The Young Ones.................

I've been trying to find the time to share with you my enthusiasm for a recent BBC series The Young Ones (BBC iplayer - 4 episodes I think available to view until 12th Oct 2010 -no, not the 80's comedy of "right on" students - although I was an avid fan!).
This was a short series that restaged research conducted in the 1980s. Professor Ellen Langer has many articles and books exploring the theory of turning back time and comments at the beginning of the programme that " our minds accept the labels of ageing. Freeing ourselves from that state of mind can turn back the clock". This series took back 6 celebrities in their 70s and 80s  to 1975 for one week, a time when they considered themselves in their prime. Their week was entirely 1975 - decor, tv, food etc. and were offered constant physical and mental activity and socialisation.
The suggestion being that there is a cultural expectation of "elderly" and "old" that is a state of mind rather than a reality (in some cases). Using words such as "forgetful" and "wise" can create a mindset that impacts on how the individual may thinks and see themselves and thus impact on behaviour and performance (episode 4 goes into this in detail). One celebrity began the programme by saying that he used to have dogs - but "I'm now too old to look after them",(he is now thinking of getting another dog!) another believed that having a number of strokes in the past 18 months prevented her from her beloved hobby of painting. Through the week the celebrities were confronted with tasks that they were expected to engage with - some of these were returning to previously meaningful occupations including performing at the London Palladium  (a dancer) and returning to a busy newspaper office (editor). By the end of the week, all had made physical and cognitive function improvement. Here are some of the stories:

Dickie: was convinced at the beginning that he had a poor memory. Since experiencing a stroke he lost confidence and was scared of going out "since retirement my world has shrunk, now I feel alive again". His memory at the end rated as higher than average. " I feel a different man" and a friend commented "he'd lost an interesting life - that's waht's been ressurected"

Derek: was inclined to say "I can't do it" to anything that he was asked to do believing "I'm 80 and I don't have to do anything anymore". What was demonstrated that he was often saying "I can't do it" as he was actually performing the said task! His experience of the house was that talking to 5 people at a time was something he had not done for years "it reminded me of when I was editor and a lovely feeling to go back - something you don't think about very often" and "start thinking in a more lively vigorous way to recapture how you were years ago".

Liz: was very good at getting others to do things for her in the beginning, she arrived in a wheelchair after having a number of strokes over the last 18 months. By the end of the week she was mostly walking with one stick - and at times no stick- and her daughter commented how strange but good it felt to be walking beside her mother again. Liz has also taken up painting again "try to find something that is not just there to pass the time, but is actually constructive and has something to do with your former life. Find something to do which satisfies you, find something to live for each day, to go out for and to dress up for - it's the answer" (Spoken like an OT!!!)

Sylvia: was in constant pain from her back at the beginning, but aby the end was running, touching her toes and looked so much younger.


So, how was this achieved? 
Well, to use our professional language they were possibly experiencing the impact of occupational alienation and occupational deprivation which were negated by:

• engaging in meaningful activity
• introducing peer support and competition (friendly)
• providing structure
• experiencing worth and purpose

One might question whether these things would be enough without the 1975 environment. In fact Sylvia questioned the correlation between the impact on well being and the trip back in time. Prof Langer explained that this was based on the Placebo effect, it was a way of getting people to be where they felt vital and not being stopped by a mindset - which today's environment encourages. It reminds them that thay had been vital and they gave it up! "Now I feel if I want a cup of tea...I can go and get it"

Of course one might suggest that these were celebrities - able to perform!

Welcome....

Just a short note to say a big hello to our new and returning students on full time and part time BSc programmes and on our MSc programme. Induction started today for all, with a full timetabled day for the BSc and a virtual classroom tonight for our MSc students.

We hope you  find the energy to take it  all this new information in and we're very much looking forward to working with you  over the coming academic year.

Second Life Research

Some of you may be aware that Sarah and myself have been working on a Second Life project for the last year.  As part of a successful bid to engage in a project for the VC’s Media City Iconic projects award we have developed (together with Lee Griffiths - Lecturer in Computer Science and Joe Brindle Post Graduate Computer Science student) an environment within a multi-user virtual environment (Second Life). This takes the form of a home environnment (complete with kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, stairs and furniture) and encourages the user to consider basic apects of access, occupational participation and potential envioronmental adaptations for a wheelchair user.

The first phase of the house has been completed and we have now received ethical approval to carry out a qualitative research project with some of our undergraduate students to consider their experiences of learning in this enviornment. It is expected that these results, together with the Systematic Literature Review currently underway (by our Summer Scholarship student Alex Moss - recent occupational therapy graduate from Queen Maragaret's University in Edinburgh) will inform the project further with plans for a quantitative comparative study in the pipeline and work with both education and practice environments.


Potential Benefits to HCP and Students

Most health care professionals have an element of experiential learning in their pre-registration programmes in order that they can have the opportunity to practice new skills and behaviours in a tangible, reality based but safe environment (Pimental 1999). Unfortunately the organisation and implementation of such learning experiences can be extremely resource intensive in relation to staffing, time, costs and equipment or facilities, and the experience must be carefully guided and facilitated in order to focus student engagement (Lai et al 2005)

Potential Benefits to Service Users

Service users with long term serious disabilities often experience occupational alienation, and part of their rehabilitation is to embed within them a sense of self efficacy and control in managing their own environments and activities (Wilcock 1998). This can be difficult to do in the real world, again due to time and resourse constraints, as well as a need for careful risk management

A virtual or therapeutic experience could address such challenges and the use of innovative technologies to address health care education and practice is encouraged (DOH 2009, Freeman 2008, NHS Faculty of Health Informatics (2008). JISC certainly encourages innovation in providing "technology-rich learning environments that are sustainable, accessible and reflect an understanding of the learning styles, preferences and diversity of their users" (www.jisc.ac.uk) . Whilst as yet there is not an extensive body of research exploring the use of virtual worlds in heath care education or practice, Kashani et al (2009 p5) recommend that health care professions be involved in collaborative research with developers of virtual worlds by "approaching disciplines that incorporate the influence of cultural, social and physical environments, such as occupational therapy in order to develop "more inclusive user interfaces".

Whilst there has been some research in this area (Freeman 2008, Kashani et al 2009) the issue of experiencing occupational participation and deprivation in a virtual way has not been extensively addressed.

Sarah and I are currently getting ready to recruit our participants from our new undergraduate intake. Induction to the Second Life experience has been planned and - fingers crossed- we are ready to roll. We'll keep you informed how we get on.

References
DOH (2009) New education Bodies created to promote innovation in the NHS - http//www.dh.gov.uk/en/News/Recentstories
Freeman D (2008) Studying and treating Schizophrenia Unsig Virtual reality: A new Paradigm. Schizophrenia Bullitin. 34(4) 605-610 /DH_110419
Joint Information Systems Committee. (2007). Game-based learning. E-learning innovation programme. Briefing papers. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/pub_gamebasedlearningBP.aspx accessed 5.3.10
Joint Information Systems Committee (2010) http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/topics/learningenvironments.aspx accessed 5.3.10
Kashani, R.M., Robets, A., Jones, R., Boulos, M.K., (2009) Virtual Worlds, Colllective Responses and Responsibilities in Health Journal of Virtual Worlds Vol 2 Number 2
Lai CH Yang JC Chen FC Ho CW Liang JS and Chan TW (2005) Improving experiential learning with mobile technologies. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education (WMTE2005) 141 145. IEEEE Computer Society press, Los Alamitos, CA.
NHS Faculty of Health Informatics (2008) The power and perils of using social networking tools in the NHS. NHS Faculty of Health Informatics: London.
Pimental J R (1999) Design of net-learning systems based on experiential learning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning network 3 (2) 64-90
Wilcock, A. (1998). An occupational perspective on health. Thorofare NJ: Slack ink. (Chapter 6)
University of Salford Strategic Plan 2009/10 to 2017/18, (2009). http://staff.salford.ac.uk/transforming/documents/university_of_salford_strategic_plan.pdf

Occupational Therapy in the UK

Educational and professional development in the uk

View more presentations from angeladh.

Have been doing a bit of housekeeping with my files and came across this presentation I delivered in 2007 to Universite de Miguel Hernadez, Alicante, Spain. Thought some of you might be interested in how occupational therapists are educated and develop a career structure in the UK. There are spanish translations on the slides (my aplogies if they are not very accurate!)