Sarah B the OT

 Occupational Therapy for the Homeless  Quinn Tyminski: TEDxStLouisWomen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeeSM1zINu8                                                                           Photo by Dreamstime.com This is a Ted Talk by Quinn Tyminski about homelessness and occupational therapy. How are those related? Homeless people do not have occupations, therefore how would they need therapy? Tyminski did an amazing job explaining it.  She started out by explaining homelessness as a maze. It is easy to get in, but difficult to get out. Each wall is a hardship in life, making it more confusing. If you had directions, or a hammer to break down the walls, the maze would be much easier to go through. These tools are what occupational therapy could provide. There are lots of shelt...

 Nutshell 3: Culture in Occupational Therapy  Photo by Career Professionals of Canada      Culture is defined as "the knowledge, beliefs, values, assumptions, perspectives, attitudes, norms, and customs that people acquire through membership in a particular society or group" (Hammell, 2009a). This can impact anyone in the daily occupations and routines, and can influence their goals, routines, or activities.       Someone's culture impacts their daily occupations and routines because their culture IS their every day occupation and routine. When I was in undergrad I played college soccer. My "identity" or culture during those 4 years was a student athlete. That is what my whole life revolved around for 4 years and that is how I lived for that time. My actions revolved around soccer, like nutrition, fitness, sleep, and socially. Being apart of that team definitely impacted my daily occupations and routines. I had to focus more on sleep and eat ...

 Feb. 14 Class Reflection -  Suffer the Little Children Documentary and UT- Boiling Center for Developmental Disabilities guest speaker: Dr. Bruce Kiesling. Photo from https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/special-needs-children     Today in class we watched a documentary titled  Suffer the Little Children , and had a guest speaker named Dr. Bruce Kiesling, who is apart of the UT- Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities (BCDD).  We watched the horribly sad documentary first, and then had some light on the subject with Dr. Kiesling.  Suffer the Little Children  is a program about the awful experiences and treatment at Pennhurst State School and Hospital that was open from 1908-1987. PennHurst was an institution for mental and/ or physically disabled people. In the early 1900s, the public saw mentally handicapped individuals as dangerous or criminals. They were seen as a burden for families and felt that these people needed to be conta...

Resilience and Human Adaptability: Who Rises Above Adversity?  1990 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lecture  Susan B.Fine (AOTA, 1991)                                          Photo by Hobart Historical Society      Photo by American Journal  of Occupational Therapy              The Elenor Clarke Slagle Lecture transcript I chose was written by Susan B. Fine who was recognized for one of the most distinguished awards in the occupational therapy profession in 1991. Fine chose to speak about adversity and how individuals can learn to adapt in the midst of adversity.  I chose this article because of the words adapt and adversity. As a future occupational therapist, our whole job is helping clients adapt to their new or changing lifestyle, no matter the adversity. I grew up in a military household who moved every two years. My w...

January 10,2023 Welcome to my journey in occupational therapy school! My name is Sarah Block and I am a first year OT student from Collierville, TN. Before attending UTHSC, I received a Bachelor of Science from Tennessee Technological University. I chose OT because of my passion for helping others and making a difference in someones life.  I played soccer at my institution for 4 years and still stay active in my free time. Although I loved and will cherish my time as an athlete, this transition has really given me time to focus all my time and energy into my new journey of life which is OT school.  I enjoy long walks as well as spending quality time with friends, family, and my cat Zoey.