Student Blog
Getting Involved

There’s No Health Without Mental Health ⟩
October 9, 2015, by Jodie

Community Getting Involved

On Saturday, October 3rd, I participated in the 2015 NAMIWalks LA with a bunch of my classmates as “Team Occupational Therapy,” led by one of our clinical faculty members, Dr. Delgado! NAMI stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the overall purpose of NAMI is to change how Americans view persons with metal illness. NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

All of the attendees met at Grand Park early in the morning for a pre-walk celebration and then we began our walk around Downtown Los Angeles to raise public awareness of mental illness and to display our support for people affected by mental illness. This was a very fun, 5k walk that took about 2 hours to complete. As I am currently in the Mental Health immersion in the program, this walk was very meaningful to me because I have the opportunity to work very closely with persons affected by mental illness at my Level I fieldwork site at Century Villages at Cabrillo. I am very committed to supporting NAMI in educating, advocating and increasing public awareness of how important mental health is. As a team, I am so happy to announce that we were able to raise over $2,000 in support of NAMI.

If you would like to learn more about NAMI, or to find out about more local NAMI events going on near you, check out their website at nami.org.

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Trojan Pride ⟩
October 4, 2015, by Jodie

Getting Involved

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the 14th Annual OTAC Afternoon Tea with a Scholar, held at the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Center for Occupation and Lifestyle Redesign. This event was coordinated by one of our clinical faculty members, Celso Delgado Jr., OTD, OTR/L, who currently serves as our Region 2 Director for OTAC.

As the second year OTAC Student Delegate for USC, it is part of my responsibilities to assist Dr. Delgado with Region 2 events. Seen in this picture with me are Dr. Delgado and our first year OTAC Student Delgate, Erwin Borja.

The keynote speaker at this year’s event was Shawn Roll, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, who is an assistant professor here in our division. Dr. Roll presented on the topic of “Innovative Approaches to Advancing Occupational Performance in Individuals with Upper Extremity Musculoskeletal Disorders”. This was such an informative presentation that really captivated everyone’s attention and highlighted Dr. Roll’s breadth of knowledge and experience.

As I had the opportunity to mingle with fellow attendees at this event, it struck me just how many of our alumni go on to fulfill leadership roles within not only OTAC, but AOTA as well. I feel extremely honored and inspired to be surrounded by such influential faculty members and practitioners here at USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy!

These are just a few of the many inspiring leaders of our state association, OTAC (many of whom are USC OT alumni! 😊).

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Health Professional Puzzle Pieces ⟩
October 2, 2015, by Rashelle

Getting Involved

One of the greatest things that USC offers is the chance to learn from and network with the breadth of programs offered at USC. This past Saturday I attended the 5th Annual Inter-professional Health Symposium. This unique opportunity allowed me to interact and collaborate with USC students in their journey of becoming doctors, physician assistants, pharmacists or physical therapists. USC was even able to invite nurses from Mount Saint Mary’s University, to further expand the disciplines represented! The conference focused on the large-scale issue of Urban Health, and emphasized how the solution lies within the cohesion of our health professions.

Each speaker talked about the individual responsibilities of each profession, and the necessity of interdependence if we truly wanted to form an effective, patient-centered recovery process.

During lunch, we were given a case study to practice our newly acquired skills, which we have learned in our respective programs thus far. I was beyond excited to able to tell other professions about what occupational therapists can do with our holistic lens, creative adaptations and healthy routines! It was also exciting being able to reconnect with friends from my undergraduate years at USC.

Fight on forever!

Lastly, it was nice to see my fellow occupational therapy colleagues representing our profession in casual conversation and groups alongside me!

Stacey Janofsky, a first year occupational therapy student, can attest to the value of the symposium as she even mentioned it as her favorite memory in the program thus far.

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Starting Early: The Next Generation Of OTs ⟩
October 1, 2015, by Joe

Getting Involved

Last week, I represented USC Chan at an expo for high school guidance counselors.

While we do offer a direct admit Bachelor’s-to-Master’s program, occupational therapy practice requires a Master’s degree so I was curious how much interest we would receive from high schoolers . . . I mean, I didn’t even know about OT until I was 27!

Turns out there’s a lot of interest! (Which you already knew, you are reading this blog after all . . .)

One of the guidance counselors from St. Louis, MO came directly to us to ask about our programs, because “all my students want to be OTs!” It was such a thrill to hear that even teenagers are voicing interests in joining this awesome profession.

Time did call us one of the top 5 “Most In-Demand Jobs”. And U.S. News & World Report ranks us in the top 10 “Best Health Care Jobs”.

In the comments, tell us about when you first discovered OT!

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Hello Friends! ⟩
September 9, 2015, by Heather

Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

For my first blog post, I wanted to stick to the student ambassador tradition of telling my “how I found occupational therapy” story.

A long, long time ago, I graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in History, Art History, and a minor in Photography. I had ambitions to become a food photographer and to travel the world to photograph for publications like Bon Appetit. While I endeavored to fulfill this dream, my grandmother suffered from a stroke at home in Santa Barbara.

At the time, I had always liked being in the position of helping others, but this became especially apparent while caring for my Grandma throughout her recovery. In my case it took a crisis to realize an untapped skill that I had. When I first began helping my Grandma, she was receiving inpatient therapy at a rehabilitation hospital. I observed her treatments with several health care professionals, but was most impressed by the work of the occupational therapist. This was my first introduction to occupational therapy. My Grandma’s occupational therapist spent multiple sessions with her every day, helping her regain independence in activities of daily living and remediating her motor control deficits. As I watched the occupational therapist work with her, I learned that the basic tenet of her rehabilitation stemmed from the idea that all activity should be purposeful in her recovery.

I wanted to get involved.

Then, one morning, the occupational therapist asked, “Would you like to do an exercise with your Grandma?” I had been waiting for that question since the moment I arrived. She showed me activities that were tailored to my Grandma’s current cognitive level, which were modified weekly to reflect her improvement. I was overjoyed to be an active participant in my Grandma’s recovery. I was amazed at how her occupational therapist was affecting her recovery in incremental ways, and doing something monumentally important.

Occupational therapy slowly but surely transformed my Grandma. Her sense of self-worth improved and she was able to appreciate a quality of life that seemed lost after the stroke. Active participation in my Grandma’s recovery inspired me to discover more about occupational therapy. I volunteered at a pediatric clinic, Ready Set GO Therapy, and at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in San Francisco. I enjoyed my experiences in both clinics tremendously because they offered different insights into the array of care-styles that occupational therapists provide. But most importantly, they both gave me the ability to be a component in the rehabilitation of a patient.

At the pediatric clinic, I gained a better understanding of pediatric occupational therapy, with its focus on sensory integration, motor skills, and rehabilitation that facilitates confidence and healthy development. Whereas, at Laguna Honda Hospital, I was exposed to occupational therapists that treated patients with the effects of stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and other major traumas. Here, I assisted the occupational therapists with patients with an extraordinary variety of social needs, including homeless people. I learned the importance of comprehensive care and the focus on full community integration. It was unlike any other opportunity I’ve had before because I was able to connect with a forgotten sector of society. Most importantly, my experience taught me, like my experience with helping my Grandma, that empathy, compassion, and sensitivity are necessary characteristics for an occupational therapist to possess.

I have truly united my vocation with my avocation, and I am so thrilled to be on the road to becoming an OT! ☺

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