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University of Southern California
University of Southern California
USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
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Alisa

Alisa

Cognitive Disabilities Model ⟩
September 27, 2012, by Alisa

Classes

This week in class was very interesting. I learned about the cognitive disabilities model, and the guest speaker was Catherine Earhart, one of the developers of the Allen Diagnostic Module. As part of the assessment, clients get to make a greeting card! The assessment allows us to quantify the data using the Allen scale of levels and modes, which provide a specific activity analysis identifying the cognitive and motor requirements of meaningful activities that clients desire to do. This can give us a baseline of where and how you want to treat the clients next. It is important to know that there might be various factors that affect clients’ performance; therefore, the assessment data has to be collected throughout time before a pattern can be detected. Another assessment, Allen Cognitive Level Screen-5 (ACLS-5), clients perform three visual-motor tasks of leather lacing stitches with increasing difficulty. I did not have difficulty with the running stitch or the whipstitch, but I had great difficulty with the single cordovan stitch. Overall, it is an interesting assessment used can be used in mental health settings and other settings, too!

Alisa

Yoga: My Personal Medicine ⟩
September 22, 2012, by Alisa

Life Hacks

In my readings in my Mental Health class this week, I’ve read about personal medicine versus medications. Deegan defined personal medicine as “the activity that gives life meaning and purpose.” I remember a time when I cramps, and the pain affected my ability to function. My first instinct was to take Advil for pain relief, but ever since I have been doing yoga, which I considered to be my personal medicine, I don’t rely as much on taking pills. There are certain poses I could take such as child’s pose and my all-time favorite corpse pose that have restorative benefits. I could see how engaging in yoga benefits me and helps me to be more mindful and calmer. I learn to pay attention to my breath because it puts me in the here and now. Also, I just purchased the USC Workout Group Exercise and attended a yoga class. I look forward to doing that on Tuesdays! I’m going to try to do some more yoga throughout the week as well. I find it as a great stress reliever.

Alisa

First day at Fieldwork ⟩
September 21, 2012, by Alisa

Fieldwork

This week I started my level I fieldwork in mental health. I am placed at Project 180, a forensic treatment agency, in downtown Los Angeles. Clients have a mental illness as well as a substance abuse issue. Programs include the re-entry program, where clients join Project 180 after serving their time in jail or the diversion program, where clients join Project 180 instead of going to jail. The 12-18 month programs are structured in phases, culminating with a graduation ceremony at the end. There have been instances where Project 180 staffs have worked directly with clients in jail. I was able to observe three group sessions: mental health, job skills, and thinking errors. It was eye-opening to be able to hear a lot of members share their stories openly. To actually be able to hear someone who has had first-hand experiences of what it’s like living with a mental illness was a very humbling experience. It made me realize to be thankful for what I have in my life and the support system and to have an attitude of gratitude wherever I go. I appreciate how committed the staffs at Project 180 are to their clients and to each other. I look forward to more group sessions with the clients and individual sessions, too. I learn a lot from just listening to them. So far, it’s been a wonderful experience, and I’ve also made a canine companion at fieldwork, too! Meet Indiana Jones.

Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones

Alisa

Feeling like an Olympian ⟩
September 13, 2012, by Alisa

Classes Life Hacks School/Life Balance

This is Week 3 of classes already! Time is flying by so quickly. This week in my Health Promotion and Wellness class, we learned about the importance of having balance. We got to do a balance wheel of a typical weekday, and I realized that I do not have leisure activities during the weekday. So, after coming home from class, I set forth to do a new activity purely for myself. Since I live near the main campus, I have access to the track and decided to take a nice walk there instead of going to the gym. Instead of doing the elliptical like the usual, I craved a breath of fresh air and decided to start slow by walking/jogging on the track. I spent a total of an hour there, but it was very worth it in the end. I got to enjoy the cool breeze against my skin along with my workout music while getting to see students practice field hockey, doing lunges, and running. I enjoyed the atmosphere and simply being outside. Who knows I might enter in the Mud Run or Color Run the next time you see me? For a brief moment on the track, I felt like an Olympian.

Alisa

Why I Chose OT ⟩
September 7, 2012, by Alisa

What are OS/OT?

I started out on the pre-med track like many others, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy the courses and felt that my classmates were too competitive. I flipped through the USC Catalogue and considered all the majors USC offers. Being that I have many interests, I could only narrow the list of possible majors down to ten majors. I needed advice from someone whom I could trust, so I turned to my pediatrician of twenty years about what careers I should look into. I told him I wanted to be in a helping profession with the lowest stress possible. He suggested I look into occupational therapy (OT) since his wife is an OT (USC graduate, too!). From then on, I joined the Pre-OT Club at school, saw an OT advisor, and even visited the first and most prestigious OT school in Thailand while on vacation (I should add that the person who greeted me got her Doctorate in Occupational Therapy at USC). The more I looked into OT, the more I got into it.

I felt OT was a perfect fit for me because I get bored easily. In OT I know that I am encouraged to use creativity with clients and tailor to their own needs and wants. Each client that I work with will have different stories to tell and come from various backgrounds. As an OT, I will be able to do storymaking with them. I can empower clients to write their own chapters of life filled with meaningful activities of their own choosing. Through my fieldwork experiences, I have worked with newborns in the hospitals to the elderly in a community-based setting. One day I hope to own my own clinic or day program with a built-in yoga studio, so that caregivers can do yoga while waiting for their loved ones getting OT.

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