New cancer screen 'Arab Indianapolis' film showing

By Olivia Pastrick ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

University of Indianapolis Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy Katie Polo has developed a tool that will screen cancer survivors to determine their need for occupational therapy, called the Screen of Cancer Survivorship-Occupational Therapy Services according to UIndy360. Polo found that only 29% of cancer survivors received occupational therapy services, UIndy360 said, despite there being a greater need for it. Polo said that one of the goals with SOCS-OTS is to empower cancer survivors and help them better understand issues they may be having.

“What gave us this idea was in practice, at Cancer Support Community, one of our community partners at UIndy, a lot of the clients in there had indicated issues with performing some of their daily activities, which is often an indicator for the need for OT services, but none of them had actively received OT services before,”Polo said. “In the literature, we did notice that OT services are underutilized in cancer care, but there's a huge need for it, and so I kept thinking to myself, ‘Why is that?’”

Polo said that the process of developing SOCS-OTS took three years and was done by herself as well as her occupational therapy doctorate students. She said that they researched what issues cancer patients struggle with that occupational therapy would help with and started developing a list of items that would make up the screening tool. Polo said that with her second group of OTD students, she used the Delphi process to sort through which criteria were most important to include on the tool. This means she and her students looked at the list that they had compiled and continuously asked current cancer patients to verify if the things they were finding were consistent with a minimum of 70% of patients. “We did that for four different rounds of the Delphi process until we finally whittled down the items to 20 items for the final rendition of the screening tool,” Polo said.

According to Polo, if a patient says they are having trouble with three of the criteria on the screening test, their results indicate a need for occupational therapy services. Some of the questions on the test are about sleep, work, leisure, social participation, health management and daily living activities according to UIndy 360. Polo said that these are areas in which she found many cancer patients struggled with and that can be helped through occupational therapy.

Polo said the tool will be used by oncologists, nurses, nurse navigators and others on the front lines of oncology care. She said it will be utilized by healthcare providers with the client and then reviewed by referral sources. According to Polo, SOCS-OTS is the first of its kind because cancer care is a new field in occupational therapy. She said that she hopes the tool will allow clients with cancer to recognize the need for and benefit of occupational therapy.

“My biggest hope and aspiration is this screening tool will allow for clients with cancer that need OT services to recognize that need and to receive services,” Polo said. “Because there is an astounding amount of literature that says that our services are underutilized, but very, very needed.”

By Hannah Biedess EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

The film “Arab Indianapolis: A Hidden History” produced by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Professor of Religious Studies Edward E. Curtis, is a film that talks about Indianapolis’ past with the Arab community and was screened at UIndy’s Schwitzer student center according to UIndy360. Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center of Ethics Lacey Davidson said that the film started as a blog for a community history project and moved into a full-length documentary and is now a book.

“In 2005,when I arrived in Indianapolis to take a new job, I had no idea that people like me had been living in the city since the 1800s,” said Curtis in an article by statewide nonprofit Indiana Humanities. “That hidden history inspired me to work with other Arab Americans to make a film that reveals our community’s origins and development. I hope that it makes everyone in attendance, no matter where they trace their roots, feel more at home in Indiana.”

Davidson said that the film was a group collaboration between the Political Science, History, English, Religion departments as well as the Center for Ethics. The documentary was more focused on the Center of Ethics, he said, because it is in line with the University of Indianapolis mission.

“Part of UIndy’s mission is to prepare students for their responsibilities in complex societies,” Davidson said.

Davidson said that there are some good things that come with having a campus with vibrant life, but it is important to keep in mind the social, political and cultural context.

“We’re really looking at the mission of the University of Indianapolis and seeing, how can the Ethics Center contribute to that through the programming?” Davidson said. “And one of the things that this documentary brings forth is understanding the complex nature of human migration in the United States, but specifically in Indianapolis, and, how do we tell those stories in a way that honors those histories and also helps us understand the cultural, political and social context that we live in.”

According to Indiana Humanities, the documentary was directed and produced by local filmmaker Becky Fisher and was filmed by owner of Chroma Productions and Emmy award-winning videographer Vinnie Manganello. The article said that the film covers the new chapter in central Indiana with its diverse history. The documentary also covers the first

Arab-speaking neighborhood, to how Arab-American food has had influence in Indianapolis.

The documentary discusses the first Arabic-speaking neighborhood in Indianapolis, and the establishment of a prominent Arab American business on Monument Circle and the founding of the first known Arabic speaking Orthodox Christian location in Central Indiana,St. George Church in the 1920s. The service of Arab-Americans in World War II and the election of Arab-Americans to political offices in the Indiana Capitol, according to Indiana Humanities, were covered in the film along with the contributions of ArabAmericans to medicine since the 1920s and the influence of Arab-American food on menus throughout the city.

Davidson said that it is important to know how those things shape how the university interacts with the city. The university's interaction with the city itself has shaped the experiences of other people who live in Indianapolis, Davidson said, as well as those who are not affiliated with UIndy and who are.

“For example there's students who are Arab,” Davidson said. “They can identify with this film and see there's a rich history here, and that they're a part of the story that we're building so that anytime something's hidden, or covered over or not highlighted, any chance to excavate that is going to help us understand our location and more than just ‘Where's it on the map?’”