ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Oklahoma's health ranking is seventh to last in America. More specifically, the health in the four zip codes surrounding the Oklahoma University Health Science Center (OUHSC) in is among the lowest in the state. The primary purpose of this study was to understand, in collaboration with community members and partners, why health disparity persists in this area. The specific aims for this study included: uncovering trends and patterns related to health in the area surrounding the OUHSC and partnering with families who live in the surrounding neighborhoods to understand perspectives regarding persistence of health disparity. METHODS: The research used community-engaged research methods including historical document reviews, windshield tours, and community member and partner interviews. RESULTS: The five themes reflecting the triangulation of data were: "they don't care" (i.e., the university and community decision-makers), "sense of mistrust," "unconducive environment," "diminished sense of community," and "wrong side of the tracks." These results suggest feelings of ineffective communication, consistently overlooked racial tension, a lack of willingness to understand, and impoverished environments as primary contributors to the persistence of health disparity. The poor health in the communities surrounding the OUHSC cannot be remedied by the availability of allied health programs alone but require relationship building, listening, and mobilizing the community.
Subject(s)
Community-Based Participatory Research/organization & administration , Health Services Research/organization & administration , Health Status Disparities , Race Relations/psychology , Residence Characteristics , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Community-Based Participatory Research/methods , Cooperative Behavior , Female , Health Services Research/methods , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Oklahoma , Universities , Young AdultABSTRACT
Professional occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) programs traditionally instruct students using volunteers, including children who have disabilities. Presenting a child before a classroom of students may deprive the child of dignity and may limit students' understanding of the child's disability and the importance of family-centered service delivery. An alternative approach that respects the child's privacy and promotes dignity is student observation in the context of the child's daily living. The Family Practicum Intervention Plan assignment (FPIP), part of the professional Neuro Rehab course, was created to facilitate students' understanding of a child with a disability while maintaining child dignity and family-centered values. This descriptive study explored, through two online surveys, the experiences of the OT and PT students and the families of children who participated in the FPIP. Additionally, the study investigated the influences of this participation on students' perceptions of family life and views of childhood disability. Overall, students and families perceived this assignment to be a good learning experience because it allowed the student to work within a real-life scenario and it gave the families an expert "voice" in the education of OT and PT students. The positive comments provided by the families and students and the desire of families to recommend the FPIP experience to other families suggest the value of the learning assignment. When developing OT and PT professional pediatric coursework, instructors should include assignments that take place in the child's natural environment to offer meaningful learning that maintains the dignity of the child.
Subject(s)
Disabled Children/rehabilitation , Occupational Therapy/education , Physical Therapy Specialty/education , Preceptorship/methods , Professional-Family Relations , Activities of Daily Living , Adult , Child , Consumer Behavior , Data Collection , Family/psychology , Female , Humans , Male , Observation , Students, Health Occupations/psychologyABSTRACT
Service learning provides invaluable contributions to the education of occupational and physical therapy students by allowing them to contribute to the community while simultaneously optimizing their professional preparation. This report explores the application of five principles in occupational and physical therapy service-learning experiences: placement quality, application between classroom and community, reflection, diversity, and listening to the community's voice.
Subject(s)
Community Health Services/organization & administration , Occupational Therapy/education , Physical Therapy Specialty/education , Community-Institutional Relations , Cultural Diversity , Humans , Preventive Health Services/supply & distribution , UniversitiesABSTRACT
The purpose of this qualitative research study was to understand a family's experiences negotiating family daily life and the meanings they ascribed to these experiences when they had a child with severe autism. In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with five family units. The interviews explored the meaning of the family's participation in daily life activities. The transcribed interviews were analyzed with a phenomenological method. The results emerging from this study indicate that families with children with severe autism may experience difficulty engaging in daily activities that hold positive meaning and rely on stringent patterns of routines that revolve around the child with autism to meet the demands of daily life.
