Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve noticed telehealth became a big deal in 2020. Every healthcare organization, system, and clinic implemented some sort of “virtual care” option for those unable to obtain in-person healthcare services during the height of the covid-19 pandemic. Now, many of these telehealth rollouts checked the box as “minimally viable”, but they lacked some important and necessary pieces to make them sustainable for the long-term. 

In fact, when I was consulting for Georgia’s Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities, one of my projects involved developing the operational and clinical guidelines for telehealth service delivery across the statewide integrated clinical support services (a Telehealth Roadmap of sorts).

That project, coupled with my consulting work in the private sector highlighted two great struggles that many organizations face when implementing...

For nearly a year we have used digital communication platforms for most of our interactions with other human beings because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This means your work meetings and personal connections likely involve a screen of squares filled with smiling faces looking much like the opening of the Brady Bunch. In pre-pandemic times we associated certain activities with a place or time - we commuted to work, went to the gym, had brunch with friends or walked to school. Now, it’s all done on one screen and boundaries have become mucky, transitions quick, and multi-tasking has become the norm.

Our interactions as and with healthcare practitioners occurs via Telehealth too. For some this will be temporary but for many, they may choose to continue to provide Telehealth services. How does one take care of their own wellbeing while working in a Telehealth environment?

It takes some intentionality, but these 6 steps can help!

1. Schedule movement breaks...

Hi, my name is Janet Ottersberg and I have worked as an Occupational Therapist for over 30 years. I have had the pleasure to work with clients from neonates to 104 year olds and have worked in all settings that OT’s practice. I am so grateful for this career that has allowed me to be flexible and work according to my lifestyle needs at the time. As a single parent, this flexibility allowed me to be there for my child as much as possible and still have a flourishing career. All the shifting I learned to do as a single parent afforded me the experience to create the changes necessary to continue to work, despite a global pandemic. 

As this global pandemic drags on and on, many of us in the rehabilitation field have had to make accommodations to stay afloat in the field of Occupational Therapy. Some people have left the field, some have changed their practice to a hybrid model and for many of us that shift included moving to a telehealth model of treatment. I...

If you are just starting out as a Telehealth OT provider, the question of which platform to use for sessions can be a hard decision. Do you need a platform with electronic medical records (EMR)? One that can handle billing? Scheduling options? Specific tech features? These are all things to consider when shopping around for a new platform.

When browsing through platforms, here are a few things to consider when choosing what’s best for your practice.

1. No matter what type of platform you are looking for, whether it be telehealth-only, EMR-only, or a combination of both, a top priority is HIPAA compliancy. Ensuring that the platform you select is HIPAA compliant is important for both your patient’s privacy and your own liability. When researching platforms, look for the companies Signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA), which indicates that they are HIPAA compliant.

2. Platform tends to have tiered pricing, which typically follow a free, basic, and...

“Do you have kids?” the parents of the children I worked with always asked me. I never really understood why that was relevant. I had years of experience working with children. The minute my first daughter was born, I finally understood. 

PARENTHOOD CHANGES YOUR LIFE.

Now all of a sudden you have know the 5 S’s of soothing a baby, among all the other things that no one prepares you for. Sure your child doesn’t come with a manual, but don’t make the mistake I made by preparing for the pregnancy and the delivery instead of reading “Baby’s First Year.” 

So what do the 5 S’s have to do with sensory? Wait, does one of the S’s stand for sensory? No, it doesn’t, but interestingly enough, they all have something to do with our senses.

Let’s break it down:

1 - Swaddle - This is the one where you wrap your baby up in a blanket nice and snug. - In the OT world, this is a form of proprioception. More on that big,...

While working in an outpatient rehab center, many of the parents expressed one concern. It was something along of the lines of, “My child does great with you here, but I can’t get him to do the same at home.” As an occupational therapist (OT), I understand very well the difference the environment makes in someone’s functional ability. 

Now, let’s compare the home environment and the clinic environment. 

• Scenario 1: The child walks into the therapy room where there’s a table with 2 chairs, a trampoline, a swing, and a ball pit. He immediately goes for the swing and the OT follows the child’s lead and does gross motor activities (in combination with sensory integration) for the first half of the session. The second half of the session, the OT has the child sitting at the table working on handwriting and other fine motor activities. At the end of the session, the mom walks in and is very surprised to see the child sitting so...