Our Journey has Advanced

 

Some say Emily Dickinson's poem 'Our Journey had Advanced' is about death: nearing the end of life and preparing ourselves for the final hurdle: death itself, pondering whether our destination would be the sweet respite of Heaven, or the harsh torment of Hell.

 

Whether or not the poem truly is about death, when I first read it, it seemed to speak to where we are in our OT journey: our feet are nearing the end of the windy gravel road that has been third year, with just a few final steps before we hit the base of the mountain that will be fourth year.

It seems like we've been studying for eternity, but we know that somewhere ahead lies the glittering dream of Graduation. All that lies between us and that dream is "the forest of the dead", a.k.a fourth year...

We have heard enough horror stories from the current 4ths to dread the incline ahead of us, but at the same time, we know there's no going back...

 

As much as we fear the obstacles that we will encounter in this last stretch, we know that it's going to be one of the most exhilarating journeys of our lives.

The good news is that we will not be going in blind: throughout the year, our experiences have begun equipping us with the tools we need to successfully complete this quest.

The torch of theory illuminates the path we take with each client, ensuring that we're moving in the right direction. 

During this block, I began to understand the value of the using the models and frameworks developed by the various theorists within our field. They provide a guideline that we can use to analyse our clients, as well as plan appropriate intervention.

The two models I have begun to become particularly fond of are the Model of Human Occupation - which ties together all the aspects of a person and their context into a comprehensive whole- and the model of Creative Ability- which allows clients to be placed at a particular level based on their ability to initiate action and participate in various life tasks. MOHO gives me a good mental picture of my client, and indicates where my intervention should be focused: on changing the environment to enable occupation, or on changing the person's skill or routines to allow them to perform a task better.

MoCA allows me to place my client at a level of participation, which then provides a guideline for determining the principles required for treatment sessions, to ensure it was set at the correct level for each clients. MoCA also gave an idea of the way a client was likely to present in each situation, allowing their response to be predicted, to a certain degree, which I found helpful.

 

Beyond theoretical frameworks, this block taught me the importance of research. Living in the 'information generation', we have access to almost unlimited bodies of knowledge online, not to mention the range of physical resources available in the library. The barrier to seeking knowledge is no longer so much the lack of resources, as the lack of motivation. I can attest to this, as there are books I have borrowed (and accumulated numerous library fines on...) that have sat on my desk unread for weeks at a time; articles I have downloaded and transferred to my 'OT Resource' folder without taking a moment to peruse them; and stacks of OT notes from previous students cluttering up my cupboards that I have yet to organise.

However, when I do eventually sit myself down to go through some of these resources, I find that it has a distinct effect on the way I think through my case, as it highlights aspects of a particular condition or way of looking at a particular phenomenon that I had never considered previously. With my current clients, both diagnosed with intellectual impairment, reading up on the condition highlighted areas of concern that I had not previously anticipated, such as the wide range of social implications associated with the condition. I also found that thorough research allows me to be able to justify my intervention, improving my confidence in my own abilities.

As Leonardo da Vinci said,

"He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast".

With the wellbeing of human beings in our hands, it's an immense responsibility to ensure we do the necessary research regarding client diagnoses, as well as keep ahead of emerging data that could affect the way we function in the professional domain. This is one aspect I have made a commitment to improve on, as although I have done more research in this one fieldwork block than I have in my two and a half prior years combined, I don't feel I have done justice to the resources I have at my disposal.

Another tool I have gathered through my travels within the wonderful realm of Psychosocial block is the importance of teamwork and collaboration with supervisors. Just as company makes a journey so much less interminable, so does having the support of colleagues and supervisors make fieldwork bearable. It goes without saying that there is a lifespan's worth of experience that we can pick up from our supervisors, but what I have begun to realise is that there is a lot we can learn from each other as well. We all interpret the world in different, unique ways, and sometimes the way someone else understands something resonates with me, and gives me an entirely deeper perspective on it. Listening to presentations on Tuesday, I was awed at the level of creativity and complexity at which each person had planned their intervention. Our minds had been pushed further than ever before, and they had begun to expand.

 

Every journey needs a solid plan. Without an idea of where we're headed, we may just fall over a canyon into the deep depths of burnout. I know that time-management is not my strong suit, so my planning for the road ahead needs to start now. From small aspects like leaving home half an hour earlier so I have enough time to park perfectly between the lines without rushing up to lectures like a maniac (which is crazy considering I live close enough to see campus from my garden) to larger aspects, like planning assignments and studying for tests earlier, so that my time spent on each task doesn't end up looking like a severely negatively skewed bell-shaped curve teetering on the tip of a mountain of stress... (I recently learnt that stress kills brain cells... which explains why I've been forgetti...)

 

 

 

I have cleared my holiday schedule (more-or-less...) so that I can review my Theory again, from anatomy and physiology to core OT concepts. I refuse to settle for being a merely mediocre OT, but rising above that will take effort: a lot of effort and discipline. My English teacher used to remind us often about being self-disciplined; when we would go over the assigned word-count in essays, she would warn us not to be 'self-indulgent'. I think the same advice needs to be applied here, to control my own life, so that I can still maintain the same balance (or attempt at balance, at least) of academic-social-sport going into fourth year, to ensure that I still lead a life worth living inbetween the demands of my course.

 

 

So as I gather myself for the last few steps of third year, and brace myself for the climb ahead, I'm thankful to be sharing this journey with so many amazing, different classmates. We may not have the same perspective all the time (and some of us have distinct weird streaks...) but that's part of what makes us get along so well. As I pack my torches of theory, and batteries of balance, I will remember to add a table-cloth of time management and canteen of collaboration to the prac-pack of my OT trek...