Category: Occupational therapist assistant continuing education courses

Virtual Reality film on refugee crisis premiers at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in March 2020

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Following international production, not-for-profit production company Reality Learning and World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) are proud to premier its immersive virtual reality (VR) experience on Athens’ refugee crisis at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece this March.

The eight minute documentary, Night Becomes Day, was shot in urban Athens and refugee camp to provide an impressionistic experience of what it means to seek safety in Greece and rebuild meaningful lives with the support of the local community.

Production Company Founder and Film Producer, Judith Hewitson, said that when it comes to better understanding the experience of refugee communities it’s the human stories that most need to be told.

Full article at WFOT

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists

Early Rehabilitation in Conflicts and Disasters

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What is the issue?

When emergencies strike, there is a huge surge in the need for Early Rehabilitation. Early Rehabilitation for patients with traumatic injuries in conflicts and disasters is now recognised as being an integral part of a patient’s recovery. For example, early rehabilitation for a patient with a traumatic amputation means a faster recovery time and greater chance of optimal quality of life. 

However, the majority of rehabilitation professionals in countries that experience such emergencies do not have all the skills needed to treat all of the injuries. 

Full article at Hi.org

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists

Are ACL Tears Really More Common in Women?

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It may be hard to remember a time when it was uncommon for girls and women to play competitive sports, but it’s not exactly ancient history. The 1972 passage of Title IX, which mandated equal access for women to participate in sports and other educational activities that receive federal funding, gets credit for dramatically increasing the number of girls and women playing sports. In 1974, fewer than 300,000 girls played high school sports. By 2018, that figure skyrocketed to 3.4 million.

Unfortunately, that bump may have also increased the number of orthopedic injuries among girls and women. In fact, certain injuries, including ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears, ankle sprains, and stress fractures, turn out to be even more common in female athletes than they are in males.

The reasons why are not clear—and more research is needed—but prevailing theories point to the anatomical differences between men and women, hormones, and other factors.

Full article at Yale Medicine

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists

‘100 Milestones of Physical Therapy’ Celebrates the Profession’s Proud History

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Think there’s nothing special about history of the physical therapy profession? We’ve got 100 reasons you should think again.

Now available: “100 Milestones of Physical Therapy,” a web-based, multimedia journey through the past 99 years of the profession, beginning with APTA’s founding in the wake of World War I through the celebration of the association’s centennial, coming in 2021. The timeline touches on not just the history of the profession and the association, but the ways in which the profession affected the broader U.S. health care system — events such as the enactment of Medicare legislation in 1965, the signing of Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, the elimination of the hard cap on therapy services under Medicare in 2018, and more.

The layout of the milestones page makes for easy browsing, allowing visitors to dive more deeply into any of the achievements listed, and to select a specific year from a running index. The new resource includes fascinating photos from historical moments, and features audio and video of some of the profession’s greats, including Florence Kendall, Helen Hislop, and Charles Magistro.

Full article at APTA

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists

Geriatric-specific characteristics linked to hospital readmission risk of elderly surgical patients

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Researchers have examined new geriatric-specific characteristics that appear to raise the risk of elderly surgical patients having an unplanned hospital readmission within a month of initially leaving the hospital. The new study is published online as an “article in press” on the Journal of the American College of Surgeons website in advance of print publication.

The four geriatric risk factors for readmission after general surgical procedures are cognitive impairment requiring another person to sign the patient’s consent form for the operation (called “incompetent at admission”), use of a mobility aid, risk of falling at discharge from the hospital, and need for skilled home health care after going home.

Full article at News-Medical.net

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists

Fall-Related Injury and Death Remain Global Problems

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The Message
Around the world, falls continue to pose a significant health care burden, but it’s a burden that varies from region to region in a variety of ways, according to a recent analysis of global falls data from 2017. For example, the highest incidence rates for falls occur in Central Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, but that incidence doesn’t correlate to higher falls-related mortality rates, which tend to surface in South Asia. And while age-standardized incidence of falls decreased slightly overall between 1990 and 2017, most of that decrease was accounted for in wealthier and more educated populations, while those in lower socio-demographic groupings actually experienced an increase in falls incidence.

The Study
Authors took a deep dive into data from the 2017 edition of the Global Burden of Disease Study, or GBD, a research effort that gathers information on hundreds of diseases in 195 countries and territories. The GBD amasses data not only on disease incidence and prevalence, but years lived with disability — YLD — mortality, and risk. For the BMJ study, researchers analyzed data related to falls, focusing on specific geographic areas, ages of those experiencing falls injury, and types of injuries sustained, among other data points.

Full article at APTA

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists

Research suggests new approach to block tau pathology in FTLD, Alzheimer’s

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The protein β-arrestin-2 increases the accumulation of neurotoxic tau tangles, a cause several forms of dementia, by interfering with removal of excess tau from the brain, a new study by the University of South Florida Health (USF Health) Morsani College of Medicine found.

The USF Health researchers discovered that a form of the protein comprised of multiple β-arrestin-2 molecules, known as oligomerized β-arrestin-2, disrupts the protective clearance process normally ridding cells of malformed proteins like disease-causing tau. Monomeric β-arrestin-2, the protein’s single-molecule form, does not impair this cellular toxic waste disposal process known as autophagy.

Full article at News-Medical.net

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists

Positive self belief key to recovery from shoulder pain

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People are more likely to recover from shoulder pain if they have the confidence to carry on doing most things, despite their pain – according to new research from the University of East Anglia and University of Hertfordshire.

Researchers studied more than 1,000 people undergoing physiotherapy for shoulder pain.

They found that those who expected physiotherapy would help them were likely to recover more than those who expected minimal or no benefit.

Meanwhile, people suffering more pain, who were confident in their ability to still do most things despite their pain, were likely to recover better with physiotherapy than those suffering less pain, but who weren’t confident.

Full article at Science Daily

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists

No quick fix: Missouri finds managing pain without opioids isn’t fast or easy

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Missouri began offering chiropractic care, acupuncture, physical therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy for Medicaid patients in April, the latest state to try an alternative to opioids for those battling chronic pain.

Yet only about 500 of the state’s roughly 330,000 adult Medicaid users accessed the program through December, at a cost of $190,000, according to Josh Moore, the Missouri Medicaid pharmacy director. While the numbers may reflect an undercount because of lags in submitting claims, the jointly funded federal-state program known in the state as MO HealthNet is hitting just a fraction of possible patients so far.

Full article at News Medical

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists

No quick fix: Missouri finds managing pain without opioids isn’t fast or easy

Occupational therapist assistant continuing education courses, Physical Therapist Assistant CEUs, Physical Therapist Assistants, Physical Therapist CEUs by Flex Therapist

Missouri began offering chiropractic care, acupuncture, physical therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy for Medicaid patients in April, the latest state to try an alternative to opioids for those battling chronic pain.

Yet only about 500 of the state’s roughly 330,000 adult Medicaid users accessed the program through December, at a cost of $190,000, according to Josh Moore, the Missouri Medicaid pharmacy director. While the numbers may reflect an undercount because of lags in submitting claims, the jointly funded federal-state program known in the state as MO HealthNet is hitting just a fraction of possible patients so far.

Meanwhile, according to the state, opioids were still being doled out: 109,610 Missouri Medicaid patients of all age groups received opioid prescriptions last year.

Full article at News-Medical.net

CEUs for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, and Occupational Therapists