UIC OT Progress Notes: Summer 2015

UIC Department of Occupational Therapy

Progress Notes Summer 2015

University of Illinois at Chicago

From the Desk of the Department Head Dear Readers, It is with great pleasure that we share with you some highlights from the last six months. The UIC Department of Occupational Therapy faculty, staff and University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System (UIHHSS) clinicians continue to provide news and accomplishments that I’m very pleased to highlight in our Progress Notes. For example, early this year we welcomed Dr. Anders Kottorp from the Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Sweden to our faculty. Our faculty have been recipients of prestigious awards and new grants and contracts. We engaged in several very successful events including hosting our first Scholarship of Practice Day; co-sponsoring the 4th Annual OT Summit of Scholars; presented at the AOTA conference in Nashville; and participating in a number of events sponsored by our Illi-SOTA. I hope you enjoy reading this summary of recent highlights.

Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, Professor and Head

New OT Faculty Professor Anders Kottorp, PhD, OT reg, joined the department in January of 2015.

Dr. Kottorp came to us from the Division of Occupational Therapy, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Sweden and has a robust research program that focuses on understanding the challenges associated with engaging in everyday life for people living with medical conditions and disabilities, and developing evaluation and intervention strategies to better understand and address these challenges.

Among his many projects, he is currently co-Principal Investigator on a KI-based international research program titled, “Cognitive Accessibility and Technology Use when Aging in Home and Society” (CACTUS).

Dr. Kottorp is offering a graduate elective in fall 2015: “Assessments, tests and surveys in clinical practice and research: An evidence-based approach.”

Save the Date!

4th International Institute for Model of Human Occupation Clearinghouse (MOHO) October 23-24, 2015 Indianapolis, IN

www.mohoinstitute.com

2nd Annual UIC OT Scholarship of Practice (SOP) Day March 4, 2016 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Earn up to six hours of CE credit!

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OT Faculty News Awards & Honors Pictured right (from left to right): Robin Jones, director of the Great Lakes ADA Center in our college at UIC; alumna Coralie “Corky” Glantz; Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, professor and head; Gail Fisher, OT clinical associate professor were inducted in the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) Leaders and Legacy Society.

Professor and head of OT Yolanda SuarezBalcazar has been named to a prestigious Who's Who list of Latino businesspeople and professionals in our city, assembled by Negocios Now magazine for their leadership and contributions to the Chicago community. She and fellow honorees were recognized at the, “Who’s Who in Hispanic Chicago” Gala at the Chicago Cultural Center on June 12.

Susan Magasi, assistant professor, has been named Humanitarian of the Year by the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences.

Grants & Contracts  State of Illinois, Department of Human Services. May 2015. Contract to conduct functional performancebased assessments on individuals with serious mental illness who are seeking to transition out of institution settings as part of the Williams Consent Decree (PI: Joy Hammel; Project Coordinator: Celeste Januszewski).  AOTF Intervention Research Grant. April 2015 to March 2016 Negotiating the Healthcare System as a Person with a Disability: A Peer-OT Led Intervention (AOTF, PI: Susan Magasi).  UIC National Institute on Aging Roybal Center. Doctoral dissertation research seed grant funding competition.

Testing an adapted version of the IPASS (Improving Participation after Stroke Self-Management) program intervention in day rehabilitation. Total seed funding of $12,500, which also helps to fund peer mentors and OTRs to co-facilitate groups in actual day/outpatient rehabilitation. (PI: Danbi Lee and co-I: Heidi Fischer).  Liz Peterson is a Co-Investigator on a new research project on "Management of Fall Risk in Full Time Wheelchair Users Living with Spinal Cord Injury". Funding awarded to L. Rice (PI), J. Sosnoff, & E. Peterson by the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.

Special Invitations & Projects  Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar was invited by the World Federation of Occupational Therapy to serve on an International Review Team to provide feedback and respond to the World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity Report.  Since fall 2014, Mary Keehn, our college’s associate dean for clinical affairs, has been co-leading UIC’s Interprofessional Education Strategic Thinking Task Force. Also sitting on the task force is OT clinical professor Liz Peterson.

Invited Lectures & Presentations  Susan Magasi. “Screen-ABLE: Promoting equity in cancer screening for women with disabilities.” 2015 Illinois Women’s Health Conference. April 7, 2015, East Peoria, IL.  Liz Peterson. “Fear of falling assessment and intervention: Evidence-based practice imperatives and priorities for future research.” University of Southern Denmark. March 16, 2015, Odense, Denmark.  Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar. Training on culturally competent healthcare to ASPIRE therapists. April 22, 2015, Hinsdale, IL. Featured OT Faculty  Celeste Januszewski was recognized in the campus newspaper UIC News (February 17, 2015) for her recent appointment to the Mental Health Workgroup of the American Occupational Therapy Association.

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OTD and PhD News Awards & Honors ●OTD Achievement Award: Jennifer Friesema ●Award for Doctoral Education & Research: Jenna Heffron, Celeste Januszewski & Danbi Lee ●President’s Volunteer Service Award: Jenna Heffron ●Chancellor’s Student Service Award (CSSA): Elizabeth Harrison & Jenna Heffron ●Albert Schweitzer Fellowship: Elizabeth Harrison ●CAHS Scholarship Award: Jenna Heffron 2014-2015 Post-Professional OTD Graduates ●Moira Bushell ●Heidi Fischer ●Jennifer Friesema ●Piper Hansen ●Esmeralda Vazquez

Pictured at left (from left to right): OTD summer 2014 graduate, Jennifer Friesema, OT head Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar and OTD spring 2015 graduate and clinical instructor, Heidi Fischer.

UIHHS Clinician News ●Sara Skinner retired after 30 years of service on the behavioral health team. ●The OT department welcomed new occupational therapist Alejandra Villanueva, MS Class of ‘14. ●Matthew Clinger has been promoted to OT Specialist. ●Piper Hansen, OTD, OTR/L and Kimberly Muir, MS, OTR/L, UIC OT adjunct faculty and RIC clinicians, collaborated with Northwestern University researchers on a study recently published in Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation titled “Improving arm function in chronic stroke: A pilot study of sensory amplitude electrical stimulation via glove electrode during task-specific training.”

OT Staff News Maria Larson, MS Academic Coordinator, has received her master's degree in education from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

MS OT Student News Evelyn Ingargiola was featured in the “student voice” section of Illinois Occupational Therapy Association (ILOTA) The Communique, March 2015 issue.

Creating Change in Early Intervention and School-based Practice UIC OT clinical assistant professors Ashley Stoffel and Theresa Carroll co-facilitate the newly developed Illinois Early Intervention (EI) and Schools Community of Practice (CoP). CoP was created to form a community within Illinois to bring together OT stakeholders in EI and school-based practice to share ideas, resources and strategies to support best practice. One of the first activities CoP undertook was to collect advocacy ideas for EI and school-based practice. UIC OT alumnae and CoP members Namrata Shah and Cindy DeRuiter finalized an

OT advocacy resource summarizing the ideas of CoP members. CoP strives to include individuals with diverse backgrounds, positions and levels of experience from across the state. Ashley and Theresa hope members will feel empowered to participate and demonstrate leadership within the group. CoP welcomes any EI or school-based OT practitioner in Illinois. Please contact Ashley (astoffel@uic.edu) or Theresa (carrollt@uic.edu) for more information or to join.

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Global Connections In spring 2015, UIC OT hosted our first two occupational therapy exchange students, Camilla Högkvist and Julia Liljegren, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Camilla and Julia attended classes and are spending time at one of UIC OT’s fieldwork sites, Chicago Read Mental Health Center. UIC OT’s first-year MS students have been very welcoming and planned a dinner event near UIC in the Little Italy area (pictured left).

Top (left to right): Chelsie Christophe, Jill Antonini, Camilla Högkvist, Julia Liljegren, Kathryn Duke & Kim The. Bottom (left to right): Dalmina Arias, Sophia Anagnos, Aline Xayasouk, Becky Sax & Shannon Vogel.

Center Ann Sullivan of Peru (CASP) As part of our “Therapists Without Borders” program, the Department of Occupational Therapy hosted Ruth Benitez, a therapist from the Center Ann Sullivan of Peru. She was in Chicago for three weeks in early February, observing and shadowing occupational therapists in different professional settings. Yolanda SuarezBalcazar and Joy Hammel are spearheading the program.

National Refugee and Immigrant Conference The 2014 National Refugee and Immigrant Conference: Issues and Innovations was held in Chicago on October 23-24, 2014.

The conference covered issues affecting refugees and immigrants— children and their families, schools (K-adult), healthcare, mental health, and cultural adjustment.

Pictured (from left to right): Mansha Mirza, MS OT student Elizabeth Harrison and undergraduate research assistant Neha Iqbal presented their research about patterns and views of substance use in refugee communities. The work was based off of their "Lost in Translation" project.

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First Annual UIC OT Scholarship of Practice Day

The kickoff theme: Visioning Consumer-Directed, Participation-Focused OT Practice The UIC OT first annual SOP Day took place on Monday, March 30, 2015.

AOTA president, Virginia “Ginny” Stoffel, delivered the opening plenary; Wade/Meyer Endowed Chair in OT, Joy Hammel, delivered the keynote; and OT department head, Yolanda SuarezBalcazar, and our college dean, Bo Fernhall, delivered opening remarks.

Participants earned up to six hours of continuing education credit during the event. After the keynote and opening plenary, the conference continued with concurrent scholarship presentations as well as an OTD and PhD leadership and opportunities panel. The day concluded with an evidence-based SOP poster session presented by students and faculty along with a networking wine-and-cheese reception.

SOP Day gave attendees the opportunity to get up to speed on the latest research and advanced practice being done by UIC OT faculty; to learn about OTD projects and PhD dissertation research that could be used in their practice; and to collect information about the UIC postprofessional occupational therapy doctorate (OTD) program and UIC PhD programs in disability studies and rehabilitation sciences.

Pictured above (left to right) top: Joy Hammel & Virginia “Ginny” Stoffel.

Pictured right: Gail Fisher

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AOTA 2015 Nashville,TN Thirteen first-year students made their way to Nashville for the AOTA Annual Conference & Expo. Students attended talks and poster sessions regarding various topics relevant to current OT practice. In addition to networking with students and practitioners from across the country, UIC students were able to explore and further understand the theme of “Giving Voice to the Distinct Value of Occupational Therapy.”

Pictured left (from left to right): back row: Chelsie Christophe, Emily Miller, Amy Krischer, Kim The and Yolanda SuarezBalcazar. Front row: Becky Sax, Catherine Killian, Dalmina Arias & Shannon Vogel.

Pictured center left (from left to right): Kathryn Duke, Gail Fisher and Kim The at AOTPAC’s “Grand OT Opry,” which Gail Fisher was largely responsible for organizing.

Pictured bottom left (from left to right): Kathryn Duke and Elizabeth Harrison presented a poster titled, "Staying Ahead of the Demographic Curve: Strategies and Resources for Working with Limited English Proficient (LEP) Clients". The focus was the interactions between LEP clients, interpreters, and clinicians and recommendations to providers for improving the quality of those interactions.

Pictured below (from left to right): back row: Karen Lukaszewski, Sophia Anagnos, Kim The, Emily Miller, Chelsie Christophe and Eva Hoffrichter. Front row: Becky Sax, Dalmina Arias, Amy Krischer, Shannon Vogel and Kathryn Duke.

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Illi-SOTA The Illinois Student Occupational Therapy Association (Illi-SOTA) has participated in several service, social, fundraising and professional development events throughout the spring 2015 semester.

The semester kicked off with the first-ever OT Fitness Week fundraiser. Three members of the Class of 2016 taught fitness classes in kickboxing, barre and strength-based circuit training.

Pictured at right (from left to right): Back row: Jessica Weiler, Jocelyn Knight, Chelsie Christophe, Eva Hoffrichter, Emily Miller and Karen Lukaszewski. Second row: Jessica Pinto, Annie Elder, Sophia Anagnos, Amy Krischer, Shannon Vogel, Roshni Patel and Daiva Ragas. Front row: Jessica Guzman An Irish-themed bake sale was held on campus in midMarch. Thanks go out to all those involved in making the sale a success. The proceeds from the bake sale were used to fund future Illi-SOTA programming including Faculty & Staff Appreciation Week.

Pictured at left (from left to right): Melanie Milling, Shannon Vogel, Dalmina Arias, Molly Hoisington, Kathryn Duke and Emily Miller.

Pictured below (from left to right): Shannon Vogel, Dalmina Arias, Chelsie Christophe, Becky Sax and Eva Hoffrichter at AOTF Conference.

Several OT students volunteered at the annual Spring Games of the Special Olympics in Mount Prospect, IL, on April 25, 2015. Throughout the day, the students assisted athletes in participating in a softball toss event.

Pictured above (from left to right): Kathryn Duke, Grace Deardurff, Melanie Milling, Amy Krischer, Eva Hoffrichter, Sophia Anagnos, Emily Miller and Shannon Vogel.

UIC Legacies and Leaders Dinner Former faculty member and department head Barbara Loomis was honored at a special Legacies and Leaders dinner at UIC on April 23, 2015. Ms. Loomis, her family and supporters have created an endowed scholarship fund in her name. The Barbara Loomis Scholarship is awarded to MS, OTD or PhD students who plan to become clinical or academic educators. Awardees have dinner with Ms. Loomis to discuss their career plans and learn from her experience.

The April event provided an opportunity for Ms. Loomis to reconnect with Nicole Thonn, ’10, the first recipient of the scholarship.

Pictured (from left to right): Alumna Anne KiralyAlvarez, Barbara Loomis, Gail Fisher and alumna Nicole Thonn

Fourth Annual OT Summit UIC OT helped host the 4th Annual OT Summit of Scholars, May 1-2, 2015, in Los Angeles. Coorganizers were Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar and Joy Hammel.

Five OT faculty and four OTD and PhD students attended.

Pictured (left to right): Kavitha Krishnan, Virginia Chu, Jenna Heffron, Susan Magasi, Anders Kottorp, Liz Peterson and Danbi Lee.

Editors: Mariel Corona and Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar Department of Occupational Therapy

AOTA Conference 2016 April 7-10 Chicago, IL Stay tuned for details just for UIC OT alumni!

This edition of the UIC Department of Occupational Therapy’s Progress Notes can also be viewed on our website: www.ahs.uic.edu/ot