April 30, 2024 • 20 mins
In this episode of "Animals & Aquatics," host Gina wraps up Occupational Therapy Month with reflections on the month's journey and plans for what's next. She delves into strengths-based programming, exploring its impact on both clients and teams, while sharing strategies for effective therapy. Gina also discusses the transition from winter to spring and the preparations for summer programming. Listen in for insights on maximizing client success, balancing team strengths, and navigating upcoming challenges.
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Microphone (3- Logitech USB (00:04):
Hi, thanks for being with me today.
We are here to wrap upoccupational therapy month.
And boy, has it been a month?
I don't know about you, but I amtired at the end of this month.
And I'm excited to start lookingforward to may and what is
coming up next?
Let's get started.
(00:41):
Hi, welcome to animals andaquatics I'm Gina, your host.
I'm glad you're here with ustoday.
We have been celebratingoccupational therapy all month,
and we've been traveling withour best friend, the
occupational therapy practiceframework, otherwise known as
the OT P F as I like to say,it's an occupational therapy
(01:01):
education in short format, and Ifound it so helpful in a variety
of ways.
From evaluations tointerventions, to designing
field work programs and helpingguide my documentation.
There are so many applicationsfor the OTPF and I hope you've
enjoyed the journey along withme.
Now that we are coming to theend of occupational therapy
(01:25):
month and coming to the end ofApril.
I feel like it's a really goodtime to reflect on the
conclusion of winter and toreally start thinking about
spring.
And what's coming next.
I know that we're starting toprepare a lot of our summer
programming and getting ourclients enrolled for summer
sessions that are going tostart.
(01:46):
The last week in June, we aregoing to take a week off right
before the end of June and gocamping for a week.
So that's going to be our littleand of the spring and kicking
off summer vacation.
And right now, really, for me asa professor in an OTA program,
this is a busy season in school.
(02:09):
We have three to four weeksleft, three weeks of classes.
And one week for finals.
And so there's really a lot aswe condense into the end of the
year.
And start to focus on finalsright.
Getting ready for finals.
And Being an academia.
That means that there's a lot ofpreparatory work going on for me
(02:30):
and I think that's contributingto this.
end of April just.
A little bit of a little not alet down.
But an ending here.
As we finish celebratingoccupational therapy month and
all the business fromconferences in March, then going
(02:51):
right into April's occupationaltherapy month and.
Into like wrapping up thesemester.
So that's where we're at rightnow.
And we're really starting tolook at what do we need to do to
be ready for summer.
What do we need to do to makesure we have everything that we
want to run smoothly throughoutthe summer prepared.
(03:13):
And if you have been listeningfor a while, or if you know a
little bit about me, Then youknow that I run two online
programs.
One is a clinical mentorship andthe other one is a business
bootcamp called business barnraising.
And that's coming up in June.
So I'm also preparing for thatas well.
So there's a number of differentthings going on.
(03:35):
As we wrap up occupationaltherapy month.
One of the things I'd like totouch on is strengths-based
programming.
And I'd like to talk about thatboth from the client side.
As well as from the team side.
So let's start with the clientside.
Now, strengths based therapy hasdefinitely gained a lot of
(03:56):
momentum.
And it is a change from when wetypically look at more deficit
based programming and I think.
A lot of us were taught or havethat understanding and comfort
area in looking at where theclient's weak areas are and
(04:16):
looking at building those areasup.
But when we look at strengthsbased programming, It's
important to look at areas thatthey already have strong skills
where they are functioning well,and that might be if we're
working in pediatrics- at agelevel.
Same as peers.
If we're talking about mentalhealth, that might be an area
(04:39):
where they have more confidencewhere they're still functioning
well in their life.
That could be ADL's IADL's itcould be education or work,
right.
It could be a variety ofdifferent areas that they might
be doing really well in.
And we want to take note ofthese again, it's often.
Easier for us sometimes to lookat the areas that someone is
(05:03):
struggling and saying, okay,these are the areas that you're
struggling.
These are the areas that youwant to improve.
But strengths-based programming.
If we get really to the heart ofstrengths-based therapy
approach, it's looking at whereare they doing well, how can we
expand that?
So that way they have more lifesatisfaction.
(05:25):
They have more joy in theirlives.
They have more things to lookforward to.
And whether we're talking aboutchildren, whether we're talking
about adults or even olderadults, having more happiness,
joy and things to look forwardto in our lives is something
that would benefit all of us.
And when we can focus on thethings that we do, well, the
things that are going right.
(05:46):
The things that are importantand meaningful to us, then we
can come at that from thatstrengths-based approach.
And.
Often, when we think about thestrengths-based approach, we
think of using the strengths toimprove the weaknesses.
And I like to think about thisfrom a sensory context, because
(06:07):
the sensory integration frame ofreference is often a place that
I go.
And if I'm looking at a sensoryprofile, I might look and see
where they have some strengths.
And if that's in vision, becausea lot of clients rate will have
strengths in vision.
Then I know that I can count onthat visual sense to bring along
(06:28):
the other areas that they'restruggling in.
So I can introduce a newactivity or concept visually
where they're going to be reallystrong and then we can practice
it by integrating the othersenses, maybe like auditory.
So bringing in then auditorydirections.
After they're able to follow avisual prompt, or I can put some
(06:48):
multisensory input into it and Ihave a movement component to it,
as well as the visual component.
And when I think aboutstrengths-based therapy, that's
often the way.
That comes to mind first, right.
Is to take the area that theyhave a strengthen and use it to
bring along the areas thatthey're struggling in.
(07:10):
But we can take a deeperapproach to strengths-based
programming and really focus onexpanding the areas that they
have strength in.
And sometimes this feels reallycounter-intuitive.
Our brain wants to say"yeah.
But what about the areas thatthey're struggling in?: Those
(07:32):
are the areas that I've beentaught to provide intervention
in.
Those are the areas maybe that aparent is really concerned
about.
That their fine motor skillsaren't as strong as their gross
motor skills and their socialskills.
And we can think about, we canspend a lot of time working on
their fine motor skills,certainly and we can make some
(07:54):
improvements in their fine motorskills after all those OTs.
Right.
That's an area that we're knownfor.
But we can also take time tocelebrate their strong, gross
motor and social skills.
And through that, we may alsoimprove some of the fine motor
skills through some of theactivities that this client made
(08:16):
you with peers.
If we're looking at those socialskills or ways to strengthen the
arm, hand and shoulder throughthose gross motor activities.
And we know that that can havean impact on those fine motor
skills too.
And we're really taking thingsthat the client is motivated to
do.
So that MOHO approach.
They are excited and passionateabout and when we think about a
(08:40):
caregiver or a parent bringingtheir child to a therapy
session, we can think about howexciting it is for them to bring
their child when the child isexcited.
And they're asking like, oh, isit OT?
Is.
OT today.
All right, this is this an OTday.
And when the parent can answer.
Yes.
And the child's excited andthey're motivated to go.
(09:03):
That is tapping into thatstrengths based approach.
when we think about it from atherapy perspective, hopefully
that can make a little bit ofsense to you.
And I'm curious to know if youare using.
Truly as strengths-basedapproach.
If it's something maybe you'vejust heard of, but aren't sure
how to implement.
Or if you're using the client'sstrengths to bring along more of
(09:27):
the areas that they have aweakness in.
So I'm curious about thatbecause we've certainly been
expanding our understanding andgrowth in that strengths-based
approach.
Now for our teams.
This is something that in ourclinical mentorship, we've
really been doing a deep dive inbecause no matter where you are.
(09:52):
In a niche practice, whetherthat's hippotherapy aquatics
animal assisted therapy,nature-based therapy, this is
not.
Me.
The client and the clinic.
It doesn't work that way.
We have other people on ourteams and we need to look at how
do we meet their needs.
(10:12):
And a lot of times the otherpeople on our teams, our
volunteers.
And that brings a whole notheraspect to it.
Now we have paid team members,right?
That may be a paid horsehandler.
It may be a paid swim instructoror deck hand in the aquatic
environment, it may be a doghandler.
(10:32):
Who is coming with their therapydog.
And so that's a team.
That they're coming, that you'repaying them to come to your
therapy session.
Or all of these positions mayalso be volunteer.
We also have fieldwork studentsthat we often interact with and
right.
They're coming to work with usas well and to learn from us.
(10:56):
To think about what strengthsthey're coming to us with is
important.
Why are they volunteering?
Why do they want this job?
Why are they working with us?
What do they hope to get out ofit?
And when we start to take thatapproach, we can find out what
they really love about whatthey're doing.
What are their top two or threethings that they do when they're
(11:20):
with us?
And we can look to prioritizethose types of activities for
them to help increase theirsatisfaction, to give them more
education, mentoringopportunities.
In those areas that they get alot of enjoyment out of and we
can converse.
Really ask about some of theareas that they don't enjoy as
(11:43):
much.
And we can see if we can findalternatives in those areas.
In some cases, this may seemlike, oh, of course, they're
gonna get to do all the stuffthat they want to do and then
someone else has to pick up thestuff that they don't want to
do.
Great.
How is that going to work out?
And.
It's always interesting.
When we come at strengths fromthis angle, because there's an
(12:08):
assumption that what one personlikes to do or what you like to
do, or what you find mostmeaningful is also going to be
what your other team membersfind most meaningful.
And in fact, the best teams arecomposed of people who find
different things valuable orfind different things
meaningful, or have strengths indifferent areas.
(12:30):
If all of your team members havea lot of strengths in horse
skills, but they don't have alot of strengths in people
skills.
That's not a very well-roundedteam.
And so you'll have all ofwhether that's your volunteers
or your therapy staff that areall grouping towards doing the
same types of activities.
(12:52):
And leaving weaknesses orskilled gaps in your team.
So especially when we start tolook at a team approach, we're
really looking at fittingdifferent pieces together,
knowing that all of thesedifferent pieces are not the
same shape, meaning that theydon't have strengths in the same
area.
And when we can get ones thatfit well together, then we can
(13:14):
find people who have, stronghorse or animal skills, people
that have strong people skills.
So they can do a really greatjob interacting with families
that we're working with or withour clients.
We can have people who havereally good detail oriented
skills.
So they might be helping us withour scheduling double-checking
(13:35):
checking clients in, they mightbe more of a front end.
Staff desk, administrator typeof person.
And as we compose that teamtogether, we're looking at.
Where do we have a skills gap?
And do we need to hire for thatskills gap?
Can we ask our current teammembers to see if anyone enjoys
(13:59):
that area or would like to learnmore about that area.
So they might be able to fill ina skills gap that way.
Rather than just assuming that,well, this has to get done and
I'm going to have to do it.
Even though it's something I loI don't really like it.
I'm not very good at it.
Or.
We have two.
Assign one of our other teammembers to do it.
(14:20):
And they don't like doing iteither.
Right.
They're not going to be verygood at it.
And we can really see where thishurts practices when this is
their front end person, or thisis their face of their therapy
business.
Because one of the maincomplaints I see from families
locally is from like apediatrician's office, right?
(14:42):
Is when the front end, the frontdesk people are.
Not happy.
They're not pleasant.
They're hard to deal with.
They make mistakes in schedulingappointments.
Those types of things are reallydifficult for clients or
families.
To manage over and over again.
Finding someone who has thatskillset is really important and
(15:06):
something.
That they love to do, right.
They love to interact with theclients.
They always have a smile ontheir face.
They're diligent about.
Checking the schedule, a day ortwo ahead of time and reaching
out to people who may be haven'tscheduled in a while.
People who love that type ofwork are going to be your best
face or your front end people.
(15:28):
There's again, those, the otherpeople who they just want to be
with the horses, the animals,they want to be like the behind
the scenes, people, those peopleare great for getting things
done at your facility.
They're more than happy to workin the barn or to take care of
the animals, to do those typesof activities.
(15:49):
Don't put them in the front end.
They're not going to be happythere.
So when we look at teams andmanaging volunteers, this is a
great approach to learn moreabout.
And to really start to put intopractice, we go over some nice
tools.
That help assess what are teammembers enjoy and what they're
(16:09):
good at.
And then we look at where wehave skills gaps, and we look at
different creative ways to fillthose.
So if that's something also thatyou've been doing, I would love
to hear about it.
You can always send me a messageor send me a DM and let me know
if this is something that you'vebeen doing or something that you
feel like you really could growmore in.
(16:30):
Because again, no matter whichniche area we're in.
We are working in a team and weneed to have team members that
understand what our strengthsare and really play to our
strengths.
And we need to understand whattheir strengths are and.
That will contribute to theiroverall happiness and enjoyment
of working with us.
And that's especially importantin our settings because it does
(16:53):
take awhile to provide trainingto new team members or
volunteers.
And we want to keep them withus.
We want to keep them happilywith us.
For as long as we can.
So when we think about.
Incorporating a strength spaceapproach, whether that's with
clients or whether that's withour team members, we want to
(17:14):
first find a way to assess orevaluate what their strengths
are.
And we can look at.
What strengths are through acouple of different ways.
So what are they good at?
Where's their performance.
Good.
What do they enjoy?
What do they look forward todoing before?
(17:34):
Doing it.
What do they enjoy doing itwhile they're doing it?
They achieve a state of flow.
And what do they reflectpositively on?
Particularly if we can find outwhat they reflect positively on
that's happened weeks or monthsago, it left a lasting
impression.
And then once we find out whatsomeone's strengths are.
(17:54):
Then we want to find ways tomake sure that they can do more
of what they're strong at.
We can see the greatest areas ofgrowth.
In building up strengths, givingtraining for our volunteers or
our team members in areas thatthey're excited and passionate
about.
And we can help our clients growin other areas as well as find
(18:18):
more joy and satisfaction intheir lives by bolstering areas
of strength for them.
Those are the areas that they'regoing to go on and look for
recreational activities oremployment activities in their
future.
If we can really help themunderstand.
Where their strengths are playto their strengths and help
(18:40):
direct them in those ways thatis going to have a long lasting
and meaningful effect for them.
So as we wrap up occupationaltherapy month, And reflect on
different ways to integrate.
Frameworks formats and ways tohelp us in our practice.
(19:00):
Especially, as we communicateoutside of the OT world, we
communicate outside of our nichewith animals or in aquatics.
We want to find ways to reallymake that easy for us.
It makes us stand out so that wecan talk about the things that
we do.
(19:21):
And the things that we do wellis really an important aspect of
our practice and theoccupational therapy practice
framework is a great tool forthat.
You can certainly go back andlisten to our April is
occupational therapy monthepisodes for that.
If you are excited about whathearing what's coming next.
(19:41):
We're going to be taking a lookinto some of the aspects of.
Really the nuts and bolts ofwhat's going on in getting
started.
Now, remember at the beginningwe had our getting started
series and those were things toconsider.
Now we're going to talk a littlebit more of that operational
kind of tools that you can use,things that you can do.
(20:04):
We're going to have some guestspeakers come on for our next
month to introduce you to someof the things that they're
doing, and hopefully there'll behelpful and insightful for you
as well.
So I'm looking for, to may andI'm looking for, to the end of
the semester, and I'm lookingforward to summer.
Thanks for listening today.
(20:25):
If you haven't already, pleasego ahead and subscribe to the
podcasts that way you'll get ournext episode coming out.
And if you could take a momentand leave a review for us, that
would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Hi, thanks for being with me today.
We are here to wrap upoccupational therapy month.
And boy, has it been a month?
I don't know about you, but I amtired at the end of this month.
And I'm excited to start lookingforward to may and what is
coming up next?
Let's get started.
(00:41):
Hi, welcome to animals andaquatics I'm Gina, your host.
I'm glad you're here with ustoday.
We have been celebratingoccupational therapy all month,
and we've been traveling withour best friend, the
occupational therapy practiceframework, otherwise known as
the OT P F as I like to say,it's an occupational therapy
(01:01):
education in short format, and Ifound it so helpful in a variety
of ways.
From evaluations tointerventions, to designing
field work programs and helpingguide my documentation.
There are so many applicationsfor the OTPF and I hope you've
enjoyed the journey along withme.
Now that we are coming to theend of occupational therapy
(01:25):
month and coming to the end ofApril.
I feel like it's a really goodtime to reflect on the
conclusion of winter and toreally start thinking about
spring.
And what's coming next.
I know that we're starting toprepare a lot of our summer
programming and getting ourclients enrolled for summer
sessions that are going tostart.
(01:46):
The last week in June, we aregoing to take a week off right
before the end of June and gocamping for a week.
So that's going to be our littleand of the spring and kicking
off summer vacation.
And right now, really, for me asa professor in an OTA program,
this is a busy season in school.
(02:09):
We have three to four weeksleft, three weeks of classes.
And one week for finals.
And so there's really a lot aswe condense into the end of the
year.
And start to focus on finalsright.
Getting ready for finals.
And Being an academia.
That means that there's a lot ofpreparatory work going on for me
(02:30):
and I think that's contributingto this.
end of April just.
A little bit of a little not alet down.
But an ending here.
As we finish celebratingoccupational therapy month and
all the business fromconferences in March, then going
(02:51):
right into April's occupationaltherapy month and.
Into like wrapping up thesemester.
So that's where we're at rightnow.
And we're really starting tolook at what do we need to do to
be ready for summer.
What do we need to do to makesure we have everything that we
want to run smoothly throughoutthe summer prepared.
(03:13):
And if you have been listeningfor a while, or if you know a
little bit about me, Then youknow that I run two online
programs.
One is a clinical mentorship andthe other one is a business
bootcamp called business barnraising.
And that's coming up in June.
So I'm also preparing for thatas well.
So there's a number of differentthings going on.
(03:35):
As we wrap up occupationaltherapy month.
One of the things I'd like totouch on is strengths-based
programming.
And I'd like to talk about thatboth from the client side.
As well as from the team side.
So let's start with the clientside.
Now, strengths based therapy hasdefinitely gained a lot of
(03:56):
momentum.
And it is a change from when wetypically look at more deficit
based programming and I think.
A lot of us were taught or havethat understanding and comfort
area in looking at where theclient's weak areas are and
(04:16):
looking at building those areasup.
But when we look at strengthsbased programming, It's
important to look at areas thatthey already have strong skills
where they are functioning well,and that might be if we're
working in pediatrics- at agelevel.
Same as peers.
If we're talking about mentalhealth, that might be an area
(04:39):
where they have more confidencewhere they're still functioning
well in their life.
That could be ADL's IADL's itcould be education or work,
right.
It could be a variety ofdifferent areas that they might
be doing really well in.
And we want to take note ofthese again, it's often.
Easier for us sometimes to lookat the areas that someone is
(05:03):
struggling and saying, okay,these are the areas that you're
struggling.
These are the areas that youwant to improve.
But strengths-based programming.
If we get really to the heart ofstrengths-based therapy
approach, it's looking at whereare they doing well, how can we
expand that?
So that way they have more lifesatisfaction.
(05:25):
They have more joy in theirlives.
They have more things to lookforward to.
And whether we're talking aboutchildren, whether we're talking
about adults or even olderadults, having more happiness,
joy and things to look forwardto in our lives is something
that would benefit all of us.
And when we can focus on thethings that we do, well, the
things that are going right.
(05:46):
The things that are importantand meaningful to us, then we
can come at that from thatstrengths-based approach.
And.
Often, when we think about thestrengths-based approach, we
think of using the strengths toimprove the weaknesses.
And I like to think about thisfrom a sensory context, because
(06:07):
the sensory integration frame ofreference is often a place that
I go.
And if I'm looking at a sensoryprofile, I might look and see
where they have some strengths.
And if that's in vision, becausea lot of clients rate will have
strengths in vision.
Then I know that I can count onthat visual sense to bring along
(06:28):
the other areas that they'restruggling in.
So I can introduce a newactivity or concept visually
where they're going to be reallystrong and then we can practice
it by integrating the othersenses, maybe like auditory.
So bringing in then auditorydirections.
After they're able to follow avisual prompt, or I can put some
(06:48):
multisensory input into it and Ihave a movement component to it,
as well as the visual component.
And when I think aboutstrengths-based therapy, that's
often the way.
That comes to mind first, right.
Is to take the area that theyhave a strengthen and use it to
bring along the areas thatthey're struggling in.
(07:10):
But we can take a deeperapproach to strengths-based
programming and really focus onexpanding the areas that they
have strength in.
And sometimes this feels reallycounter-intuitive.
Our brain wants to say"yeah.
But what about the areas thatthey're struggling in?: Those
(07:32):
are the areas that I've beentaught to provide intervention
in.
Those are the areas maybe that aparent is really concerned
about.
That their fine motor skillsaren't as strong as their gross
motor skills and their socialskills.
And we can think about, we canspend a lot of time working on
their fine motor skills,certainly and we can make some
(07:54):
improvements in their fine motorskills after all those OTs.
Right.
That's an area that we're knownfor.
But we can also take time tocelebrate their strong, gross
motor and social skills.
And through that, we may alsoimprove some of the fine motor
skills through some of theactivities that this client made
(08:16):
you with peers.
If we're looking at those socialskills or ways to strengthen the
arm, hand and shoulder throughthose gross motor activities.
And we know that that can havean impact on those fine motor
skills too.
And we're really taking thingsthat the client is motivated to
do.
So that MOHO approach.
They are excited and passionateabout and when we think about a
(08:40):
caregiver or a parent bringingtheir child to a therapy
session, we can think about howexciting it is for them to bring
their child when the child isexcited.
And they're asking like, oh, isit OT?
Is.
OT today.
All right, this is this an OTday.
And when the parent can answer.
Yes.
And the child's excited andthey're motivated to go.
(09:03):
That is tapping into thatstrengths based approach.
when we think about it from atherapy perspective, hopefully
that can make a little bit ofsense to you.
And I'm curious to know if youare using.
Truly as strengths-basedapproach.
If it's something maybe you'vejust heard of, but aren't sure
how to implement.
Or if you're using the client'sstrengths to bring along more of
(09:27):
the areas that they have aweakness in.
So I'm curious about thatbecause we've certainly been
expanding our understanding andgrowth in that strengths-based
approach.
Now for our teams.
This is something that in ourclinical mentorship, we've
really been doing a deep dive inbecause no matter where you are.
(09:52):
In a niche practice, whetherthat's hippotherapy aquatics
animal assisted therapy,nature-based therapy, this is
not.
Me.
The client and the clinic.
It doesn't work that way.
We have other people on ourteams and we need to look at how
do we meet their needs.
(10:12):
And a lot of times the otherpeople on our teams, our
volunteers.
And that brings a whole notheraspect to it.
Now we have paid team members,right?
That may be a paid horsehandler.
It may be a paid swim instructoror deck hand in the aquatic
environment, it may be a doghandler.
(10:32):
Who is coming with their therapydog.
And so that's a team.
That they're coming, that you'repaying them to come to your
therapy session.
Or all of these positions mayalso be volunteer.
We also have fieldwork studentsthat we often interact with and
right.
They're coming to work with usas well and to learn from us.
(10:56):
To think about what strengthsthey're coming to us with is
important.
Why are they volunteering?
Why do they want this job?
Why are they working with us?
What do they hope to get out ofit?
And when we start to take thatapproach, we can find out what
they really love about whatthey're doing.
What are their top two or threethings that they do when they're
(11:20):
with us?
And we can look to prioritizethose types of activities for
them to help increase theirsatisfaction, to give them more
education, mentoringopportunities.
In those areas that they get alot of enjoyment out of and we
can converse.
Really ask about some of theareas that they don't enjoy as
(11:43):
much.
And we can see if we can findalternatives in those areas.
In some cases, this may seemlike, oh, of course, they're
gonna get to do all the stuffthat they want to do and then
someone else has to pick up thestuff that they don't want to
do.
Great.
How is that going to work out?
And.
It's always interesting.
When we come at strengths fromthis angle, because there's an
(12:08):
assumption that what one personlikes to do or what you like to
do, or what you find mostmeaningful is also going to be
what your other team membersfind most meaningful.
And in fact, the best teams arecomposed of people who find
different things valuable orfind different things
meaningful, or have strengths indifferent areas.
(12:30):
If all of your team members havea lot of strengths in horse
skills, but they don't have alot of strengths in people
skills.
That's not a very well-roundedteam.
And so you'll have all ofwhether that's your volunteers
or your therapy staff that areall grouping towards doing the
same types of activities.
(12:52):
And leaving weaknesses orskilled gaps in your team.
So especially when we start tolook at a team approach, we're
really looking at fittingdifferent pieces together,
knowing that all of thesedifferent pieces are not the
same shape, meaning that theydon't have strengths in the same
area.
And when we can get ones thatfit well together, then we can
(13:14):
find people who have, stronghorse or animal skills, people
that have strong people skills.
So they can do a really greatjob interacting with families
that we're working with or withour clients.
We can have people who havereally good detail oriented
skills.
So they might be helping us withour scheduling double-checking
(13:35):
checking clients in, they mightbe more of a front end.
Staff desk, administrator typeof person.
And as we compose that teamtogether, we're looking at.
Where do we have a skills gap?
And do we need to hire for thatskills gap?
Can we ask our current teammembers to see if anyone enjoys
(13:59):
that area or would like to learnmore about that area.
So they might be able to fill ina skills gap that way.
Rather than just assuming that,well, this has to get done and
I'm going to have to do it.
Even though it's something I loI don't really like it.
I'm not very good at it.
Or.
We have two.
Assign one of our other teammembers to do it.
(14:20):
And they don't like doing iteither.
Right.
They're not going to be verygood at it.
And we can really see where thishurts practices when this is
their front end person, or thisis their face of their therapy
business.
Because one of the maincomplaints I see from families
locally is from like apediatrician's office, right?
(14:42):
Is when the front end, the frontdesk people are.
Not happy.
They're not pleasant.
They're hard to deal with.
They make mistakes in schedulingappointments.
Those types of things are reallydifficult for clients or
families.
To manage over and over again.
Finding someone who has thatskillset is really important and
(15:06):
something.
That they love to do, right.
They love to interact with theclients.
They always have a smile ontheir face.
They're diligent about.
Checking the schedule, a day ortwo ahead of time and reaching
out to people who may be haven'tscheduled in a while.
People who love that type ofwork are going to be your best
face or your front end people.
(15:28):
There's again, those, the otherpeople who they just want to be
with the horses, the animals,they want to be like the behind
the scenes, people, those peopleare great for getting things
done at your facility.
They're more than happy to workin the barn or to take care of
the animals, to do those typesof activities.
(15:49):
Don't put them in the front end.
They're not going to be happythere.
So when we look at teams andmanaging volunteers, this is a
great approach to learn moreabout.
And to really start to put intopractice, we go over some nice
tools.
That help assess what are teammembers enjoy and what they're
(16:09):
good at.
And then we look at where wehave skills gaps, and we look at
different creative ways to fillthose.
So if that's something also thatyou've been doing, I would love
to hear about it.
You can always send me a messageor send me a DM and let me know
if this is something that you'vebeen doing or something that you
feel like you really could growmore in.
(16:30):
Because again, no matter whichniche area we're in.
We are working in a team and weneed to have team members that
understand what our strengthsare and really play to our
strengths.
And we need to understand whattheir strengths are and.
That will contribute to theiroverall happiness and enjoyment
of working with us.
And that's especially importantin our settings because it does
(16:53):
take awhile to provide trainingto new team members or
volunteers.
And we want to keep them withus.
We want to keep them happilywith us.
For as long as we can.
So when we think about.
Incorporating a strength spaceapproach, whether that's with
clients or whether that's withour team members, we want to
(17:14):
first find a way to assess orevaluate what their strengths
are.
And we can look at.
What strengths are through acouple of different ways.
So what are they good at?
Where's their performance.
Good.
What do they enjoy?
What do they look forward todoing before?
(17:34):
Doing it.
What do they enjoy doing itwhile they're doing it?
They achieve a state of flow.
And what do they reflectpositively on?
Particularly if we can find outwhat they reflect positively on
that's happened weeks or monthsago, it left a lasting
impression.
And then once we find out whatsomeone's strengths are.
(17:54):
Then we want to find ways tomake sure that they can do more
of what they're strong at.
We can see the greatest areas ofgrowth.
In building up strengths, givingtraining for our volunteers or
our team members in areas thatthey're excited and passionate
about.
And we can help our clients growin other areas as well as find
(18:18):
more joy and satisfaction intheir lives by bolstering areas
of strength for them.
Those are the areas that they'regoing to go on and look for
recreational activities oremployment activities in their
future.
If we can really help themunderstand.
Where their strengths are playto their strengths and help
(18:40):
direct them in those ways thatis going to have a long lasting
and meaningful effect for them.
So as we wrap up occupationaltherapy month, And reflect on
different ways to integrate.
Frameworks formats and ways tohelp us in our practice.
(19:00):
Especially, as we communicateoutside of the OT world, we
communicate outside of our nichewith animals or in aquatics.
We want to find ways to reallymake that easy for us.
It makes us stand out so that wecan talk about the things that
we do.
(19:21):
And the things that we do wellis really an important aspect of
our practice and theoccupational therapy practice
framework is a great tool forthat.
You can certainly go back andlisten to our April is
occupational therapy monthepisodes for that.
If you are excited about whathearing what's coming next.
(19:41):
We're going to be taking a lookinto some of the aspects of.
Really the nuts and bolts ofwhat's going on in getting
started.
Now, remember at the beginningwe had our getting started
series and those were things toconsider.
Now we're going to talk a littlebit more of that operational
kind of tools that you can use,things that you can do.
(20:04):
We're going to have some guestspeakers come on for our next
month to introduce you to someof the things that they're
doing, and hopefully there'll behelpful and insightful for you
as well.
So I'm looking for, to may andI'm looking for, to the end of
the semester, and I'm lookingforward to summer.
Thanks for listening today.
(20:25):
If you haven't already, pleasego ahead and subscribe to the
podcasts that way you'll get ournext episode coming out.
And if you could take a momentand leave a review for us, that
would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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