I am proud to share that I have a featured piece with OT news (April, 2022). This piece reflects upon my experience in raising awareness and skills of Grading and Adapting across the Multi Disciplinary Team in practice. This was completed through development of a 2-3 hour training session, that included many practical exercises to support learning in different formats. As a part of this training session, I shared my own proposed basic Hierarchy of Grading and Adapting (see image) to support understanding and application within practice, promoting inclusion, empowerment and independence in all Activities of Daily Living.
In using this Hierarchy in practice, I recommend that to optimise autonomy and independence, that we always start with the least dependant option: working through options from the top down. Throughout this application, we uphold person centred practice through actively reflecting on what we can do to support, providing clear concise instructions, limiting distractions, giving encouragement, time to process and respond etc as appropriate. By doing so while we are supporting rehabilitation, whether directly or indirectly, through maintenance and/or recovery of skills. On top of which, we are promoting Autonomy through independence, Dignity, Respect and Best Practice.
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