Participation in Occupation 2

To view this blog please click on this link:
http://jasmine-moot.blogspot.com/

The Final Posting

I really hope that you have enjoyed reading my blog and have learnt something new...I know I have!!
Before I depart I would like to leave you with a quote to ponder on: The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential. - Steve Ballmer

Assistive Technology: Digital Camera

Canon is well known brand of the digital cameral. The PowerShot A1100 was recently released and captures clear high resolution pictures. It has 12.1 MP sensors that allows you to capture every scene with incredible detail. The clicks can be printed up to A2, which are then cut, then the deisred composition, without the data necessary for effective achievement of larger prints. This digital cameral has a 128 MB SD memory card, and has 4x optical zoom with optical image stabilizer that provides a wide range of choices in the composition scale. The USB cable is used for easy transfer from the camera to the computer.
Assistive Technology. (2010) Digital Camera. Retrieved from http://www.stimulus-assistive-technology.org/?category_name=digital-camera
Here is a youtube video to show what this digital camera has to offer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1d4Jt03o4o

Assistive Technology

This blog will make reference to assistive technology and the benefits it has to the user.

Assistive or Adaptive Technology commonly refers to "...products, devices or equipment, whether acquired commercially, modified or customized, that are used to maintain, increase or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities...", according to the definition proposed in the Assistive Technology Act of 1998.


rehabtool. (2001) What is Assistive Technology? Retrieved on the 2nd April from http://www.rehabtool.com/forum/discussions/1.html

In other words, assistive technology is a adaptive and rehabilitative device for people with disabilities. It promotes a greater independence by enabling people to be able to successfully perform a task that they would otherwise find great difficulty in accomplishing. It provides them with a way of being able to intereact and engage in different activities by using the many varieties of this technology.

The SMART Board is a type of assistive technology that is a series of interactive whiteboards developed by SMART Technologies. The SMART Board uses touch detection from the user input and has digital coloured pens that are used for writing/drawing etc with. The cost of this interactive whiteboard can range from $1000 to about $5000. They come in a range of sizes and are said to last a very long time.

This equipment can increase occupational capacity as it allows a person with a disability to be able to play games, hear sounds etc just by touching the screen. There is a website called http://www.helpkidzlearn.com/ that has a variety of games, stories and different creative things that enable children to interact and engage in an activity that is fun and exciting.

Here is a youtube clip that shows different ways a SMART Board can be used for children with a disability.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kdvr7a0z1s

Linking to blogs of interest and exchanging comments

I have posted some comments on a few of my fellow OT class mates blogs. One of those is Gracie Prisk. Here is a link to the posting that I wrote on her blog.
http://gracieprisk.blogspot.com/2011/03/information-technology-and-ethical.html#comments

The Internet and Online Communities

This posting will introduce a topic of interest that has been drawn from my fieldwork experience. I will search three communties that relate to the topic and provide a brief discription, the services provided there, different ethical issues that may arise in this community and the benefits these communities provide over traditional geographical communites.

A topic that I'm interested in that has been drawn from my fieldwork experience is children with Autism.

The first cite that I would like to discuss is the Children's Autism Foundation, and that can be found by clicking on the link: http://www.autism.org.nz/support-group-childrens-autism-foundation.html
The following reveals what the vision of the foundation is, and how they can help.
Our vision is to see society fully accept and include people with disabilities; and the framework starts within the family. The goal of Children’s Autism Foundation is to help you create a rewarding and meaningful life for your child within your family dynamic.
We are here to help you. Our broad range of services include personalised advice, training and intervention, an educational resource library, information service, support groups, parenting workshops and one-on-one home visits to equip and encourage.
Autism is considered to be at epidemic proportions internationally, occurring at 1:110-150 people, with rates increasing. Children’s Autism Foundation is stepping in to meet the growing demand for quality services in Auckland. Our family-centred programmes are unique among service providers in Auckland, complementing services provided by other agencies such as Autism NZ and ihc.
While autism is a lifelong disability, much can be done to help autistic children enjoy life and participate in society. Studies indicate that one of the most significant factors in an autistic child’s later success in life, is a devoted parent. We look forward to helping you build a brighter future for your child – contact us now.

I find this cite not very interactive, however it did offer a lot of information and contact details if viewer required more information. Ways that the general public can contribute is by donating money so that they can continue with this service. Reason why people may contribute is if they have a child with autism, or no someone that has a child with autism, and can see the benefits and support that this service provides. Therefore to continue to see this service running and helping out other families in need, donating to them will be a way for an individual to contribute.

Here is an example of the text discussed above:

What we're doing to make a difference:

Services include personalised advice, training and intervention, an educational resource library, information service, support groups, parenting workshops and one-on-one home visits to equip and encourage.

Our track record:

Children’s Autism Foundation provides services to families in the Auckland region who have children up to the age of 21 with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Our organisation is a Registered Charity (CC11460) operating as Not-for-Profit service. CAF started its life in 2000 as a parent support group and now serves almost 300 families.
Childrens Autism Foundation. (2010). Give a little. Retrieved from http://www.givealittle.co.nz/org/childrensautismfoundation

The potential ethical issues that may arise from this community is the different photos that they have displayed on the web page. This community needs to ensure that they have consent from the family members (as the children are under 18), because this page can be viewed by anyone who wishes to see it.

This group is based in Auckland, therefore will only be appropriate to the people of this community. This means that people that do not live in Auckland, or are distant from this group will have to look elsewhere for a service that provides the same support.

The second community that I would like to discussed based on autism is Autism New Zealand Inc which can be found by clicking this link: http://www.autismnz.org.nz/
The following reveals the vision of this community and how they can help:
The main purpose of Autism New Zealand Inc. is to provide support, resources and information on autism spectrum disorders to those with these conditions, their family/whanau, caregivers and professionals working with them.

Autism New Zealand's key activities are to:

• Raise awareness of autism spectrum disorders
• Provide support, information and advice for parents and carers
• Gather and distribute the latest information and research relating to autism spectrum and related disorders
• Initiate and organise seminars and conferences
• Provide training courses for parents and professionals eg S.P.E.L.L. and EarlyBird^® programmes
• Liaise with other agencies on behalf of individuals, parents and other family
• Make submissions on relevant legislation and government reviews
• Provide a quarterly newsletter

This cite provides a lot of information and is also very interactive as it includes helpful games that children with autism can play. There are many ways that the general public can contribute to this community and that is by:

• Signing up with slingshot and they will automactically donate 3% of your bill to this community.
• Gift with a difference: Instead of having a birthday or christmas present, you can ask family members to donate money on your behalf.
• Shine a light for autism: The aim of the candle is to help raise awareness and funds for this organization.
• Donating a gold coin and receiving a thomas and friends bumber sticker.
• Payroll giving: This allows you to make donations to charities and receive immediate tax credit.

The potential ethica issues that may arise from this community could be Intellectual Property. As this cite offers a lot of ideas, artistic works and pictures etc, this could lead to plagarism.

Autism New Zealand has support groups all over the country that offer different things such as holiday programme groups, provide training programmes for parents, different seminars, teen and young adult groups and different conferences. Because this community is all over the country it can provide support to anyone who may need it.

The last community that I would like to discuss regarding this topic is Otago Children's Autism support group which can be found by clicking this link: http://otagokidsautism.org/. The following reveals the vision of this community and how they help:
We are a group of pro-active parents in the Dunedin area of New Zealand who have children with autism.
We are committed to helping organise and fundraise for intensive early interventions which help make easier the lives of affected children and their families
We are a group of pro-active parents in the Dunedin area of New Zealand who have children with autism.
We are committed to helping organise and fundraise for intensive early interventions which help make easier the lives of affected children and their families

This cite offers different news letters on different topics that viewers can read and comment on, and different ways to get support from this community. They too have a place where the public can donate money to keep the organization going, this is explained in more detail here:
In the past year, our costs have doubled to $10,000 per month, and funding is getting harder to find. We are always searching for more organisations who are able to contribute in some way.
Children on the autism spectrum have the ability to learn and interact, and ABA helps develop the skills to enable each child to reach their full potential. It is difficult for parents who want the best for their child yet are crippled by the financial burden. If you or your organisation can make a donation and help improve this situation, please either contact us or use the button below.
Otago children's autism support group. (2011). Please Contribute. Retrieved from http://otagokidsautism.org/funding.html

As this organisation is in Otago, it will only be useful for this community.

Video Production Sessions

This blog will look at what youtube has to offer, then I will use different online video content to to portray an interesting event that I had on my fieldwork experience.

YouTube is a video sharing website where the users can upload, share and view videos of all different areas. It displaysa a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short orginal videos. Most of the content upload is by different individuals that have a YouTube account.

Wikipedia. (2011). Youtube. Retrieved 2nd April 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

A topic of interst drawn from my fieldwork placement in paediatrics was the use of play and activities for intervention. This clip shows a variety of activities that an occupational therapist did with a client.

Helping to build fine motor skill was something that we did a lot of on placement. Playing with play dough and creating different objects with it was very effective. It is also was a great texture for the children to play with. Here is a clip of an OT making a play dough chain and showing how it improves fine motor skills. Unfortunatly I'm unable to upload the video, but here is the link for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFa-dHZkAAY&feature=related

My supervisor and I also went to as school to work with a small group who had learning difficulties. I really enjoyed being a part of this setting. This video looks at how OT is done at school. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k76ETm50sCM&feature=related

Here is another cool video that shows how children can learn fine motor skills through play. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUQm26JR2Vs&feature=related

Doing activities to improve bilateral coordination was what we worked on with clients alot as well. Here is a clip that shows an example of one activity used to help improve this. Here is the long for this clip:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPk3iNra-6k&feature=related

Digital Imaging

In this next posting I will cover some ways that digital images are stored, transferred and manipulated using information technology. I will then move on and briefly discuss the statement ' A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature' (this should be a super interesting topic to discuss!) Following this I will write about the ethical issues that arise given the prevelence of image capturing and and distribution using IT. Lastly I will briefly discuss some of the ways that digital images could, or are, being used in occupational therapy practice.....ENJOY!!

Before discussing what hardware and software that I am familiar with, I think it will be beneficial to briefly define what they mean. A computer system comprises hardware and software. Hardware is the physical medium, for example:

• circuit boards
• processors
• keyboard

Software are computer programs, for example:

• operating system
• editor
• compilers
• a Fortran 90 program

University of Liverpool. (1997) What is hardware and software. Retrieved on the 25th of March from http://www.liv.ac.uk/HPC/HTMLF90Course/HTMLF90CourseSlidesnode3.html

Some of the hardware that I use are computers, and with that comes the keyboard and mouse. I often take pictures using a digital camera, and to upload these on the computer I use a USB cord to place these on the computers. The hardware that I use everyday is my cellphone and ipod. With ipod I also use a USB cord to plug into the computer for charging and putting songs on. The software that I use would be web which includes: facebook, moodle, emails, skype and many other website. When editing photos and viewing them I use a software called picture viewer. Itunes is used for putting music on my ipod and for buying sonds from the itunes stores.

Here are three examples of digital imaging that used to provide information and recording:

1. A photo is used to capture memories and provide information of the event that happened at that time.
2. Photos complied on a disk means that information can be stored on a hard copy instead of a computer.
3. Digital information is also in the form of scanned document images.

Here is a youtube clip on some examples of digital imaging: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBVqBgz95Os

'A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature'.

Digital Imaging has changed hugely over the years and is now a very valuable piece of technology. With a digital camera now we can take a photo or movie, view whilst it's still on the camera, and then delete it. While old cameras are very expensive to run (paying for film and developing), they do allow for hard copies of memories that can be stored away and brought up to enjoy. Digital Imaging saves money as you can download photos and videos on the computer in order to make more on a memory chip. They are also not usually developed as they can be viewed on the computer. Even though this is cheaper, it's not the same as having printouts to view.

Some ethical issues that may arise from the distribution of image capturing are:

• Consent must be gained from people that feature in the photo when you place them on the internet. This is because the internet is a place of public viewing.
• Another issue could be that images posted on certain websites must be appropriate as quite often anyone is able to view them.

Ways that digital imaging is used in occupational therapy are taking images for clients that struggle in communication. On my placement we had a picture exchanging system which was used for the children to express themselves. There were pictures of different facial expressions and activities that they either pointed at or grabbed in order to show what they wanted to do or how they felt. Photos can also be taken of clients progress to place in reports or to give to families.

Our Movie

This the video that our group made with the theme of overcoming adversity. We wanted to do something that was a bit humerous and caught the audiences attention. Georgie was the main actress in this film and she portrayed the role of a girl who overcame adversity. We first see her happiliy skipping towards the coffee shop, once there she realizes that she has no money so is unable to buy her self a delcious hot drink. She then came up with the idea of raising money by busking. Once she had received some money, she went and bought her drink.

To help plan this short film we did a sequences of illustrations that we wanted georgie to act out. This helped us when we were filming as we knew what we wanted to capture in the film.

Information Technology and Ethical Issues

The focus on my first posting with be about Information Technology and the Ethical Issues behind it. I will then be looking at how this form of technology is prevalent in our society and then relating my own personal circumstances of using it. Following from this I will look into the definitions of Intellectual Property, Social Justice and Informed Consent and relating them to occupational therapy. I know you will have a good read as this is a super interesting topic!!

Information Technology (IT) refers to anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that work with these technologies (Information Technology, 2005). IT has become a big part of our everyday lives and has a huge impact on many of our occupations. These include computer programming, network administration, computer engineering, web development, technical support and many more.
Information Technology. (2005) The Tech Terms Computer Dictionary. Retrieved 16th March from http://www.techterms.com/definition/it

Information Technology is well used in our everyday lives. Whether it be at school or university studies, researching online, different cites for interaction like facebook, twitter and myspace and so many more things. Gone are the days where you actually need to go out somewhere to find something or even buy something. Everything you can think of is pretty much on the computer.
Here is a youtube clip about the significant of Information Technology in our everyday life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meX1h4oqV38

Personally I feel that I am reasonably comfortable with some aspects of using most IT devices. With the computer for example, I have used it for most of my later school years, and everyday whilst I am studying. The different reasons that I use it for are: checking online packages on moodle, researching, checking emails, skype, watching movies and most importantly...facebook! (I am sure there are many more as well). That is just the computer alone, I also use digital cameras, ipods, TV and my cellphone. Information Technology is something that I don't think I, or most people, would be able to live without!

Reflecting on my own fieldwork experience, Information Technology was used everyday in many occasions. I was in a pediatric mental health setting. I observed my supervisor write progress notes using a special program on her computer. This was done after every session we had for every client. Other reasons my supervisor used her computer was: to create handouts for client's parents, research information for different cases, write out reports and contact other health professionals associated with the clients through email. In the multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings, there was quite often someone giving a presentation using a data projector which was connected to their laptop. This was used to bring across a message for everyone to view.
Here is a PowerPoint presentation about online technology in occupational therapy:
http://www.slideshare.net/anitahamilton/online-technology-for-occupational-therapy-presentation-for-students
IT can be useful in our practice and in our daily lives as we are able to get hold of any information we need with just the click of the mouse. By understanding how to correctly use this tool can save practitioners and people a lot of time, therefore use their time in other ways that can be more beneficial.

There are ethical implications that arise from capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT or systems that we need to be made aware of. The privacy and confidentiality of a person can be violated. Any information that is placed on the internet is public, meaning it can be seen my everyone who wishes to view. Therefore it is important that we take that into consideration, especially with photos. Be sure that when posting a photo or a video you have consent from everyone in it as it can be seen by the world.

Definations:

• Intellectual Property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce (WIPO, n.d.) IP is divided up into two categories: Industrial property which includes inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of sources; and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems, and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs (WIPO, n.d.) The innovations and creative expressions of indigenous and local communities are also IP, yet because they are 'traditional' they may not be fully protected by existing IP systems (WIPO, n.d.)

WIPO. (n.d.). What is Intellectual Property. Retrieved on March 16th from http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/

• Social Justice is defined by business dictionary as fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion,etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice (Business Dictionary, 2011). In relation to occupational therapy, social justice is a concept that relates to the equality of the clients. This means the practitioner needs to balance the needs of the individual client, the financial survival of the service, and the laws regarding to the appropriate care. The clients have a right to receive the therapy they need, no more and no less. (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2010).

Business Directory. (2011). Social Justice. Retrieved on March 16th from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/social-justice.html
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2010). Social Justice and Meeting the Needs of Clients. Retrieved on March 16th from http://www.aota.org/Practitioners/Ethics/Advisory/Social-Justice.aspx

• Informed Concent is a legal procedure that makes sure that the patient or client is aware of all the risk and cost involved in a treatment. The elements of informed consent including letting the client know of the nature of the treatment, other alternative treatments, and the possible risks and benefits of the treatment (Informed Concent, n.d.) In relation to occupational therapy, a practitioner is ethically and morally obligated to obtain concent before commencing with any treatment (Occupational Therapy Now, 2001).

About.com Psychology. (n.d.) What is Informed Concent. Retrieved 16th March from http://psychology.about.com/od/iindex/g/def_informedcon.htm
Occupational Therapy Now. (2001). Informed Concent. Do you have it?. Retrieved 16th March from http://www.caot.ca/otnow/sept01-eng/sept01-consent.cfm

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