Mentors: TK Griffin, COTA; Gina Dyl-Francois, PTA - Lanier Village Estates Therapy Center
During my mentorship, I started wondering about the applications of occupational therapy. I was interested in not only the hard data retrieved from pre and post testing done to track the patients’ progress, but also the objective view of the people involved in therapy - the patient, the patient’s family, and the therapist. My essential question developed into “how does occupational therapy impact the lives of its patients and their family members?”. In search for my answer I conducted an interview with one of my main mentors, I researched several annotated bibliographies on the effects of therapy for different age groups, I talked to patients during therapy to get their viewpoint on what they felt therapy was doing for their health and to the patients’ family members to ask if they noticed a difference in their functional ability, and I talked with the therapists to get an idea of how they believed their patients were improving. I am already able to use what I’ve learned at my mentorship in everyday life, but going into college and a healthcare career it will be especially useful. I’ve learned things specific to occupational therapy such as activities that can be done to ensure patients are being as safe as possible in their everyday activities, but I’ve also learned basic soft skills. Working with different types of patients everyday has made me more adaptable, patient, and understanding of one’s limits. I learned from my main mentor, TK, that an exercise that looks very simple can be very difficult for an injured patient, especially with the geriatric population we’re working with. I’ll be able to use my experience at this mentorship in the future because it cemented the idea that I want to work in healthcare which is useful to know going into college.
Project Website: https://occupationaltherapy-benefits.weebly.com/