of this is car number plates or street address.

 

The business dictionary (2011) describes social justice as “fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions , race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice.”

Social justice means that everybody indiscriminate of their, race, age and status should be treated just or fair. When looking at social justice in relation to occupational therapy everyone should be given the choice of have the same services and care no matter who they are.

Ministry of economic development (2010) defines intellectual property (IP) as ‘an umbrella term used for human innovations and creativity that are capable of being protected under national law and international treaties. IP includes a diverse range of commercial assets from patents for new inventions through to copyright protected artworks’

The term intellectual property refers to human intellectual property and creativity that can be protected under a national law. Occupational therapists are able to create equipment for clients and use in practice. This is an example on intellectual property and this could also include human property.

Wise geek stated “Informed consent is a concept in the medical community which supports the idea that patients should be fully informed at all stages of medical treatment and medical trials. There are two aspects to informed consent: a conversation with a care provider or researcher, and a form which must be signed to indicate that the conversation has occurred. Informed consent is a very important part of modern practice and research, and it is designed to protect both patients and doctors.”

Informed consent refers a client giving consent to medical treatment after being fully informed. Clients must give their consent for any medical treatment of rehabilitation to occur. However for the client to give informed consent they must be fully informed of what will happen, why, expected outcome, alternative procedures and possible side effects.

In occupational therapy the client should also be fully informed of the treatment they will receive and have to option not to participate if they wish. The client should be aware of technology and ethical considerations when giving informed consent.

Reference list

Mariosalexandrou. (2011) Definition of Information Technology. Retrieved from http://www.mariosalexandrou.com/definition/information-technology.asp

Ministry of economic development. (2010). What is informed consent? Retrieved from http://www.nsu.govt.nz/

Ministry of economic development. (2010) What is intellectual property? Retrieved from http://www.iponz.govt.nz/cms/what-is-ip/what-is-intellectual-property

Social Justice. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/social-justice.html

Wise Geek. (2003) What is informed consent? Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-informed-consent.htm