Occupational therapy and memory

Occupational therapy and memory

Leah Turner, OTS

introductions

My name is Leah Turner. I'm in my last semester of school for occupational therapy at UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. I'm interning at Memory Connections for my capstone, a semester-long final project in which I apply skills I've learned throughout my education.

Part 1: Intro to Occupational therapy

What is OT?

Occupational therapy = collaborative process between participant(s) and practitioner to maximize function and independence with daily activities:

• Self-care
• Health management
• Caring for home and others
• Social participation
• Leisure
• Rest and sleep

Working on skills needed for the job of living

OT and memory change

Remediation: practice cognitive skills, such as attention, concentration, memory recall. Habits and routines: establishing and maintaining habits/routines to promote independence Environmental modifications: changing up your physical space to enhance safety and independence Compensatory strategies: work around cognitive barriers to promote engagement in activities

While remediation improves specific targeted skills, compensatory strategies can lead to an overall increase in daily functioning and independence in daily activities, even with no change in cognition. This remains true regardless of where one is in their journey with memory change.

Compensatory Tools

Locator devices

Calendars

Reminders/check lists

Smart home devices

Self-talk

Pill boxes

Activity pacing

Journaling

Part 2: Capstone project

"Strategies for everyday living"

Details of the capstone project

I will facilitate a 4 week mini-series during which we will explore and practice using compesatory strategies to address different areas of cognition and memory change.

Flow of sessions

Opener

New Topic

Practice

Home trial

• Review last week's topic
• Discuss home trials
• Celebrate success and problem solve barriers

• Introduce new strategy/strategies
• When and why to use strategy
• Pros and cons

• Simulated "real life" scenarios
• Guided tech lessons

• Set a plan for home practice

This group is a little different

Commitment

Care partner involvement

• With most programming, care partners are not present.

• With this group, care partners are more than welcome to join so they can learn what we're learning and be "in the know" while we practice our strategies throughout the week.

• With most programming, no RSVPing is necessary. You can decide day-of if you want to participate.
• Because this is a final project for my school, I'm asking interested participants to commit to all steps of the project, including one-on-ones with me before and after the group, and attendance at all group sessions.

No session Feb 26 due to in-person lunch!! Session dates are: - Feb 19 -March 5 -March 12 -March19

Deadline to complete interest form is Feb 10!

Timeline

Feb 11-18

Feb 19-March 19

Feb 5-10

March 20-27

Fill out interest form or let Anna or Joy know you're interested

Virtual one-on-ones to discuss what you want to learn as part of the group

Weekly sessions based on information y'all give during the one-on-ones

Virtual one-on-ones to provide feedback

Recap

I'd appreciate your commitment to:

• Virtual one-on-one before the mini-series (30 min)
• Attendance at all sessions (4 hours, 1 hour/session)
• Virtual one-on-one follow-up after mini-series (30 min)

*Total of 5 hours

Questions or comments?

References

Memory aids and tools. (2021, August 11). Alzheimer’s Society; Alzheimer’s Society. https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/living-with-dementia/memory-aids-and-tools Tomaszewski Farias, S., Schmitter-Edgecombe, M., Weakley, A., Harvey, D., Denny, K. G., Barba, C., Gravano, J. T., Giovannetti, T., & Willis, S. (2018). Compensation Strategies in Older Adults: Association With Cognition and Everyday Function. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias, 33(3), 184–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/1533317517753361

Watch your email for an interest form from Anna!

Feb 10!!