For my media project, my client's name was Harris. Harris is a 22 year old who was in a car accident which left him with a complete SCI at the T3 level. He is now a paraplegic and has troubles with his sitting balance in his wheelchair, maximum assistance in dressing and troubles propelling his wheelchair with the arm cast. He is a student within 4 months of graduating and enjoys golfing and going to the movies with his fiancé and friends. His goals included returning home, graduating on time with a computer science degree and getting out of rehab and getting on with his life. The media I was assigned to use with Harris was an ice cube tray. It took me multiple days and numerous different ideas before I finally settled on my ice cube tray dressing idea! I wanted to focus on his goals, struggles and help make the activities he enjoyed the most easier to do! My "ah-ha" moment was when it finally clicked that he was maximum assistance on dressing, an ADL important to be able to return home, go to school and get on with his life! He is right hand dominant yet his right arm and hand are in a cast, so this is why dressing is so difficult for him now! My dressing ice cube tray will allow Harris to practice doing multiple dressing actives like buttons, zippers and velcro with his weaker hand! This will also help him strengthen his hand, and increase fine motor skills which can transfer over into his school work and having to work on a computer and manipulate items like his backpack and his golf bag. This activity will help make reaching his goals easier and also help with leisure activities he enjoys!
While working on this project, I had to learn a little more in depth about the different levels of SCI and what function each level had! I have never worked with a SCI patient in the past so it is definitely an area that I need more practice in, so this assignment allowed me to learn more about a topic that I do not have much experience in. I also learned how important it is to look at your client's specific client factors and make your intervention and approach client centered. This makes thinking of ideas a little bit harder, but in order for OT to be successful you want the client to feel that they are doing their therapy for reasons important for them! Another thing I learned from reading Harris' case study is that as an OT, it extremely important to educate the client and the family. One of his goals is to "walk out of here and get on with my life" and as much as I want that goal for him too, with the injury he sustained he will not be walking out. This is something that I would want to explain to him, but not in a way to make him sad or depressed but just to inform him and let hime know that we can help him get better and work with his injuries while they are healing and help him get on with his NEW life! While making my dressing ice cube tray I also had to reach out to my mom who started to teach me how to sew, which was important for sewing on the buttons to the front of the shirt! I am excited about this new skill I am learning because I know I will be able to use it with my future clients! This media project assignment will help me when I am working on other assignments and while working with clients in the future by making me be more creative and think outside of the box. If I am working with a client and am having trouble thinking of an intervention that is client centered and still works on their goals and struggles, I will think back to this assignment and remember that ANY material can be transformed into a fun intervention or adaptive equipment with creativity and some thought! I am now more confident in my ability to be client centered and to make meaningful activities for a client. I feel better prepared for future assignments because of my ability to apply my knowledge of client factors to an intervention. It also helped me work with an area that I do not have a lot of experience but want to learn more and get more experience with patients interventions related to SCI! At first this assignment was very overwhelming to think about and I was nervous that I would not be able to think of something good enough. However, I am extremely happy we were challenged by this assignment and forced to use our creativity to help expand and apply our knowledge and participate in this awesome experience!
Follow this link for my video presentation about Harris' Ice Cube Tray Dressing
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