Model of Human Occupation Archived List Serv Discussion

Brief definition for MOHO model January 26, 2011 Hi all, My name is David From Kenya, i am an alumni of the European Master of Science Degree in Occupational Therapy, Cohort 8. I am now the chairperson of the Kenya Occupational Therapists Association. Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology( a Kenyan University) is for the first time in east Africa starting the first ever Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupations, as it was expected, i am expected to give a lot of input; for now i have been asked to provide a list of the common items that could be found in an OT lets say, pediatrics skills lab, physical dysfunctions room, sensory integration room and may a psychiatric unit of OT. The university has asked me t provide a list of the therapeutic items that are ordinarily found in a university setting of an OT department( all the OT specialization areas) Can any one out there please help, even preferred size of such rooms. Kindly assist me....and hey...my euro master cohort eight guys....please chip in. And if any one wants to have an experience of teaching OT in Africa(beautiful Kenya) why not try this opportunity? Thanks January 26, 2011 Dear David, Welcome to the MOHO Listserv. For the sake of cost-effectiveness, I would recommend staying with a few conceptual practice models that are economically feasible and effectively teach-able using adjunct faculty from around the world (as you are proposing).

If you try to include everything about OT, you may lose focus and not be able to do anything well..What is your primary population that your students will ultimately serve? General family practice, pediatrics, older people? Will you be filling an orthopedic/physical rehabilitation need? A neuro-rehabilitation need? A mental health need? You mention sensory integration - will you be treating people with sensory processing issues, or those who are on the autism spectrum, or those with other neuro/developmental issues? If not, then sensory integration therapy equipment can be very costly, unless you can bring a donor into your program... A lot of your questions about room size and resources can be answered based on the populations your students will serve and the conceptual practice models you choose to teach. I hope that MOHO will become one of those conceptual practice models for you - we certainly have an array of assessments and manualized approaches to practice that are available, many free of charge, through the MOHO Clearinghouse website. Again, welcome to our community. I look forward to "talking MOHO" with you and your colleagues. Renee Taylor January 26, 2011 Hi I have had recent experience teaching at a Scottish University – about three years ago a new campus was built which included ‘experiential teaching labs’ such as an activities of daily living (ADL) suite (kitchen area, bathroom and bedroom area, ward simulation area and movement lab). It was anticipated all students within health sciences e.g. nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics etc would be able to share such resources. From my experience in using the ward simulation and ADL suite, this seemed to be invaluable at allowing students to begin to link theory with practice prior to undertaking practice placements. I would also like to echo Renee Taylor’s comment – having a range of occupational therapy assessments would also be a key learning resource. Keep in mind ways to build links with occupational therapists in practice so the resources of the university may also be used by them in such a way that would allow both parties to benefit. Hope this helps. Thanks Claire January 26, 2011

Hello David: In addition to what Renée pointed out I would also suggest you do an evaluation of the culture (values, costumes, occupational priorities, view of health) economic reality of population in the specific geographic areas OT services will cover, their needs as occupational beings to orient yourself on prioritizing the mission, purpose and competencies you want to develop with OT students. Then goals of the educational program. Then choosing Conceptuals Models of Practice. And then you make a list of significant equipment you will need to implement the physical setting. For example, in our countries, we design and create adaptations and other equipment with people we serve (person, families), as it fits their needs and reality. So we use creativity and different materials of daily life, many of them not corresponding to catalogs used in USA, Canada, Europe, others, but yet helping to the same purpose. Even if you decide you need to implement a Sensory Integration room, you need to think of cultural, economic issues that might influence which objects will be more meaningful to use or create (based on properties for sensory integration facilitation) in order to match possibilities to maximize the usefulness of OT interventions. I also recommend you use MOHO as one of your Conceptual Models of Practice. As MOHO is an intercultural and universal model based on occupation, centered on the client and it rescues participation in occupations in real contexts of life, it gives you millions possibilities to respect the mission, values, roles, competencies for evaluation and intervention process of Occupational Therapy. Happy to share with you warm hug Carmen Gloria de las Heras, MS, OTR Chile January 26, 2011 Dear David, My name is Farzaneh I am an occupational therapist, MSc Rehabilitation course leader and senior lecturer atOxford Brookes University. I was in the same position as you in year 1993 when I started working as a lecturer at the university of Social Welfare and

rehabilitation sciences in Iran-Tehran. I was one of the 4 people who were developing a new OT programme in that university. Later in 2001 I did the same job, alone, in the University of Jordan. That was a great chance for me to work in another country and learn how I should look at needs of that community and consider them in my plan. You need to remember that you cant simply take a model of another country with different system, specifically a developed country with advanced OT services and copy them in your place.Occupational therapy services are very much society based and you need to learn about the priorities in order to have a good and successful department. There are a lot that can be done but you need to be careful not to put everything together randomly but purposefully. It includes the human resources as well as the non human resources. We planned everything from the scratch in Jordan, the settings, equipments, classroom and number of students and staff needed, and even the design of the building. You need to build things based on what is already there. Its to me like an OT process: -you need to gather information of what you have and what you need but dont have ( who are the OTs who can help in either teaching or supervising students practice for example) -to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the resources ( What are the OT settings that you can train students within, who are your clients?) - to see what are the needs (which conditions are more common in your country and who are the people who need OT more?) - to set the priorities (what is more important to start with, a small department in a special area like orthopaedic or elders? substance abuse needs OT more or mental health?) and the same for the other steps: -have vision for future -set short term and long term goals -set an action plan with appropriate strategies. implement it. I dont want to make it complicated but this is exactly what I did. Now I am in UK and my students who took their Ph.D. from USA are managing OT department in Jordan university. If you found my experience worthwhile then I am happy to share more of that with you. By the way, I chose MOHO and CMOP ,side by side, to be the main model within our curriculum and had a strong rationale for that which if you wish will communicate that with you later. Good luck Best, Farzaneh

January 26, 2011 Hello From Sunny Arizona USA, Congratulations on your new university beginnings. Of course you have lots of work ahead of you. I agree with what the others have said. I believe you should do a needs assessment in order to establish some priorities because otherwise the project is just way too big and the message will become diluted if you attempt to become all things to all people. Then I would establish one theory as the one that mainly directs your efforts. MOHO of course would be a good one, but it would be helpful to then choose one that complements that, if you believe that you will be working with people who have particular issues. for example, MOHO plus Biomechanical (if many of the clients are likely to have orthopedic issues), or MOHO plus Motor Control (if many of the clients are likely to have central nervous system disorders) or MOHO plus SI, etc. This will then funnel your thinking and keep you and others focused on a few target areas. Yes, I agree that no matter what you pick, it will be good to have lab areas that simulate the ways people really live, so that the students can connect the dots. Pay attention to the issues of mind, body and spirit, client based, occupationally oriented and evidenced based practice and you should be able to address most of the main issues. There will always be things that can be added in later. I would suggest keeping the areas multipurpose and versatile so that you can change your mind later and not be held captive by some physical layout. One way to do this is to not install cabinets as permanent fixtures, but rather, keep them on wheels that can be locked. Also, I would say that no matter how much space you think you need for storage....double it! I wish you the best of luck, and who knows, perhaps I will get to Kenya some day and see what you have developed. Regards, Mary Voytek. January 30, 2011 Sounds exciting!! I have just got back from 3 weeks in Uganda , so that’s great to hear about :D February 3, 2011

Dear David, I agree with what Teresa has written, especially about the storage. As far as having equipment for a psychiatric setting, I think it would be advisable to have the tools that people use locally to calm themselves, which may or may not be what is used in the US or Europe. Also, there may be spiritually represented items that also provide sensory input that could be calming and appropriate for your population. Activities that involve what people currently need to do and are considering to do in the near and distant future also would be in order. Then you would need to determine if your students will be dealing mostly with acute care or community based care, as that would affect the types of activities you would chose for their focus. In acute care, much work is done to alleviate symptoms for which the crafts are very helpful. On the other hand, community settings in the US focus much more on life skills, home maintenance and domestic activities, leisure, and especially work. The latter require much more community based activities, particularly if the treatment can be done in the proposed environment, like the work setting or in the person's home or neighborhood. In any case, I would strongly recommend that you have a cooking area in your clinic or school and a strong sink that can handle messy crafts in addition to cooking. Then, you can stock it with cooking utensils and craft tools as needed as your program develops. Good luck. It sounds really exciting, Corrie