Venth's blog

0. Abstract:
Reiki is a healing energy technique of uncertain origin. It may not be applicable to occupational therapy, but the process of learning reiki may be of use to occupational therapists for facilitating spiritual emergence and personal development. This blog entry describes my personal journey as a physiotherapist learning reiki, and how the experience led me to re-train as an occupational therapist. The benefits I experienced included increased empathy and interpersonal skills, more ethical living, a deeper respect for occupational therapy, improved physical and mental health, a feeling of connection to the universe and restored faith in God.

1. Introduction: Have you ever seen a Ferrari Panda or Fiat Testarossa? What about a Lexus Yaris or Toyota Soarer? What about a Nicole Farhi FCUK T-shirt? If you do, please send me a photograph because I never have. This phenomenon has also occurred with Ralph Lauren and Chaps. Companies are using different names to market products in distinct quality brackets. There is a very good reason for this. What do you think a Fiat Panda would do for the image of Ferrari if it was branded ‘Ferrari’? Ferrari would lose out to other super-car producers that were more sensible with maintenance of their brand images. The occupational therapy profession could learn this valuable lesson from industry. This blog entry is a very brief reflection on that thought.

1. Introduction: This blog entry is my reflection on how we as occupational therapists undermine our own profession by failing to reflect deeply on and analyse the global repercussions of some of the mundane decisions we make. The example used for this reflection is conflict with social workers, but it could just as easily have been any one of several other situations that occur routinely during my working day. One of my seniors expressed to me on several occasions that she did not feel able to deal with global issues, and those are the responsibilities of managers and the College of Occupational Therapists. This argument could only stand if we were actually applying the standards set by the College of Occupational Therapists to our work. Some of us would like to think we are, but are we really? When was the last time you studied them with a view to scrutinising your own work? If we do not apply the standards set by the College of Occupational Therapists, how can we expect the British Association to protect us?

1. Introduction:
During my short career in health and social care, I have seen people rushed into hospital by ambulance, treated with major surgery and kept alive against great odds in intensive care. I have seen people rehabilitated by physiotherapists and speech and language therapists and cared for by nursing staff. I have seen social workers speaking to patients to ensure their care needs are met in the community. What is it all for? Why do we work so hard to keep people alive? The answer to this question must lie in the meaning of life. What is the meaning of life? This blog entry briefly explores the meaning of life and extrapolates from it reasons why occupational therapy is an essential component of quality care. It reflects on evidence that occupational therapy is currently undervalued and suggests a radically different professional image for the future.

1. Introduction: As a member of the British Association of Occupational Therapists I refer to the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct [1] and Core Standards [2] specified by the College of Occupational Therapists. I also refer to National Service Frameworks[3] produced by the Department of Health and guidelines produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence[4]. Working within the National Health Service I rarely feel empowered to follow these standards or guidelines. This mismatch between professional ideals and working reality seems to be a never-ending source of conflict and emotional turmoil. To manage this conflict I refer to Hindu/Buddhist scriptures on the practice of yoga. Some essence of these has been summarised in a journal article titled ‘The Ayurvedic Model of Human Occupation’[5] in the Asian Journal of Occupational Therapy. This blog entry describes how I apply these scriptures to my working life, to manage my own well-being (that is threatened five days a week). It may make little sense to anybody that does not practise yoga. I would therefore encourage anybody that is interested to refer to the journal article.

1. Introduction:
As a basic grade occupational therapist, I frequently encounter people for whom exercise tolerance is the limiting factor of occupational performance. Usually, this is due to physical de-conditioning secondary to inactivity, but occasionally it is due to pathology. This can often be obvious in people with pulmonary or cardiovascular impairments, but less obvious for those with neurological or renal pathology. Reflecting on my undergraduate occupational therapy training, it has not informed me of how best to manage these people as patients. If I knew no better, I might be hesitant to stress people with cardio-pulmonary pathology for fear of straining their already compromised organs. I might just issue loads of equipment and re-organise tasks to reduce occupational stress. Luckily, from previous experience I know that peripheral physiological adaptations contribute grately to increased performance capacity, and can therefore reduce the overall daily load placed on a compromised heart or lungs. When cleaning out my hard-drive this weekend I found a piece of work I did 9 years ago that has influenced my own physical training and the way I have viewed people with reduced exercise tolerance since. I thought I might as well share it here before deleting it along with the rest of my junk.