When working with clients who have been injured in a car or other accident, most times we work alongside a lawyer who is representing them to ensure they are able to receive the financial compensation necessary to allow them to have the best treatment and care. The following from personal injury lawyer Roger Foisy discusses how Occupational Therapists assist beyond the recovery, to help clients receive the funds they require to pay for the costs they incur as a result of their loss.
Today is the day to celebrate the backbone of every organization: Administrative Professionals. Working in an administrative role is often high stress due to the constant internal and external demands and challenges faced. On Administrative Professionals day we focus on how to cope with work-related stress and encourage a stronger work-life balance for the employees no organization can live without.
CDC: Administrative Professional Health and Safety Tips
Looking for more ways to promote workplace wellness? Check out our Healthy Workplace page.
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
In honour of Parkinson’s Awareness Month we are re-sharing our popular post from last April: “My Grandma Versus Parkinson’s Disease.”
I can’t remember how old I was when I was told that my grandmother had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. I was very close to my grandmother and, selfishly, was most worried about how long she would live. We were told around 10-15 years. To a kid that seemed like a really long time, but as an adult I now recognize those years can, and will, pass in a heartbeat.
Parkinson’s results when the brain is not able to absorb dopamine – the neurotransmitter that helps to control movement and movement patterns. Often, this presents as tremors, difficulty initiating movement when walking, slowness, and loss of balance. Diagnosis is often by exclusion of other problems, treatment is offered via medication and therapy, and the life expectancy can vary based on many, often unpredictable, factors.
For my grandmother, her Parkinson’s was not really noticeable for many years. But eventually, her tremors became more pronounced and the ataxic and shuffling gait more obvious as her medications became less and less effective. What seemed to help her immensely though was a positive attitude, stubborn drive to be independent, and the decision to stay active. My grandmother loved jokes, was quick witted, and was always one for a funny story. I remember helping her off the toilet one day and she said “I have the privacy of a goldfish”. She was remarkably independent – my favorite was when she stuck the gum she was chewing to her back-scratcher so she could get a piece of paper off the floor. She stayed active by continuing to curl and golf for as long as she could, then turned to water exercises and found Tai Chi. Within a few months of Tai Chi she was raving about how much better her balance and flexibility were, despite making jokes that in her classes she was always the one facing the wrong direction. She was always trying to teach me her moves (see photo of her and I when I was 16 – apparently perms, Cotton Ginny Track Pants, and Mickey Mouse t-shirts with your name on them were cool back then). I ended up taking Tai Chi myself in University for a while and we would often share the “art” together.
Yet, despite her best efforts, eventually the disease took its toll. Her desire to be independent resulted in a strong aversion to using a wheelchair which meant several falls that caused two broken hips (six months apart), and a year later a skull fracture and brain surgery. She survived these, but her capacity to physically manage would deteriorate after each event and subsequent hospitalization. Eventually her and my grandfather found a wonderful nursing home that provided many social and recreational outlets for both of them. One day I was visiting her and she told me she had been petting a lama the day prior. I went to the nurse’s station to ask them if she had been hallucinating and they said “no, there was a lama in here the other day”.
But the final display of her true character was the day she died. Told she was in congestive heart failure, she used her walker (forbidden by the family) to walk to the end of the hall where she sat down and passed away on the couch. It was her last display of independence, stubbornness and determination – the traits that had actually allowed her to happily live life “her way” despite Parkinson’s.
Today we celebrate Parkinson’s awareness. While my grandmother had this during a time when it was relatively unknown, this has become better understood and studied thanks to people like Michael J Fox who has turned his diagnosis into a crusade for a cure. I see many similarities between how Michael J Fox approaches his illness and how my grandmother did. Sense of humor and a positive attitude (see his books “Always Looking Up” and “Lucky Man”), and continuing to live his life by creating a new “normal”.
If you, or someone you know, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, stay informed. Contact the Parkinson’s Society of Canada for local supports and information. Stay active in your community through modified programs, Tai Chi , or even Dance for Parkinson’s offered through the National Ballet School or locally at places like the Hamilton City Ballet.
And consider – if you or someone you know has Parkinson’s (or any disability for that matter) and needs creative and proactive strategies for managing well at home and in the community, consider calling an Occupational Therapist. We can, through education and equipment, help you or them to manage as safely and independently as possible.
In one of our earlier blog posts for “Workplace Wednesday”, we introduced the concept of ergonomics. Ergonomics addresses well-being and performance in relation to one’s job, equipment, tools and environment, with an overall goal to improve health, safety and efficiency of the worker and workplace. While the concept of ergonomics is no longer new, it involves much more than making sure your office chair is of the latest style. Due to the many different components involved in utilizing ergonomics to promote wellness and safety at work, some find it overwhelming and don’t know where to start. We’ve combined some of the most important and effective ergonomic tips together to make a quick reference guide for those looking for a starting point or those looking to brush up on their current strategies.
1. Take frequent breaks: We’ve said it before and we will say it again. Regardless of the job and job demands, humans were not meant to remain in static positions for long periods of time. Taking regular, brief breaks throughout the day allows us to avoid maintaining static positions, awkward postures and repetitive motions that lead to injuries. It is also important in terms of our cognition as this allows us to recharge and refocus to maintain productivity. Consider taking a 2-3 minute break for every 30 minutes of work.
2. Follow the rule of 90s: For those who are required to maintain sitting positions for long periods of time at their workstation, the rule of 90 degrees should be followed. This means that while sitting at a desk, a person’s knees, hips and elbows should each be resting at 90 degrees. This angle falls in line with our natural body proportions and biomechanics, and helps support proper posture and body positioning.
3. Seating matters: In a similar manner, seating is a key component when looking to support ergonomics. Chair height should be adjustable such that the back is firmly supported, thighs remain parallel to the floor and the feet are able to rest flat on the floor or a foot rest. The chair itself should have a sturdy support base and wheels, to allow easy mobility over flooring as well as the ability to swivel 360 degrees to avoid twisting, reaching and bending to access other items around the workstation. The more adjustable the chair the more you can fit it to YOU.
4. Change positions regularly: Just as with taking frequent breaks, regular position changes are important to avoid injuries. Whether it be taking a break to walk to the filing cabinet, or standing while having a phone conversation, make sure that regular changes in body position occur over the course of the day. Some companies are moving towards installing mobile workstations, which can be transferred from sitting to standing height to allow employees to alternate between periods of sitting and standing to complete work tasks, making regular position changes a habit is an effective and free way to avoid injury.
5. Inspect your screen: Many jobs today require long periods of screen time. If this is the case for your workstation, make sure that there is an arm’s length distance between your eyes and the screen. Also make sure that the top of the monitor or screen is level with your forehead. This allows for the head and neck to remain in a neutral position by avoiding continued periods of looking up or down. If a job requires frequent paper reading or phone use alongside computer use, consider a document holder or headset.
6. Keep tools and frequently used items close to your body: Whether it be having your chair tucked in close to your desk, or the location of your keyboard and other frequently used items like the mouse and telephone, ensure that these items remain close to the body. This allows you to avoid reaching, twisting at the trunk or adopting other awkward postures to obtain and use these items.
7. Stretch: This tip goes hand in hand with the use of regular breaks and position changes. Engaging in gentle stretching on a regular basis over the course of the day can address body stiffness and muscle tension in areas like the neck, shoulders and back. It also serves as a preventative strategy to keep the body moving and avoid injury before it happens. Grab a list of some simple stretches for your neck, shoulders, wrists and back and do these a few times a day.
8. Keep wrists neutral: Whether it be for keyboarding, use of a mouse or desk work, it is important that wrists are maintained in a neutral posture. This avoids potential for overuse and injury due to fixed postures of flexion. Try altering positions or using equipment such as a wrist rest to support the forearms.
9. Lighting matters: Improper lighting at a workstation can lead to glare, visual strain, headaches and reduced concentration. Make sure that lighting is neither too bright nor too low and that the location and angle is appropriate for the specific work task.
10. Ask for help: These tips are basic in nature and are meant to serve as general information. However, if you have more specific questions related to implementing ergonomics in your workplace, for a specific job or employee, seek the services of an Occupational Therapist. An OT can provide more thorough assessments and recommendations to maximize safety, health and efficiency at work.
Keep these principles in mind anytime you are in a static posture and are using a computer or workstation. Prevention is always the best medicine to avoiding injury and lost work time that can be so disruptive for you and your employer.
Check out our free e-book “Cost Effective Ergonomics Solutions” for more ergonomic solutions.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Thomas A. Edison
In celebration of Autism Awareness Month we are thrilled to bring you this guest post from our colleague Bill Wong. Bill is an Occupational Therapist, speaker and Autism advocate who lives and practices in California. For more information on Bill please check out his recent Ted Talk: “Fighting On: Overcoming Autism Diagnosis.”
Employment for Autistic Individuals
Guest Blogger: Bill Wong, OTD, OTR/L
Unlike many occupational therapy experts in autism, my expertise in autism comes from a combination of clinical and theoretical knowledge and my lived experiences as an autistic individual. Since I was diagnosed in 2010, I have been working on trying to understand my lived experiences from an occupational therapy perspective.
Employment can be tough for autistic individuals. There are 3.5 million autistic individuals out there in the United States, myself being one of them. Of the 3.5 million autistic individuals, 35% have never held a job, and before occupational therapy, I was part of that statistic.
Fast forward to my occupational therapy career, my first occupational therapy job lasted 3 months and I had an unsuccessful attempt at private practice for 8 months. That said, I am now employed for 7+ months in the skilled nursing facility setting and poised for a pretty good performance review if I were to have one today.
What have I really learned?
1. Networking is really important. Every real connection in your life counts. You never know when will these connections come into play. If you are a parent of a young autistic child, encourage them to learn to play with other children or join extracurricular activities where they can be with others and make friends. If you are a parent of an autistic adolescent or adult, encourage them to make some close friends that they can rely on in the future. As an autistic individual, I understand that making connections spontaneously can be difficult. However, inviting them to participate in social opportunities that interest them can be a good start for facilitating such connections.
2. It is important for autistic individuals to know about themselves well– from their strengths and weaknesses, to sensory preferences, to their abilities in stress and anxiety management. Unless autistic individuals are in supported employment or sheltered employment, they won’t have access to support workers around them constantly. Understanding such things can help maximize the length of time these individuals are employed, or leave on their own terms if better opportunities come along.
3. Don’t overlook volunteer opportunities or internships. Autistic individuals can learn about working as a team and many other job related skills. Expectations might be lower than an actual job. However, they can be important job-skill building experiences prior to actual paid employment.
4. Social media can be a double edged sword for autistic individuals. On one hand, it can be an avenue to develop strong professional networks and support systems. On the other hand, it can be a key reason why autistic individuals might not get employed if their employers study their social media accounts. For autistic individuals, that means they have to be aware of their social interactions online so that they don’t put themselves in disadvantages that they are not aware of.
5. Once employed, building rapport with colleagues is vital. That can set the tone on whether a job can be a successful and enjoyable one. In order to do so, this means autistic individuals must have at least adequate social communication and rapport building skills. Performance skill development will come with time at any job.
6. The first paid job can be learning experiences for future jobs. Getting fired or having to resign are not fun feelings. But reflecting upon objectively the reasons why can lead to opportunities to improve and make adjustments for the next job.
7. Mental flexibility is extremely important in many jobs. Job environments can produce many unpredictable situations. There also may not be enough time for transitioning from one task to another. Training autistic individuals how to deal with such from an early age will go a long way in preparing for their futures.
8. Working at a paid job doesn’t mean sacrificing all the things that are meaningful to you or can bring balance to your life. Having a job that can pay the bills is important. However, if this comes at an expense of not doing things that autistic individuals can either relax or serve as a change of pace for what they are doing, it may be is time to switch to a better job situation.
9. Never be ashamed to ask for help on job related matters– from people at the autistic individuals’ current jobs, to those in their social circles who are also working in the same profession. As an autistic individual, I understood it can be tough to ask for help, especially to my peers who have accomplished more than I do. That said, once I realized I was struggling in my current job after I completed my observations, I quickly turned to social media unashamedly asking my peers for help. My proactive actions helped me settled into the flow of my job within two weeks.
In conclusion, maintaining paid employment can be a daunting challenge for autistic individuals when they become adults. However, with great preparation in childhood and helping them learn generalizable skills will carry them a long way to succeed. Even if they have to learn these skills in adulthood like me, being intentional about attacking these problems can increase chances of successful employment.
photo care of: www.tedxgrandforks.com/press
Taking the leap to go out on your own and begin your own practice is a big step. But with proper planning and a positive outlook, this decision can be extremely rewarding. I invite you to listen to the following Podcast, on StartATherapyPractice.com where I share the story of my decision to open my own practice which eventually lead to my current firm, Entwistle Power.
Start A Therapy Practice: Julie Entwistle, OT – Begin A Therapy Practice Organically
One of the main reasons we started our blog 2 years ago was to bring awareness to the general population about the profession of Occupational Therapy and to be able to connect with OT’s all over the world. A fellow OT, Dr. Frederick Covington, of “Ask The OT” recently reached out to the global OT community requesting collaboration such that he could create a song and video to spark OT awareness. The video features OT’s from across the globe, representing over 5 continents and Entwistle Power is happy to be representing Canada in Dr. Covington’s “I Am OT.”
Many employers know that a Physical Job Demands Analysis involves a health professional outlining the physical aspects of a specific job position. These are common in manufacturing or production industries where jobs can be heavy, repetitive, or require high physical demands. But these reports are seldom helpful if an employee suffers a brain injury, cognitive or emotional impairment and their return to work issues relate to cognitive or psychological changes and not necessarily physical impairment.
A Cognitive Job Demands Analysis is an objective evaluation of the specific cognitive, emotional and psychological skills required to perform the essential job duties of a given position. As mentioned, traditional Job Demands Analysis typically address only the physical components of the essential job duties. Yet, jobs are multifaceted and performance at work depends on the interplay of human physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral and environmental factors. As such, having a cognitive job demands analysis in conjunction with a physical job demands analysis is ideal, or these can be completed as a standalone assessment if required.
Cognitive job demands analyses can be helpful in providing a baseline measurement tool against which an individual’s cognitive and psychological capacities may be compared, such as when hiring new employees, developing and implementing training programs, or to assist in return to work post injury or illness. These comprehensive and detailed assessments can be utilized when any health condition (cognitive, physical, or emotional) impacts an employee’s thinking, cognition and/or their interpersonal processes and abilities.
Much like with a physical job demands analysis, a cognitive job demands analysis involves an on-site observation of a worker(s) completing the job in question and usually includes objective measurements, and sometimes interviews with employers and co-workers. Some of the more specific aspects examined include:
· Hearing, vision and perception
· Reading, writing and speech
· Memory, attention, and higher level cognitive abilities, like problem solving, insight and judgement
· Safety awareness
· Work pace
· Self-supervision
· Deadlines and work pressure
· Interpersonal skills required for the job
· Self-regulation and the need to work independently, with supervision, or in a group
A comprehensive job demands analysis should include comparisons of the information obtained to standardized classification data related to occupations, such as those outlined by the National Occupational Classification 2011 proposed by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. After a report is generated, recommendations and interventions for consideration can be developed.
Do you feel that your organization has positions that need to be outlined via a cognitive job demands analysis? Do you have more questions on how a cognitive job demands analysis can be used in the return to work process? If so, seek out the services of an Occupational Therapist, or contact Entwistle Power for a free consultation.
For additional informative posts on workplace health and wellness please refer to our Healthy Workplace page.
Resources
Haruko Ha, D., Page, J.J., Wietlisbach, C.M. (2013). Work evaluations and work programs. In H. McHugh Pendleton and W. Schultz-Krohn (Eds.) Pedretti’s Occupational Therapy Practice Skills for Physical Dysfunction (337-380), St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Mosby.
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
What if I told you that there was one easy way to achieve the goals you have set for yourself? Could it be that simple? People are complicated creatures, true. But if you have taken the time to set goals, are you measuring these and achieving them? Are you working on your goals every day?
Here is the secret sauce…with every fork in the road, and there are tons of them, ask yourself: which decision aligns with my goals?
Let’s take health as an example. Your goal is to lose weight, be more active, or be less breathless at the top of the stairs. So you get to work and the first decision is: should I take the elevator or the stairs? Then it is lunch and you have the option to work at your desk, or go out for a short walk. Or you don’t bring a lunch and need to decide if you should buy pop or water. The salad or burger. With each of these examples one decision aligns with your goals and one does not. Yet if you continuously choose the option that aligns with your goals, results will follow. This is true even if you make a small decision in the right direction – like taking the stairs for one flight then catching the elevator for the rest of the ride. Or instead of ordering the salad, you just choose to not order the fries.
Using my life as an example, I have five key goal areas: health, family, career, finances and personal growth. Every evening I have the option of bringing my computer home to continue working into the night. To do so may align with a financial goal of earning a suitable income, and a career goal to run a successful business, but it negates two other important goals of health (working means I will not exercise), and family (working means I won’t be spending time with my children). So, I have a conundrum. But in these cases the reality is that my day at work has already been spent on my career and financial goals, while my other goals have taken a backburner to work time. So, considering this, aligning my evening time with two different goals helps me to make the important decision to leave the computer at the office, minus the guilt that comes from leaving some work unfinished.
Yes, achieving goals takes discipline, but it is far easier to make small consistent choices, then to make a drastic change that might not be sustainable. So, on the path to awesomeness that involves you setting goals and blowing these out of the water, just ask yourself daily, as you need to make decisions around your behavior and time, “which option here will help me to achieve my goal(s)?” Then, as you align your decisions with your top priorities, results will follow.