Case Study: K.T. by Lauren O'Brien

Paul Kevin Turner (K.T.) was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 41. K.T. took many hits in the head throughout his life while playing high school, college, and NFL football which is thought to be where his diagnosis came from. It was interesting to me how progressive ALS is and was with K.T. He passed away last year at the age of 47, meaning he lived for 6 years following his diagnosis. It is important for occupational therapists to take the quick progression of ALS in to account when planning interventions.

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OT 640 Debrief

12-Step Meeting

After attending a 12-step meeting, I can see how it is beneficial to my learning of the group process. In this particular meeting, I felt the leader took on more of an advisory role because he was a passive leader and did not provide a lot of structure to the group. The group session was more of an open discussion. He led the group off by asking what everyone wanted to talk about that day which encouraged group members to participate. I think it was a good way to get started and allow the group to guide the session. I think because the environment was a nice, quiet, church building, maybe members were more comfortable. There weren't any distractions such as traffic or hallway noises which I think helped the focus of the members. I think this group session was therapeutic because the members were able to talk about their feelings in an open format, and I think any time someone shares their thoughts or feelings it is therapeutic. I did reflect on maybe some differences if this were...

Reflection #1 "Think Happy Thoughts"

Yesterday, Virginia and I led a group session about cultivating a positive attitude we named, "Think Happy Thoughts." I then used the exercise provided in our groups book to lead my reflection on the experience of our facilitation. Although nervous to lead the group, I feel that we did a great job engaging the group members. We led off with a warm-up activity where the group members could state how positive/negative they felt at the moment. I think this was a good way to start the group because it was Monday morning and many of us were feeling negative about the upcoming week. The warm-up prepared the group for the session and allowed them to get their feelings out about the upcoming week. I think the activity we chose was good in facilitating the group goals. Because the group members were my classmates, I found it difficult to know how involved to be in the activity. I think it will be interesting to lead my first client group and compare the differences of facilitation b...

Whitney OT425

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