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Archive for category: Original Posts

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Tips to Survive the Winter Blues and Put a Stop to SAD

Julie Entwistle, C.Dir. (c), MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)

Research suggests that up to 15% of people in Ontario experience the “winter blues”. These leave you feeling tired, groggy, and maybe even sad or irritable.  While this causes discomfort, it is not incapacitating.  However, a more serious form of the winter blues, known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), can be.  While occurring less frequently at 2-3% of the population, the symptoms can prevent individuals from leading a normal life.  If you feel this is you, talk to your doctor and have your symptoms investigated.

While the winter months can be long, dark, and cold, ultimately how we adapt to the seasonal change is up to us.  If moving or going south is not an option, consider some of the tips in our infographic below to make the winter bearable, or dare I say, even enjoyable?

 

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Music: An Experience for All Thanks to this New Technology

Music is powerful.  Music awakens emotions and feelings within our bodies.  But, if you cannot hear, how can you feel this powerful experience?  A new and innovative technology, The Sound Shirt, has transformed what most experience with the sense of sound into one that uses the sense of touch for those who are deaf.  Learn more about this amazing new technology in the following video:

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O-Tip of the Week: Helping You See the Bigger Picture (Literally…)

Our O-Tip of the week series we will be providing valuable “OT-Approved Life Hacks” to provide you with simple and helpful solutions for living. 

For the month of January, our O-Tip series will help you to get acquainted with your devices and the awesome accessibility features you may not be aware of.

For those who struggle reading text on a small device, this tip is for you!  Last week our O-Tip provided information about where to find the accessibility features based on the type of phone you have (you can review it here).  This week, we look at how you can increase the size of the text and how to use the magnifier function when needed.

For Apple Users:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Android Users:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Disability and Weight Management: Helping You Tip the Scales in the Right Direction

Julie Entwistle, C.Dir. (c), MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)

I find that while many of my clients initially lose weight following trauma (hospital food diet); eventually the net impact of a disability is often weight gain.  This is often the result of many factors – most interacting to make the solution difficult to isolate.  Medication side-effects, altered routines, reactive eating, friends and family that provide unhealthy sympathy foods, increased use of fast food because preparing meals is difficult, inactivity, depression, and even hormonal and physiological changes to the body as a result of the trauma.

But we do know that 70% of weight management is diet and assuming this is true, then the solution to weight management should be simple – you can’t eat it if you don’t buy it.  Purchasing unhealthy food is the first step to a weight problem.  And weight problems in disabled people are exponential.  Everything becomes harder – transfers, walking, completion of daily tasks, caregiving, and many pieces of equipment have weight limits that when exceeded result in equipment failure.

What is even more problematic is the role of the caregiver in the maintenance of weight in the person they are caring for.  When people cannot shop for food and cannot cook, then helping them to maintain weight becomes the job of the caregiver.  Just buy and prepare healthy foods – perhaps food prescribed by a nutritionist or dietician.  However, often caregivers rely on the disabled person to dictate the food choices but if people are emotionally eating, or eating out of boredom, then the caregiver cannot always rely on the individual to make the best decisions.  Often raising awareness about healthy eating starts with asking people to track what and when they are eating and drinking.  Then, problems can be identified, and a list of doable solutions can be developed. 

In one instance, in helping a client with weight loss as a functional goal, we discovered through tracking that she was barely eating breakfast and lunch but was consuming all of her calories from 5-10 pm.  We made the goal that, over time, she would consume breakfast, lunch, two snacks and dinner, and would stop eating after 7 pm.  Within a few short months, she lost 30 pounds, and this greatly improved her mobility and tolerances for activity.  Another client discovered through tracking that he was consuming far too many large bottles of pop a day.  By changing his large bottle to a smaller one, and eventually to only one pop per day and the rest water, he was able to drop 20 pounds.  In both cases, the problems, solutions, and commitment to change were made by my clients (with my guidance and support), making the results far more meaningful and lasting.  Further, the client was shown a framework for how to check and modify eating habits should they deteriorate again in the future.

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The Three Wishes Project

In 2013 a program was launched in a Hamilton Hospital to help provide small but meaningful wishes to dying patients in the Intensive Care Unit.  Since this time, the program has been adopted and studied at 3 additional hospitals in Canada and the United States.  Learn more about the success of The Three Wishes Project in the following care of Brighter World by McMaster University.

Brighter World:  Project to answer last wishes spreads successfully

 

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O-Tip of the Week: Getting to Know Your Devices

Our O-Tip of the week series we will be providing valuable “OT-Approved Life Hacks” to provide you with simple and helpful solutions for living. 

For the month of January, our O-Tip series will help you to get acquainted with your devices and the awesome accessibility features you may not be aware of.

Did you know that on both Apple and Android devices there are many accessibility options you can change to assist you with your unique needs?  Below is a quick primer on where to access these features on your smartphone or tablet.  In the coming weeks, we will delve deeper into some of the great features!

For Apple Users: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Android Users:

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Change is Constant – Why Resist It?

Julie Entwistle, C.Dir. (c), MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)

A few years ago I volunteered at a chronic pain program by assisting with an after-program book study.  This involved a group of program graduates getting together weekly to read and discuss the book A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle.  I was amazed at the transformations in attitude, beliefs, and thoughts that came from people reading and discussing this very impactful novel.  In fact, some of the benefits we witnessed, and the things people discussed were revolutionary, and I would even argue evolutionary.

Recently I picked up this book again.  Despite some heavy content, some of the examples are life-changing and the messaging vital.  In one section of the book, Eckhart talks about the need to “evolve or die”.  How true.  In fact, this is always our choice when faced with any change, uncertainty, or interruption in how we manage.  People seem to so strongly fight change, but change is both constant and inevitable.  Why resist? 

I have witnessed hundreds of people in my career that were faced with this same challenge – evolve or die.  The ones that were able to overcome adversity, who could find, cherish and expand on ability, who were open to suggestions, coaching, and change, faired far better than those that resisted, clung to the past, and refused to adapt.  I remember one client, many years after her accident, talking to me about her chronic pain, depression, and physical appearance.  She said, “I used to be a gymnast”.  My response was, “So was I – 30 years ago”.  She laughed.  Identifying that she continued to live in the very distant past helped me (and her) to understand where she was getting stuck, and explained why she was not progressing in the rehabilitation process.  Once she could accept her new “normal”, she started to make significant progress in resuming things she used to enjoy, while also finding new meaningful and productive activities she never imagined trying. 

Here is an example that relates strongly to my role as an OT who works with people who are suddenly and significantly injured in an auto accident (page 57):

“whenever tragic loss occurs, you either resist or you yield.  Some people become bitter or deeply resentful; others become compassionate, wise and loving.  Yielding means inner acceptance of what is.  You are open to life.  Resistance is an inner contraction, a hardening of the shell of the ego.  You are closed.  Whatever action you take in a state of inner resistance (which we could also call negativity) will create more outer resistance, and the universe will not be on your side; life will not be helpful.  If the shutters are closed, the sunlight cannot come in”. 

So, given the choice between evolve or die, let’s not only choose “evolve” but let’s also make an effort to live that way.  Evolution is difficult – it requires an open mind, hard work, and a positive and accepting attitude.  It often needs people to accept new opinions, ideas and even help.  This is not our nature, but if we can wrap our head around the fact that we are “evolving”, it makes challenges seem surmountable.  It can let the light in.

 

Previously posted September 2013

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The 12 Days of Inspiration: Day Twelve

On the twelfth day of inspiration, my OT gave to me…

The story of an amazing man who, not only helped his team win a championship but became a champion of compassion in our world. Nav Bhatia, better known as Super Fan, who hasn’t missed a Raptors home game in their 24 seasons, showed us how to always take the high road.  Learn more about Nav’s incredible story in the following care of CTV News.

CTV News:  ‘We go high’: Raptors superfan reconciles with Bucks fan who wrote racist tweet