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.

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!

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