Objective 3

I will develop an educational case study on Huntington's Disease to educate occupational therapy students on disease processes and their impact on caregiver and client occupational performance.

PowerPoint Presentation

This presentation was utilized to educate occupational therapy students in the OCTH 731: Physical and Psychosocial Conditions for the University of South Dakota's occupational therapy program.

Occupational Profile

The occupational profile was developed on a real client with HD to allow students the opportunity to gather the necessary information needed in order to provide interventions for a client with HD. This includes evaluating current concerns, strengths, interests and values, previous occupational history, performance patterns, supports and barriers to occupational engagement, and the client's priorities and desired outcomes.

Interview Questions

A case video was developed based on a client diagnosed with HD. These interview questions were utilized to observe differences in answers between the client and their caregiver. This provided a positive extension to the occupational therapy curriculum by observing how HD impacts the occupational performance of the client as well as the impact on the caregiver.

Discussion Questions

To supplement class discussion regarding the PowerPoint and case video, discussion questions were created to assist in facilitating large group discussions. Answers were also provided to the discussion questions based on information that was learned during the capstone experience while working in an HD clinic to assist the academic professor in guiding the discussion.

Survey

A brief survey was developed for the academic professor to utilize in order to evaluate student knowledge before and after actively engaging in educational material.

This objective provided me with the skills to develop educational materials to support occupational therapy students learning when working with complex neurodegenerative diseases. The interviews demonstrate the difference between the client’s and caregiver’s perceptions of the disease, which is highly beneficial for students to recognize. This is because individuals with Huntington’s Disease (HD) typically have a lack of insight into performance deficits so the client may not answer questions accurately so it is important to include the caregiver when obtaining information with this population. Additionally, HD is progressive with no cure so students will be able to learn the importance of providing a supportive environment to improve quality of life and occupational participation throughout disease progression.