Survey Results Are In - Very Encouraging! A Little Statistical Background.

Over the last few weeks we have been trialing and tailoring our survey. I'd like to thank all the people who helped us by taking the survey. In the end we had a very good tool that participants praised as interesting and enjoyable.

Someday I'll tell you about our $49 lesson but right now I'll tell you of ALOFT's wonderful success.

First, a bit of statistical background. In order to make our survey results as generalizable to the public as we could we sought to have a stratified random sample. The factors we decided on were that we could accept a 5% error rate in the responses. Also we wanted a 95% confidence level, or only a 5% possibility that the results could be due to chance. We set our expected variance to require the maximum number of responses by setting it to 50% (as in equal chance a subject would pick one or the other). Then we wanted to generalize this to the population of the U.S.A. These mean that we would have a sample that would cover 304 Million (as of summer 2008) so we added many more and found we could cover the world's population with 385 subjects.

Then again we were only sampling people in the U.S.A. so we can really only generalize to the U.S.A. We went with the higher number to allow internally guided exclusion criteria and sampling methods to allow exclusion from certain aspects of the study based on background factors.

In the end we had 500 completed surveys with 87 partially completed or eliminated due to just randomly hitting the keyboard rather than answering. So, of the 500 we confirmed many of the intuitions we had had and learned several new and supportive things that we had been unable to quantify.

So far it is saying to us at ALOFT "keep going, this can be a very helpful and positive thing." We had several criteria for the study that would have indicated that we were on the wrong track, none of those were evident. We will be sharing different results from the study as we go along.

If you are interested in this data we are interested in sharing it with you in a meeting. We can setup online meetings if you would like to delve further into any results.

Look for our results in the coming days and weeks.

Yours,

Ed Kaine, OTR, RFT
Member and President of ALOFT

RegisteredFunctionalTherapist@gmail.com

How Language May Shape Our Thoughts.

Please check out this article in the July 9, 2009 Newsweek. What’s in a Word? Language may shape our thoughts. By Sharon Begley It has some very interesting insights into language and how people think about things.


I previously discussed this topic related to the use of our title, in particular asking whether we should use the O-Word (Occupation). The answer was and is, "yes". It allows us to expand the way we think about function. However; with this is a warning that the meaning of this word for most people is not what it is for an Occupational Therapist. What about the O-word?

The challenge is open to try to expand the definition of Occupation. It does not appear that this will be possible in this year or in the next few. I discussed this with a representative of Mirriam Webster's Dictionary and it was not possible. Let's get our definition in the Dictionary!


What does this mean for us? To me it means we need to consider the words we use to promote our profession and that it does matter whether people understand the word we are using.

With only a very limited definition of Occupation available to people how can we blame them for not understanding. It is up to us to reach out to the people. We can do this by using words that have positive meaning and capture the essence of what we do.

In the word "Functional" we have the basic idea of the way we work. We structure our treatments with a focus on the function task you must do. This may involve addressing the cognitive skills, the physical skills, the motivational and social skills that go into the task. Then the functional task itself, be it work, self care or leisure, is can be the focus of our treatment. It is the emphasis on doing something functional (not just fixing the structure) that Occupational Therapy has brought to the world. By using the protected title of Registered Functional Therapist we can more clearly help people understand how we can help them.

Functional versus Occupational on the Visual Thesaurus

It's something to think about.

Yours,

Ed Kaine, OTR, RFT
President of the League of Functional Therapists

Functional Therapy... the Next Generation of Occupational Therapy!

ALOFT Sponsors A Survey Of Health Care.

In our pursuit of real information about the state of understanding of various healthcare fields ALOFT has sponsored a survey. It is a general health care information survey and we would like you to take it.

There are 3 arms of the study and each will be handled differently (statistically speaking). We have a randomly selected group which is a stratified sample that may give us the best picture of the general population. There are particular people we have requested to take the survey and there's you. You represent the cutting edge of thought and the awareness of technology and the markets.

Please take our survey to help us tailor our services and positively influence health care.

Please follow this link here:
http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?C3E78B97C2819291

Thank you so much for your input. We appreciate your opinion and support.

Thanks so much,

Ed Kaine, OTR, RFT
President of ALOFT

P.S. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please send them to us at ALOFTSurveys@gmail.com

A gift in a question... what have you always wanted to do?

We have long had "Patient Goals" on all our assessment documentation. We always ask patients what they want to acheive in their therapy. As an OT and RFT we would still get the most common answer "I want to be able to walk." Instead of ever being discouraged by this response (and especially if ambulation seemed like a distant possibility) I would try to get the functional aspects of why the patient wants to walk. The patient's goal would rapidly become "to be able to walk into the kitchen and make myself a sandwich" or up to "walk into the woods to sit by a stream". Then if ambulation was a long way off I'd see if there were a way to meet the functional need from another level, hence independent at wheelchair level could be more palatable. Again, if ambulation was appropriate and the functional barrier to the goal, it has always seemed that functional mobility is right up OT's alley.

I was reading a thread on the OTNow list about a particular patient's goals when I recalled an old lesson that I have incorporated many times since. When the patient cannot come up with any goal, or only states a raw task like walking with no functional reason for it, I've asked the more "bucket list" type question. "What is something you always wanted to do?" It had been put to me in university as "what is something you've always wanted to do before you die?" I haven't always used the weight of "before you die" but having it in my mind keeps me focused on what I want them to think about. What a gift if we can get someone out of ruminating on the physical limitations and seeing the possibilities.

In particular this has played out in patients with paraplegia/quadriplegia. Where the "I just want you to get me walking again!" can really turn into a new and positive direction if we open up this type of conversation. Also, having it can remind people that they always wanted to play an instrument or write a book.

We have so much to offer, sometimes it may just be a simple question that helps someone think about a future that isn't dealing with an acute illness or injury.

Yours,

Ed Kaine, OTR, RFT
President of the League of Functional Therapists
http:www.FunctionalTherapist.org

Functional Therapy... the Next Generation of Occupational Therapy!