OT 640 Debriefing Video

Groups: Peer-reviewed Journal Article

For this assignment, I read an article called "Meaning of Occupation-Based Groups for Low-Income Urban Youths Attending After-School Care." Outcomes of this study were to describe the meaning of occupational therapy groups focusing specifically on occupational engagement, group process, and
social-emotional learning specifically looking at low income youth attending after school care. The purpose of this study was to look at the population of youth in low income areas to promote finding pleasure in the "right things to do", structured leisure participation. The group administers made sure that the group was fun in engaging leisure activities within a supportive social context. The youth participating valued being able to have a choice for the different leisure activities within the group setting. Providing client-centered occupations gave the youth choice and creativity resulting in engagement and motivation from the participants. Finding leisure activities that interests youth and children promotes participation and engagement among group members. Because this was a group centered around support, the participants valued expression of feelings as well as coping strategies for anger emotions. 
I think this article was informative because it backs up the foundation of OT saying that being client-centered results in better occupational performance. Because this was a phenomenological qualitative study, the results looked at interview and observations to find themes within the research. I think this is important to be able to identify client's emotions and experience toward the occupational therapy group intervention geared toward age appropriate leisure activities.  In conclusion, when children were offered fun and engaging occupations, occupational balance was facilitated. I think this is important to take with me into practice to always keep in mind that interventions should be based on the client's wants and needs to promote motivation and occupational performance throughout treatment.




Bazyk, S., & Bazyk, J. (2009). Meaning of occupation-based groups for low-income urban youths attending after-school care. American Journal Of Occupational Therapy, 63(1), 69-80.

12 Step Meeting Attendance

I attended Alcoholics Anonymous on February 21 at Second Calvary Episcopal Church with Rachel Scarbrough. Upon arriving, we were greeted by a man making coffee. There ended up being four men that attended the group. One man left after introducing himself. Another one came in late. One didn't speak, and the other got up after sharing his story. Honestly, this AA was very disappointing. It didn't possess any of the qualities that we learned about in class. Not only was the leader hard to understand, but the first fifteen minutes he inappropriately told stories of different relatives overdosing. During his stories, he smiled and laughed throughout making Rachel and I feel uncomfortable and not sure how to react. I do not know what to categorize his role as a facilitator. He did pass out the AA preamble as well as ask someone to read the 12 steps and Daily Reflection. I guess I would say he was a facilitator, but was not very hands on. He did not encourage participants. He possibly even discouraged his group members. He told story after story until one of the group members got very irritated and said, "What's today's topic? Let's get started." The leader reacted by handing him the book that included the Daily Reflection (that we had already read). The man reread the Daily Reflection, gave his testimony, then left the group. Before leaving, he wrote Rachel and I a note that said, "There are better run meetings than this check out the AA meeting schedule online... I suggest Come to Believe on Walnut Grove/union or Two Doors Down on Quince."

I think that this environment impacted this session greatly. Since the session was at noon, I think that is a hard time for people to make the meeting if they work full time. Also, for this location, we had to pay $6 to park which I think would turn people away from coming. This church was very busy with numerous events going on. If you were a person that did not want other people to know you were attending AA, this was not a good place to go. The church was very crowded and the room that AA was hosted in was in the middle of church. There weren't any signs, so the room was hard to find resulting in us having to ask someone where to go for AA, which could be embarrassing for some. In my opinion, this group was not therapeutic at all. It was poorly ran overall, and had no real content. It makes me sad because if someone was searching for help and this is the first AA meeting they attended, they would probably never come back. I would categorize this group as a self-management group because the group members we expected to be self-sustaining in attending, sharing, and following the 12- Steps.

Leadership Summit

The other day a few classmates and I met with Lauren Laborde and Whitney to talk about our upcoming Group Facilitation's. Although we all had different life skills topics, it was still helpful to be able to get their feedback on my upcoming group. Lauren chose Cognitive Behavioral Approach for her group facilitation. When we met, I was conflicted between choosing Cognitive Behavioral and Developmental FoR. Still, I think I could have chosen either approach, however, it was interesting to get her feedback on why she chose that approach. Knowing that other classmates were prepping to facilitate the same day as me put me at ease. Since, we had a test the day prior, we were concerned it would effect our facilitation's, but I think planning for today's group in advance allowed us all to relax a little bit after the test! We brainstormed on activities each of us could use on all of our different groups. I was impressed by my classmates creativity. I enjoyed meeting with my classmates and hearing their creativity. We also shared Pinterest boards that have been helpful throughout school. For me, this meeting was valuable because I got to get my peers perspective on my group protocol. In the future, I think we should meet with peers before we lead a group to gain insight from classmates and facilitate an optimal therapy group session.

Post Group Facilitation Reflection #2

On February 21, I led a group called "Communication that 'Works". I followed my written plan closely and managed to go slightly over the time that I had expected. I began the group by introducing myself, welcoming everyone back, and stating today's topic During today's group, my goal was to facilitate positive communication skills to promote occupational performance in the workplace as well as identify different communication styles and how to relate with people with different styles than you. Upon hearing that my group would be held in the Gross Motor Lab, I was nervous at first since it was something different, but decided to plan to get there an hour early to properly set up my group setting. I was fortunate that another class did not have the time slot an hour before me. To begin our warm-up activity, members of the group partnered up and one person was blindfolded.  Next, they took turns guiding each other through an obstacle course only using visual cues. It was interesting to see/hear the different tactics group members used to guide their partners. Whether someone describe a step as a "scootch", big step/little step, right/left, or "follow my voice" each pair was different and unique displaying their different communication styles. After each person had a chance to lead their partner through the obstacle, everyone shared their personal experience with the warm-up actvity. Since the obstacle course was for grad students, I graded the activity up by putting hurtles to step over as well playing an extremely annoying youtube video called "office noise" as distractions.
After everyone shared, everyone took a communication style self-assessment that related them to a type of bird. Since this was a quiz centered around communication style in the work place, many stated they would have been different 'birds' had this been communication in their personal lives. It was interesting to hear everyone share their strengths and weaknesses. I was so excited that everyone shared personal experiences. They all have had employer encounters in the past all centered around communication. If I led this group again in this same context, I think it would be interesting to take this quiz twice. The first one the same as today (work centered), but the second one around their personal communication style to compare how they communicate differently in different contexts (maybe change my FoR to PEOP for that group).
After leading my first group, I am very pleased with how it went. Everyone in the group participated throughout, as well as had ways to relate making it an easy flowing group. I didn't end up having to ask some of my generalizing and application reflection questions because the conversations progressed into a lot of my topics. I am glad I got to class extra early to arrange the obstacle course as well as create a table with the raised mats for everyone to sit at so that it felt more organized. I am also glad I reminded everyone to keep safety in mind when completing the obstacle course, so no one got hurt. However, I think I  should have explained the obstacle course activity better before sending everyone into the hall with their blindfold (explain start/finish places). I think I displayed appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication when group members shared personal experiences. I enjoyed leading today's group and look forward to other opportunities like this in the future!

Post-Group Facilitation Reflection #1

On February 12, Lauren Leiser and I led a group called "Pursuing Positivity". We followed our written plan closely and managed to stay on time with our outlined timeline. We began our group by introducing ourselves and stating the topic of the group. During our group, we wanted to facilitate group members positive attitudes toward themselves to identify ways to cope with negative thoughts. Our goal was to provide an engaging activity that encouraged social interaction and feelings of positive personal outlook. Group members were able to provide positive attributes of one another to promote self-esteem of. When sharing everyone's responses in the warm up activity, I think the most important part was to listen to each group member as they dug a little deeper than usual to talk about their emotions. I thought it was interesting how similar many of the group members responses were (i.e. being unorganized made them sad, or their dogs, family, friends made them happy). When sharing the building self-esteem/flower exercise, I think it was important to encourage everyone to share the compliments they received from the other group members in order to facilitate positive interactions and self worth.
After co-leading my first group, I think it was a little harder than I expected. Usually, everyone in our group is more than happy to participate, but there was a lot going on today resulting in everyone being a little less focused. I learned that you always need to be prepared to share and give personal examples of things we are talking about in group in case I were to have a group that is less open to sharing.
I think that our overall group plan was well thought out and organized. In our introduction, we had a great warm up activity that went over really well, however, we did not give an overall time frame/structure of the group. For our activity, we planned out all supplies needed and had it ready for group members upon arrival to provide an appropriate environment. Upon starting the activity, everyone seemed to have easily understood the directions. Throughout the activity, each member was asked or volunteered to share multiple times. I think Lauren and I both displayed appropriate verbal and nonverbal responses as well empathized when appropriate. For processing, I think members appropriately elicited feelings about one another in completing the 'building a flower' activity, but just briefly touched on their overall experience at the end. I think I could have done a better job at tying in the activity with topic of the group. Throughout our entire group, we were constantly referring to the similarity in group member's responses as well as encouraging real life scenarios in discussion. We talked about why we liked being positive, but I think we should have included more backbone to our group. For instance, talking about the physiological effects of being happy vs. sad. Like I stated previously, our group was a little more distracted today than usual, but I think Lauren and I did a good job of encouraging everyone to participate and stay on task. Because everyone did not talk as much today, we did not have to put a limit on anyone sharing in group. We related the group's experience to everyday's life and were able to relate to real life experiences of different group members. I enjoyed leading the group and look forward to implementing my next one!

EBP Midterm

Learning outcome: Conduct a literature search.

Which of the following is a not benefit of completing a literature review?

a.     Decreases credibility by looking at more than one source

b.     Identify gaps in the research

c.      Familiarize yourself with up to date literature on this particular topic

d.     See if a similar study has been done