Supervision. Monitoring. Guidance. Analysis. Decision making. Support. Leading. Strategies. Techniques. Adherence. Protocols.
Working 1:1 with an individual with chronic conditions requires the ability to read both situational and contextual cues. But what does that actually mean? Are they the same words, do they have the same meaning?
Verbal Cues. Visual Cues. Sensory Cues. Physical Cues. Auditory Cues. Instructional Cues. etc.
Same concept – what do they mean??
Feedback can be given specific to a situation. Specific to a person. Specific to a task. Specific to that point in time. Specific to the time demands available. Specific to the limitations placed on the person giving the feedback. Or specific to the entire situation globally for challenges that only one person in the room is aware of. Occupational Therapists often work with different streams of goals running at the same time. Immediate goals. Short term goals. And Long term goals. What you see in a session is not a reflection of any of these. It is an integrated effect. Time management and efficiency of how to use strategies is core to how Occupational Therapists work. When provided with limited resources to manage large and extremely complex situations only some goals can be worked on to an outcome level, whereas the therapist may be working across all areas they are just not being documented, reported or talked about on a daily or weekly or monthly or yearly basis due to time limitations or the need to manage and regulate those being supported.
Bringing something to someones attention is not always a good way of providing feedback. It may be that an individual has had repeated experiences with a particular situation and does not appear to be learning from it. Or it may be that there are other reasons that are hidden and linked which are hidden out of the purpose of protecting the sequence that would unravel should a spotlight be placed on this. Providing feedback in the form of a spotlight can be dangerous and needs to be considered within the overall context of which goals are important to be working on and which goals are important to be being talked about at that particular point in time. The sequences of topics that are brought up over months of therapy can appear to others that this is the focus whereas it isn’t. Other issues are being managed as they are priorities due to safety concerns. Educating others about what is happening within a home or within the community requires careful awareness of the layers of how sequenced steps of complex tasks are linked with each other. As spotlighting one may cause the others to be brought into full attention, which may then result in complete change in how the individual manages their daily routines, which may or may not be a good thing.