Lauren LaBorde OT425 + OT 537

After leading group today by myself, I feel as though being a group leader can be both stressful yet exciting. I feel as though it can be stressful sometimes because if group isn't going as planned exactly, the leader must be adaptive and go with the flow. At one point in my group today, a member started to hit some of the processing points when we had yet to finish our activity. As a group leader, I had to adapt and let it flow accordingly without skipping any of the activity. Also, one of the group members was going to be late and that kind of stressed me out not knowing when in the group session they might show up. While trying to lead the group, I kept thinking in the back of my mind how I was going to fill in the group member when they showed up without singling them out for their tardiness. Overall, I think the most important thing I learned is that even though you have a protocol written with a timeline, anything can happen during group. As a leader you must be prepared to b...

Before I turned in my final draft of my group protocol, I met with Ellen and Valerie to get their feedback. I thought this was a very helpful experience because it allowed me to see where my peers were going with their group facilitation and get their thoughts before I facilitated. My first thoughts were that I thought my classmates took a very creative approach for the activities on their given topic.  My take away was that it was an enriching experience to gain insight into classmates creativity and also it was helpful to hear feedback or have someone peer review your protocol before you get up and lead a group for 30 minutes. I think this should always be done in real life just to get others perspectives and allow them to contribute to possibly making your group session flow better.

When looking through what I could write my last neuro note on, I wanted to pick something different that I haven't explored yet. As I was scrolling, an article caught my eye titled "Fu**tionality." I had to do a double take and immediately got sucked into the article. This article is very beneficial for every OT/future OT to read. It sheds light on a subject not addressed enough in the rehab world.. sexual function for the disabled. This article is a quick easy read written by Andrew Gurza, a young adult with cerebral palsy. He humorously points out how OTs can teach anything from holding a spoon to proper wheelchair technique but yet freeze up when a client brings up sex. From this course, we know that sex is an occupation which makes it completely in our field of practice to touch on. This occupation was very meaningful to Andrew in order to fulfill his role as boyfriend and also for his self-esteem. In this article he points out that his inability to perform sexually...

After learning more about ALS in class, I found this disease more and more interesting. It fascinates me so much because while this disease destroys all control of your muscles, your brain is perfectly intact, meaning you are perfectly aware of everything going on. I could not help but imagine what this must be like. In order to gain further insight, I decided to watch the documentary Transfatty Lives. Transfatty Lives is a documentary by Patrick O'Brien, a 30 year old male who was just recently diagnosed with ALS. He shares his journey with us and give us a true look at how ALS affected his life. In this film, you are able to see him go to doctor visits, where they confirmed the diagnosis and follow him along the way to see how this disease progressed. Throughout this journey, Patrick remains his humorous self, and shares his story in a positive way to help raise awareness to this disease. At times, it seemed like Patrick was in better spirits than his family. He cracked jokes...

Allie Calhoun occupied her time by fulfilling the roles of being a wife, daughter, mother and homemaker. She enjoyed painting, playing piano, cooking, and music. Allie was diagnosed with dementia at age 76. This was a tough thing to swallow for Allie and even harder for her husband to adapt. Her husband took awhile to accept the diagnosis which is common for people's loved ones to go through. When Allie found out she had dementia, she prepared by writing her own love story. As the disease progressed, she got her husband to read this story to her, which she loved. For dementia, an OT is concerned with providing comfort, education, and routine to the client and/or their family. The main things to work on with Allie was to decrease panic and create a calm environment. Music can help people with dementia by helping bring memories back. It can also have a therapeutic effect. Another common thing for people with dementia to go through is sundowner's syndrome which is confusion and p...

Montel Williams is a popular busy man, who had several occupations such as TV show host, actor, father, and wrtier. He was diagnosed with MS at age 42. His initial symptoms were vision loss, fatigue, impaired coordination, and pain. He lost 80% of his vision in his left eye. Coping with the diagnosis was tough for Montel. He started to feel depressed and even tried to kill himself two times due to the pain. Before the diagnosis, Montel was a healthy and active man. His family was his motivation because he wanted to be able to be there for them 100% and not let this diagnosis control his life. He also wanted to continue his TV show, still act, and still write. MS presents many barriers for people, but it is not fatal like ALS is. Interventions for MS include increasing strength, ROM, endurance as well as decreasing pain and fatigue. Overall, this disease is manageable, but it presents many challenges that can interfere with one's activities of daily living.