Disability Justice & Adaptive Sports

"We are pathfinders.  We enable occupations that heal.  We cocreate daily lives.  We reach for hearts as well as hands. We are artists and scientists at once.  If we discern this in ourselves, if we act on this understanding every day, we will advance into the future embracing our ethos of engagement.  And we will have reclaimed a magnificent."

-Suzanne M. Peloquin

I was very disappointed that I was unable to attend the Memphis Rolling Grizzlies, but I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to listen to the podcast, Disability Justice & Adaptive Sports.  Danielle Watson is an occupational therapist specializing in hand therapy.  She graduated from NYU with a degree in Art History and Philosophy.  In the summer of 2011, she had a horrible accident and fell while rock climbing in Colorado and sustained a T-6 SCI.  She went through several surgeries and lots of rehab and decided to go back to school with hopes of pursing a career in physical therapy.  With rejection after rejection, because of her disability, she thought about different routes which lead her to occupational therapy.  This podcast was interesting to hear someone with a disability working in the same field but also because hand therapy is also the route that I am interested in!  She made a statement that really stood out to me during the podcast, "If you are willing to work with people with disabilities, why not have colleagues with disabilities as well."  Just because someone is in a wheelchair does not make them any different.  She also mentioned how her accident gives her a way to relate with the hardships that her patients are going through which was really interesting to hear.  Danielle was very active before her injury and still continues to participate in wheelchair sports and marathons.  One thing that I took from her podcast was to have or find resources for patients that are dealing with this type of injury to help them get back to their life.  People with spinal cord injuries know their life isn't going to be the same as before and that can often cause depression along with a lot of other things and our job as OTs is to help them to have the best quality of life that they can have.  Miss Wheelchair Tennessee that came and talked to our class also mentioned the same thing about sharing resources, so this is definitely something I will keep in mind for the future.  Danielle's story was worth the listen and I love her passion for advocating for disability justice and am so glad she chose this amazing field!  Be sure and listen to her story and visit her website as well!

Podcast: http://www.ontheair.us/podcast1/episode-16-disability-justice-adaptive-sports

Website: https://daniellelancelotwatson.wordpress.com/

Rubber Bands

For my media project I was given a client named Barbara, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in her 30's and is now 64.  She was recently admitted to the hospital for a significant decline in her level of function.  She will be discharged in 4-5 days and would have to continue with an exercise program.  Barbara is married and lives with her husband and son.  In her spare time, she enjoys sewing and crafts.  She has lost a significant amount of upper and lower body strength due to this flare up.  She also mentioned trouble with memory over the last 6 months.  All of these interfere with her ability to complete her ADLs.  How could I help Barbara with something as simple as rubber bands?

The moment I drew "rubber bands" for the media project my mind started wandering every which way with ideas.  As easy as I thought this would be, it really was not.  Of course, I scrolled through Pinterest, Google, and every OT website on the web looking for ideas but nothing stood out as being original.  Making pictures on a pegboard or putting rubber bands around a can was not creative enough for me.  One day I come across a piece of art that was done with rubber bands and it was like a lightbulb went off in my head.  CRAFTS!  My client loved doing crafts, so this was perfect!  You can wrap rubber bands around just about anything and make something out of it.  The most meaningful thing that I got out of this project was how my mind just one day clicked and ideas all of sudden started coming from every where.  I was starting to question my creativity after weeks of not being able to come up with anything, but once it finally hit me, I learned that I have a lot of creativity than I ever gave myself credit for.  I am interested in working in hand therapy in the future and I knew rubber bands would be something that would help with grip strength, so hopefully I can take this creation and use it sometime during my career.

There are so many things that you can do with rubber bands.  You can wrap them around an object and paint in between the lines.  Or you can wrap them around an object and use that to paint.  For example, I wrapped rubber bands around a wood coaster and used the rubber bands to make black and white stripes.  Then, I wrapped the rubber bands around a wooden block and made my own stamp.  You can make your own design with the rubber bands, paint them, and stamp it on to anything.  I also stamped a coaster,  card, gift tag,  and linen towel.  These are just a few ideas that I gave to my client, but the list goes on and on.  I wanted to be sure and give her a variety of crafts she could do because she mentioned that she gets bored with the same exercises everyday.  Wrapping and stretching the rubber bands around an object will help Barbara with her grip strength.  Her goal is to be able to perform all of her ADL's and iADL's safely and independently.  Increasing her grip strength will help her to grip a brush or tooth brush or gripping a spoon/fork while eating.  Barbara has also mentioned that her memory has declined in the last 6 months.  I would suggest that she keep a journal and log in her journal every time she does a new craft which may help her remember certain things.

This process has really made my brain work, but was so much fun to put together!