Introduction to Functional Therapy Magazine.

Ed Kaine, Publisher of Functional Therapy Magazine introduces the theme of the magazine.

There are a few ideas here:

1. It's time to lead or be left behind.
2. Function is very fashionable... because it works.
3. The CRAFT Model is a holistic model that will help all health care to provide better care.
4. Many disciplines are becoming more functional and Occupational Therapists must work to lead this. It is our responsibility to guide the world to the optimal health we seek.

I have a significant number of people who are interested in helping define function and health care for the future but I want to open it up to anyone from any discipline to join us and help shape the future of health care.

Please Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FunctionalTherapyMagazine and contact us through facebook if you'd like more information or to contribute an article or promote your point of view.

Yours,

Ed Kaine, OTR/L, RFT
Publisher of Functional Therapy Magazine

P.S. Please check out www.FunctionalTherapy.org for all the latest articles in health care and therapy topics that we and our readers can find.

CRAFT Model - Functional Therapy's Expansion of the Wholistic View of Personhood

This is a snapshot of an interactive presentation we are developing to help consumers and therapists to better understand the interaction of Functions, Abilities and the Context in which we live.

 It embodies a globe which contains the Context of the person; the pillars represent four domains of Abilities; and the pillars support the platform of Functions or 'Things we do'. These are also known as Occupations.

In the interactive presentation we represent external supports by additional pillars and external burdens as weights. The new adage 'The more you do the more you can do!' plays into this system by the performance of functions feeding back into the diameter of the pillars; doing more means you develop more ability. The system works to try to maintain a balance and the old adage 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' is represented by relative sizes of the Functions, with too much of one unbalancing the others.

This is an adaptation of several models with painstaking effort to add a significant reworking so as to avoid infringing anyone's copyrights. The CRAFT model is a reimagining of how we can propound a more integrated vision in Healthcare. It is published under a Creative Commons Copyright and we would ask that you reference us and http://www.functionaltherapist.org/ when you copy or adapt it.

"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
- Howard Aiken

I hope you enjoy this preview of our interactive presentation as much as we are proud to present it to you.

Yours,

Ed Kaine, OTR, RFT

President of the American League of Functional Therapists

RegisteredFunctionalTherapist@gmail.com

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

More about CENT - Principles of Controlled Eccentric Neuromuscular Training.

Now to the meat...

CENT stands for Controlled Eccentric Neuromuscular training. It is partly because the acronym spells something that it was chosen. It will stick in your head and make writing about it easier. (See "Introducing DAP notes" article for some of my views on acronyms.)

Guiding Principles:

Switching between agonist / antagonist muscle actions takes time, effort and is not necessary to start.

The Flexor Synergy exists for a very good reason, if you're a caveman...

Praxis is the key to purposeful movement.

"The more you do the more you can do" (a basic Functional Therapy tenent that applies here too).

Next time we'll break these out a little.


Ed Kaine, OTR/L, RFT
President of the League of Functional Therapists, LLC.

Introducing CENT - Controlled Eccentric Neuromuscular Training.

Today I am introducing CENT - Controlled Eccentric Neuromuscular Training. Over the next few days I will give you more information about this marvelous treatment option I am exploring and developing. I will tell you the foundational tenents of CENT in a moment but first a bit of history.

I desperately want to give credit where it is due... but I can't find that person. Instead I will tell you a brief story and maybe you can help.

About 5 years ago we had a Physical Therapist from India come to our facility. While transitioning and looking to finish requirements to allow her to be licensed here she volunteered on Bridgeport Hospital's Acute Rehabilitation Unit in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Her name was Priti or Preeti. If you read this or know Priti please contact me at RegisteredFunctionalTherapist@gmail.com.

Priti gave a presentation on a paper she had read that she said came out of Australia. From this she identified several things, and I have refined those into this this:

• Work on movements opposite to abnormal synergies (the flexor synergy in the arm).
• Overflow movements or movements outside of the specific action you want should be discouraged and stopped.
• Eccentric muscle actions are often first to recover.
• Work on one muscle action eccentrically and concentrically to keep the patient's focus on a single effort.
• Any muscle action could be your starting point. Just get some success.

Using this on many patients and experimenting in light of other observations I have about stroke I have come to the synthesis known as CENT. I know that the novel direction this has taken would not have occuring without Preeti. Unfortunately I can't find any papers from Australia or elsewhere about this approach. If you read this and think it is referring to something you had heard, read or done I would love to hear about it. Also, if you'd like to collaborate on this and develop your own skills please contact me.

I will give you the meat of this great technique over the next week.

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

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

www.FunctionalTherapist.org

Online Meetings And The Next Wave Of Innovation!

The League of Functional Therapists (LOFT) is an international organization. Communicating with diverse people over vast distances is one of our key business needs. A phone is an essential tool, the internet and email have been remarkable enablers... and now online meeting has the potential to be a revolution.

As part of our business software we have a subscription to GoToMeeting. This Citrix product allows up to 16 people to be on a conference call (as a phone call or as Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)) and all looking at the same screen. Any attendee's screen can be viewed and or, with your permission, completely controlled. Is this functionality worth less than $50/month? It is to me.

I have met with people all over. I have used this in my work to avoid a long walk, kept all my tools and materials on hand, solved a problem in 2-5 minutes and gone on to do other things. With a software developer we designed together as he taught me what he was doing. With family we have met and planned together and shared photos.

Oh, by the way, the distance is not required... we could do this in the same room too, a few laptops in a conference room and an old fashioned meeting turns into generating work. These capabilities are incredible.

Why then does it seem so routine to people I introduce it to? I have them go to a site (JoinGoToMeeting.com) and put in a meeting number. The program downloads a little file to let it run on your system and the person is asked to put in their name and email address. Then, suddenly, we are meeting together. Instead of talking or planning and sending someone off to do it and report back later, we are able to finish the project in real time together. Just because it's easy doesn't mean it's routine. Can you imagine the possibilities?

If you're an Occupational Therapist and you want know more about our organization we want to talk with you. We can set up a meeting anywhere in the world. So far the farthest East is London, England and farthest West is Queensland, Australia. We want people to understand our mission and objectives and sometimes it takes a guided tour.

So far we have met with supporters and detractors. It is incredible to problem solve together with supporters and it is remarkably inciteful to get feedback from detractors. There is so much that we can learn together.

Set up a meeting with us, learn about the League of Functional Therapists and get to try out GoToMeeting. Contact me at EdKaine@FunctionalTherapist.org.

I'm looking forward to meeting with you.

Yours,


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

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

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!

Change... the easy path.

We were having a meeting the other day about how to increase the awareness of Functional Therapy and get more OTs and COTAs to join. We got to talking about how difficult change is. Lindsay Neumann, RFT, said, "Sometimes it's just easier to go along the way that things are. Most times actually."

Well it didn't take long for it to come around to how difficult it has been for each of us to be Occupational Therapists. There were a cascade of difficulties:

1. To learn about the profession in time to choose it as a career - Very Difficult.
2. To explain to your family what you were studying - Very very difficult... because you barely knew yourself.
3. Graduating, finding a job. Not too difficult... because so many people were beat by #1. Therefore there is a huge shortage of OTs. Easy to find job, but...
4. Staffing for OTs is largely influenced by the difficulty that upper administration has in understanding what OT might do. Incredibly difficult.
5. Then, let's mention the many discussions you'll have trying to explain OT. Difficult but fun.
6. Then, your ears perk up when someone says Occupation or Occupational and you wonder if they are talking about anything related to your profession. They aren't. Our definition still hasn't got into the dictionary - difficult.
7. Then you do this for year after year... it was so much more fun when I started. Difficult.
8. Then you get involved with a group who wants to provide an alternative name and change is difficult.

So, the only thing that would have made this easier would have been to do something about it 89 years ago, or 8 or 9 years ago. There is no time like the present. Make the change now and maybe we'll get past some of this stuff.

Please check us out at www.FunctionalTherapist.org and look at joining us. And if you're already a member let's get to work popularizing Functional Therapy.

Yours,

Ed Kaine, OTR/L, RFT

President of the American League of Functional Therapists

Contact us at: RegisteredFunctionalTherapist@gmail.com

Suffolk News-Herald | Occupational therapy a vital healthcare link

Suffolk News-Herald | Occupational therapy a vital healthcare link

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We are opening up Comments as of June 4th, 2009.

I was asked if I would consider opening comments up on our Blog. We talked about it and here it is.

As a trial of the commenting process we are looking to see what you think about our content. You can go back to former articles and post comments or you can just use this feature going forward.

We have a lot we'd like to say and we'd like to hear it in a public forum too. Please be open and courteous. A differing opinion is just that. It is really an opportunity to learn more about another person's perspective.

As always, you can email us directly at RegisteredFunctionalTherapist@gmail.com or check us out at www.FunctionalTherapist.org. Thank you for all your support so far.

Yours,

Ed Kaine
President of The American League of Functional Therapists

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

The Argument for "Functional Therapy"... straight from the Visual Thesaurus.

This post seeks simply to show how far we have (or have not) come in getting our definition of Occupation out to the rest of the world.

Also, let's consider which word we want to be expanding the definition of?

Hmmm... not too much there.... How about Occupation?

Okay... that's pretty convincing. We are alone in our definition.

But what are the alternatives?

Oh, Functional.


Not bad huh?

So, there you have it! What more needs to be said?

It is clear that we still have something to offer the world in terms of an understanding of how Functional Therapy (or Occupational Therapy) can help the world. We may even find that we help expand the definition of function and introduce people to an alternative definition of Occupation once we gain that trust and understanding.

I'd rather be expanding the definition of "Function" than working too hard at changing people's minds about what "Occupation" can be.

What do you think?

Yours,

Ed Kaine

President of the American League of Functional Therapists

http://www.functionaltherapist.org/

Comments?: Contact us at RegisteredFunctionalTherapist@gmail.com

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

10 Reasons OT should embrace Functional Therapy

10. "Functional" has a lot of meaning that is in line with the purpose and method of OT.

9. The Canadian Occupational Performance Model (COPM) is arguably the most comprehensive and holistic model of function ever devised. It is a cornerstone of OT thought and ought to be more widely known.

We have a holistic vision of the physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects of our patients along with our understanding about how the context of a life influences a person's function. We are uniquely able to seek new ways for our patients to achieve balance in the functional things they do.

8. "Occupational" holds the 2 main meanings in modern the vernacular of "related to jobs" or "relating to military occupation". Neither of these pertain to the work OT does.

7. The meaning of Occupation as it relates to OT makes a lot of sense to the many OTs only. It has not caught on in the ~250 years of its use. Function has a meaning in line with our expertise.

6. OT is an older field than Physical Therapy, yet we trail in almost every area. Some could argue that the misunderstanding of the word Occupation is a barrier to the success of our profession.

5. The Registered Functional Therapist RFT (and the Registered Functional Therapy Associate RFTA) credential is additive to your status as an OTR (or COTA). For those patients and customers who prefer the term OT your still can use it.

4. It's inexpensive and easy to become an RFT or RFTA and you are a part of an organization striving to help your profession.

3. And it just might help to popularize a field that some say might be superceded even in "Function" by other rehabilitation disciplines in the coming decades.

2. As the rest of the rehabilitation disciplines do expand into the realm of function, we should not fight it. It is what we so furvently believe in. We should embrace their pursuits and see where we can help them to improve function more effectively. It does not have to be a competition... unless we want to settle for scraps. We can lead this revolution of function.

1. We have the most right to this honorable title and the opportunity to provide care under the name of "Functional Therapy". It is legally protected for the current and future practitioners of Occupational Therapy.

We want and need your support as members. We need to hold the opportunity that ALOFT has opened for us and use it to popularize traditional OT services so that we may be available to provide this care for generations to come.

Please join with us in this worthy effort.

Sincerely,

Ed Kaine
President of the American League of Functional Therapists

http://www.functionaltherapist.org/

Comments?: Contact us at RegisteredFunctionalTherapist@gmail.com


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