OT 640 Debriefing

OT 532 Peer-Reviewed Journal Article

Title: Enjoyable Company in Sharing Stroke Experiences- Lifestyle Groups After Stroke

This study developed, implemented, and evaluated an intervention on person-centered lifestyle groups after stroke in Norway. Their emphasis was on the connection between human occupation, well-being, and health. The overall aim of the lifestyle groups was to promote well-being, occupations, and social participation for older adults who have had a mild to moderate stroke. Lifestyle groups were held once a week for 9 months and facilitated by an occupational therapist. Each group had 2-8 members. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the experience of participating in lifestyle groups. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The study does not explicitly state how many people were interviewed; however, all participants interviewed reported enjoyable company in sharing stroke experiences, sharing knowledgeable interests, pushing and forcing each other forward, and reflecting on their self-worth. Overall, participants reported a sense of belonging that developed through the process of other group members and group leaders paying attention to and valuing their ideas. Each participant felt that they were being pushed and encouraged to actively participate and reflect by the group leader and other participants. When it came to self-worth, participants shared they learned how to take responsibility for and have control over their daily occupations. Participants were encouraged to be active in between meetings and to discuss what they did at their next meeting. Group topics were selected by members, so participants felt they were more willing to participate because it was something they were interested in. The most important aspect of the lifestyle groups for participants was developing a sense of belonging through engaging in occupations together; this generated a supportive and inclusive environment that showed participants how to engage actively and find different ways and new solutions for their situations.
For me, the most important takeaway from this article is that people who participated in these lifestyle groups were able to engage in meaningful occupations and find themselves again after having a stroke. I think that the lifestyle groups discussed were guided by the psychodynamic approach and MOHO. Reflection and insight were important, as well as making sure participants were motivated to participate. This was done by having the group members pick what they wanted the topic to be for each meeting. Participants were encouraged to share and be open with each other. Most participants reported they were able to discuss things about their stroke that they had not been able to with friends and family at group meetings. I feel that this article encompasses a lot of what we learned in this Group's course. As group facilitators, it is important that we create a group environment that is inclusive and where no one is afraid to share. Having read this article, I have a better understanding of how group interventions can have a lasting effect. Through increasing social participation and promoting well-being and health through occupations, group interventions can greatly contribute to a person's overall physiological and psychological well-being. In the future, I hope I get the opportunity to facilitate a lifestyle group and be able to see the positive impact group interventions can have on a person's life.


Anne Lund, Mali Melhus & Unni Sveen. (2018). Enjoyable company in sharing stroke experiences; lifestyle groups after stroke. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 25(2), 127-135. doi: 10.1080/11038128.2017.1341958

12-Step Meeting Attendance OT 532

I attended a Narcotics' Anonymous (NA) meeting on 2/28/18 with another classmate. The title of the meeting was You + Me = We and was held in a room on the second floor of a church building. The group members and facilitator sat around a table so everyone was able to see each other. I think the environment may have had a small impact on the session. You could hear planes taking off and landing because of the location's close proximity to the airport, so sometimes when someone was speaking it could be hard to hear what they were saying and could be distracting. There were 4 members who attended the meeting and 1 facilitator. The facilitator began the group by having each member recite the serenity prayer, read the purpose of the group, how the group works, and the 12 rules of the group. The facilitator's role was more advisory because he only offered his experiences and assistance when needed but there wasn't much structure or goals for the group. He asked the group what they wanted to talk about today, and one of the members said she wanted to talk about meditation. The facilitator shared his story first, which I think encouraged other members to open up and share their feelings and insights. I think the session was very therapeutic because the members were able to open up and share their difficulties and temptations they've had to use drugs. They were also honest about their experience with the 12 steps and how they felt they were progressing. The group members were supportive of each other and were able to relate to each other when it came to certain situations. The group was very spiritual and the facilitator allowed moments of silence and meditation. I think this was a psychodynamic group because the discussion was focused on expressing emotions and how members felt which required insight, as well as spirituality.

Post-Group Facilitation Reflection #2: Life Skills OT 532

Lauren O'Brian
2/23/18
"Managing Stress"

Written Group Plan: 10
Introduction: 9
Activity: 10
Sharing: 9
Processing: 9
Generalizing: 9
Group Motivation: 8
Limi Setting: 10
Application: 9
Summary: 10
Total Leadership Score: 93

The group I facilitated was about stress and what strategies could help with managing stress. I started by having the group members introduce themselves and say what their current stress level was on a scale of 1-10 and why. Next, the group members participated in a warm-up activity that involved the group members standing in a circle and tossing around balls to each other in a sequence. This activity helped the group members reflect on what stress can feel/be like sometimes. For the main activity, the group members made dreamcatchers. I asked the group to think about stress areas they have or currently have in their life and to write/draw them in the center of their dreamcatcher. Group members had the opportunity to share their stress areas if they were comfortable. Then the group members "trapped" their stress areas by gluing down strip of paper over the center of their dreamcatchers. I then asked the group members to think about strategies to help manage or relieve stress and write/draw them around the outside of their dreamcatcher. Group members had the opportunity to share their strategies with the rest of the group if they were comfortable. I then asked the group members to discuss how to keep situations from becoming too stressful in the first place and what strategies they could use to remind themselves to use stress management techniques in their daily lives. I think this group facilitation was good for me to grow in some of the areas I felt I was weaker in in my first group facilitation. I think some of my strengths were explaining the purpose of the group and the activities and listening to what the group members had to say. I also feel that I improved in applying and generalizing what happened in the session. I think I could still improve when it comes to facilitating the group discussion and pointing out similarities and differences in the group members' responses. Overall, I think this was a great experience and I look forward to learning more and improving my ability to facilitate groups.

Leadership Summit OT 532

I met with Katherine and Lauren Leiser to discuss our ideas for our group facilitations. I told them my ideas I had so far for activities to do with the group. I explained that I thought about having the group make stress balls or play a game with stress balls as an icebreaker, and then for the main activity having the group write down things that were in there control and things that were out of there control and discuss how to manage stress. Both of them had great suggestions! They both suggested that I start out by asking the group to introduce themselves and state their current stress level and explain why. Lauren said she thought that a questionnaire related to stress may be a good activity to do. Lauren's topic for her group facilitation is health management and maintenance, and she was still tossing around ideas of what to do. I suggested having the group write down health risk behaviors and then identify strategies to avoid those health risk behaviors. Katherine's topic is leisure participation and exploration. She was researching different activities to do, and I tried to help by also searching for leisure activities she could do with her group. For me the most significant aspect of our leadership summit was listening to their suggestions and hearing their different perspectives about how the group could be facilitated. After our meeting, I changed and modified some of my activities to include their suggestions.

Post-Group Facilitation Reflection: Professionalism OT 532

Group Title: Getting Motivated
Date: 2/12/18

Leadership Evaluation
Written Group Plan: 10
Introduction: 9
Activity: 8
Sharing: 8
Processing: 7
Generalizing: 8
Group Motivation: 9
Limit setting: 10
Application: 8
Summary: 7
Total Leadership Score: 84

This group session was facilitated by me and two other classmates. Our topic was getting motivated and we started by having the group members discuss their favorite motivational movies as an icebreaker. Then we went in to the main activity, which was having the group members identify a problem/challenge they have in their life and write a goal based on that. We had group member think about and discuss actions and behaviors that could limit motivation in their problem area, what motivates them (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation), and strategies to stay motivated to achieve their goal. For me the most significant aspect was getting to facilitate a group session for the first time. I think this was a good learning experience in helping me realize what some of my strengths and weaknesses are as a group leader. I think some of my strengths were listening and paying attention to what each group member had to say, having everything organized before the group session started, and communicating expectations clearly. Having experience leading a group session I now will work on areas I feel I can improve upon as a group facilitator. In the next group session I facilitate I want to  generalize and apply what happened in the session more effectively. I also want to work on sharing and processing by pointing out similarities in group member responses and providing more prompts and questions to stimulate the discussion.

Neuro Note #5: The Crash Reel

     For my last Neuro note I watched "The Crash Reel," which is an HBO documentary about a popular snowboarder named Kevin Pearce. Kevin was training for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver when he had a traumatic brain injury. Before his injury, Kevin was an up-and-coming snowboarder who had just signed with Nike and was Shaun White's biggest rival. Kevin was shaking and unconscious after his injury; he was out for 30 minutes and had blown his left pupil, which is a sign of massive head trauma. Kevin spent 26 days in neuro critical care before he was moved to neuro acute care. He started to make a lot of progress once he was moved to acute care. He wasn't able to speak, but you could tell he understood when his family was talking to him. You could really see how much Kevin's family hurt and struggled after his injury. Kevin's mom said she wanted to hear all the things that would be good, and not have anyone feel sorry for them. As OT's, it is important that we are also there for our client's family to educate and help support them. Kevin's biggest goal was to get back to snowboarding, even though his family and doctors protested. At his 1 year evaluation, the neurologist said that his brain was healing, but there was only so much force it could handle. Any concussion could cause a fatal brain bleed at that point. Kevin still had a lot of trouble with memory, confusion, and fatigue. He said he felt impulsive and that there could be a sensory overload at times. Kevin had nystagmus, so he had surgery to fix both of his eyes. After that surgery, he broke down and said he felt like his situation was never going to get better. At 2 and a half years, Kevin still felt like he couldn't get past his TBI. His memory was only at 4%. All his friends and family tell him that he said inappropriate things and could be irritable, so he hated the way he came across. His double-vision was also still bad, so he had trouble with running into things. At the end of the documentary, Kevin realized that he shouldn't go back to competitive snowboarding after visiting a former snowboarder who had two TBI's. He now speaks about traumatic brain injury and how to prevent it.
     This documentary was eye-opening to what not only a client with a TBI can go through, but their family as well. In learning about TBI in class, I could see the role of OT in many of the challenges that Kevin was facing. An OT would work with him on balance, improving strength and endurance, and addressing social-emotional and behavioral changes. OT would also have helped Kevin with his cognitive functioning, perception of self, and interpersonal relationships. After watching this documentary, I feel I will be able to better sympathize with clients who have a TBI. I would highly recommend watching this documentary.

Link to documentary: https://vid.me/x2HU/the-crash-reel