Researchers from the School of Occupational Therapy at Texas Woman’s University Dallas Campus are seeking occupational therapy experts located world wide as part of a Delphi study on assessing pain across cultures. The purpose of the study is to globally pilot the efficiency and effectiveness of electronically distributed Delphi survey methods to identify the type of pain assessments being used by occupational therapists globally and the frequency and context of use of participant identified pain assessments in occupational therapy clinical practice, education, and/or research.
Requirements include: English literacy or access to translation, access to a computer, and internet.
If interested, click here to access letter of consent and survey. Round I will be available February 10, 2010 through March 3, 2010, and Round II available March 24, 2010 through April 14, 2010. We all know pain can be quite disabling and lead you to social security disability, so the researchers would appreciate your participation and contribution of knowledge of pain assessments in an effort to further the field of occupational therapy.
Source: WFOT
For occupational therapists planning to work in Canada, the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) has made it easier for you as they have officially launched last October 2009 the Internationally Educated Occupational Therapists (IEOT) Web Portal.
About the IEOT Portal
In Canada, occupational therapy is a regulated health profession. Occupational therapists work in highly diverse settings, including hospitals, rehabilitation centres, private clinics, nursing homes, in the work place, schools, and in community-based programs.
The IEOT Portal is a joint initiative of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT), Association of Canadian Occupational Therapy Regulatory Organizations (ACOTRO) and Association of Canadian Occupational Therapy University Programs (ACOTUP). The IEOT Portal is funded by the Government of Canada’s Foreign Credential Recognition Program.
This portal was created to provide internationally educated occupational therapists with a gateway to information about the practice of occupational therapy in Canada. Primarily, it focuses on registration requirements – which are determined by the province or territory in which a person wants to work. It also leads visitors to valuable information about immigration, education, jobs, and even first-hand accounts of what it is like to work in Canada.
For many internationally educated occupational therapists, Canada is a desirable place to live and work. Browse this portal and see for yourself the many benefits of working in Canada.
We wrote an earlier article on the Kawa Model almost two years ago. It mainly defined what the model was all about.
We’ve stumbled only recently into an article and video presentation from Advance for OT which presents Michael Iwama, PhD, OTC in a clip where he discusses the development of the Kawa Model, the need for it and its reception thus far. Click on the image below to view the video clip and gain further understanding of this new model in the practice of occupational therapy.
With the increasing use of the Nintendo Wii in rehabilitation, physiotherapist Rebecca Redmond has created a website named Wii-Habilitation as a source of information for therapists.
The Wiihabilitation site is mainly based on Ms Redmond’s own experience of using the Wii in her role as senior physiotherapist at the National Star College, a residential further education school for disabled 16-25 year olds in Cheltenham.
She has included information on the games she uses with students, along with research and news stories she has found relating to Wii and rehabilitation, which she updates regularly. ‘It’s not exhaustive and it doesn’t need to be only my work – I’m very happy to have contributions – but it’s a good place to start,’ she said.
Source: CSP’s Frontline
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recently published new guidelines for managing low back pain. A few of them have been highlighted in an article on the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) website.
- Patients with low back pain will have to be offered a choice of either a structured exercise programme, a course of manual therapy, including manipulation, or a course of acupuncture, by their GP.
- All patients whose pain has lasted more than six weeks must be offered the menu of three types of evidence-based treatment.
- Patients should not be offered therapeutic ultrasound, lumbar supports, or injections of therapeutic substances into their back.
Click here to read the full article on the CSP website.
