Life Skill Development and its Impact on Perceived Stress, Employment and Education Pursuits: A Study of Young Adults with a History of Homelessness and Trauma

An occupational therapy educational training group for young adults in permanent supported housing was developed, implemented and evaluated with pre-post outcome measures including Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) and the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10). The study explored stress levels and employment-related goals of individuals who have aged out of the foster care system and may also have had a history of chronic homelessness and trauma. Results demonstrated a trend towards significance in perceived stress 9Z=1.689, p=0.91) with 7 of 8 participants surpassing the expected outcome according to GAS. Limitations included a small convenience sample (n=8), inconsistent attendance and use of self-report measures. This project was unfunded. No conflicts of interest are declared. This study was approved by Thomas Jefferson University\u27s Institutional Review Board (Control # 18D.768) on 1/23/19

Awareness and Use of Electronic Health Records in Entry-Level Occupational Therapy and Occupational Therapy Assistant Curricula

The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) requires programs to instruct entry-level occupational therapy (OT) and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students in technology that may include electronic documentation systems, distance communication, virtual environments, and telehealth (standard B1.8). At this time, there are no publications describing if and how electronic health record (EHR) instruction is implemented in entry-level OT and OTA programs. The purpose of this study is to investigate awareness and use of EHRs in entry-level OT and OTA curricula. Respondents from 76 nationally accredited entry-level programs (two OT doctoral, 24 OT masters, two OT combined bachelors/masters, and 48 OTA) completed a survey. The findings showed inconsistent and incomplete EHR instruction in entry-level OT and OTA education. This study provides a baseline for investigating best practices in EHR education for entry-level OT and OTA students

Student Perspectives and Standardized Patient Feedback on an Innovative Simulated Patient Encounter

This retrospective survey analysis sought to explore student perspectives and application of therapeutic use of self during a simulated standardized patient encounter (SSPE) with standardized patient actors portraying serious mental illness (SMI). Researchers collected retrospective data from post SSPE student surveys dating between 2009 and 2019 and standardized patient actor surveys dating between 2017 and 2019. Students’ level of expertise with therapeutic use of self and self-perceptions of the SSPE were analyzed for response categories. Descriptive analysis was conducted on all items. Student survey responses were organized into response categories. Standardized patient actor surveys were analyzed for frequencies of yes/no responses. Post-SSPE student surveys showed that many students found the SSPE to be a great learning experience, allowed them to practice therapeutic use of self, and felt that it reflected a realistic experience working with someone with SMI. Surveys of the standardized patient actors revealed that they observed student use of therapeutic use of self in the vast majority of their interactions. These results lead the researchers to conclude SSPEs are an effective way of teaching necessary occupational therapy skill sets and familiarizing students to populations experiencing SMI prior to Level II fieldwork and clinical practice

Moving Forward Together: Reflections of a National Survey of OT/OTA Students’ Perceptions of Culturally Aware Educational Content Delivery

In June of 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd and the additional atrocities against historically marginalized people and communities across the United States, the Commission on Education (COE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) sought to act within its scope. A retrospective survey (N= 1,692) was developed, deployed, and analyzed in accordance with the COE’s standard operating procedures relating specifically to monitoring trends that impact the education of occupational therapy (OT) and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students. This survey aimed to capture perspectives from OT/OTA students regarding the delivery of culturally aware educational content in curricula provided by faculty. Results indicated that faculty are attempting to deliver aspects of culturally aware content with a limited number of delivery methods. Furthermore, findings suggested the need for rigorous and comprehensive improvements to content delivery related to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), social determinants of health (SDOH), and intersectionality across the classroom and clinical settings. Implementation of basic instruction, such as lectures/readings, and higher-level processing and application-based materials (i.e., case studies, discussions, role-playing, and simulations) need to be included throughout the entire OT/OTA curriculum experience and are critical to comprehensively educate and equip students for contemporary and culturally informed practice. Faculty would benefit from the development of instructional best practice strategies that expand beyond the delivery of knowledge acquisition. This study aims to lay the groundwork to advance and inform the skills of faculty, fieldwork, and capstone coordinators to deliver culturally aware curricula

A large genome-wide association study of age-related macular degeneration highlights contributions of rare and common variants.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3448Advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, with limited therapeutic options. Here we report on a study of >12 million variants, including 163,714 directly genotyped, mostly rare, protein-altering variants. Analyzing 16,144 patients and 17,832 controls, we identify 52 independently associated common and rare variants (P < 5 × 10(-8)) distributed across 34 loci. Although wet and dry AMD subtypes exhibit predominantly shared genetics, we identify the first genetic association signal specific to wet AMD, near MMP9 (difference P value = 4.1 × 10(-10)). Very rare coding variants (frequency <0.1%) in CFH, CFI and TIMP3 suggest causal roles for these genes, as does a splice variant in SLC16A8. Our results support the hypothesis that rare coding variants can pinpoint causal genes within known genetic loci and illustrate that applying the approach systematically to detect new loci requires extremely large sample sizes.We thank all participants of all the studies included for enabling this research by their participation in these studies. Computer resources for this project have been provided by the high-performance computing centers of the University of Michigan and the University of Regensburg. Group-specific acknowledgments can be found in the Supplementary Note. The Center for Inherited Diseases Research (CIDR) Program contract number is HHSN268201200008I. This and the main consortium work were predominantly funded by 1X01HG006934-01 to G.R.A. and R01 EY022310 to J.L.H

Occupational Therapy Programming Facilitates Goal Attainment in a Community Work Rehabilitation Setting

An occupational therapy program for participants with mental health challenges, a history of serious mental illness, recovering from substance use disorders, on parole/probation, and/or experiencing homelessness was implemented in a community work rehabilitation setting. The impact of occupational therapy interventions focused on stress and anger management, sleep hygiene, anxiety and depression management, relapse prevention for addiction, vocational and academic skill building, money management, healthy eating, and relationship and leisure skill development. Participant satisfaction and performance scores regarding individual goal setting and attainment was collected and analyzed via retrospective review of pre/post outcome scores (n = 44) obtained through the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). Results indicated significant differences (p \.05) from baseline to end of the program, with high effect sizes (d = 1.79–1.94). End of program participant satisfaction and performance scores were highly correlated (r = .88, p \.00), indicating those who were highly satisfied reported greater performance scores. Post discharge narrative participant responses also support COPM outcomes. Findings suggest community-based occupational therapy may improve individual performance and satisfaction in daily activities while enhancing participation in tasks that are healthy and significant to the person

Addressing Chronic Homelessness & Mental/Behavioral Health Needs in the Community: Collaborative Level II Fieldwork and Doctoral Experiential Programming

OT students worked with a diverse population in a variety of living environments including permanent supportive housing, and safe havens