10317 Quick Screening Tools for Adults / Advocating for OT

Course overview

Quick Screening Tools for Adults discusses the role of screenings in holistic occupational therapy practice and quick screening tools applicable to adult populations, including visual, cognitive, sensory, and psychosocial screens. Included are visual field cuts, figure ground, Mini-Cog™, Saint Louis University Mental Status (SLUMS) Exam, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), sensory and special senses screening, primary somatosensory system and screening for proprioception, and the secondary somatosensory system and screening for stereognosis. Identifies when vision, cognition, psychosocial screens are appropriate to administer/perform. Includes specific psychosocial screening tools for stress, anxiety, depression, and multipurpose - Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2 and PHQ-9), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21). Advocating for OT indicates barriers that occupational therapy faces as an industry. Examines influencing factors, including broad practice structure, unclear roles, unsought service, and lack of advocacy and asks why these have led to confusion among lay people and professionals about what occupational therapists do. Discusses how establishing clarity about the roles of OT is served through use of effective storytelling techniques and strategies for advocacy such as publishing, marketing, increasing visibility, and governmental policy involvement. Explains how to use storytelling techniques such as dramatic arc, the art of business storytelling, and the importance of knowing your audience in order to change brains and effectively advocate for OT. Identifies the predominant temperament of OTs, the need for common language for easily misunderstood terms, and how to create a personal story.