Psychouli, Pavlina

Importance: Designing, implementing, and measuring the effectiveness of sustainable Internationalization at Home programs will support the development of cultural competence among occupational therapy students. Objective: To explore potential sustainable, effective methods for enhancing cultural competence in occupational therapy students through cross-cultural online collaborations. Design: Pretest-posttest, parallel mixed-methods design. Setting: An online collaboration using video conferencing technology and classrooms at the European University Cyprus and the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. Participants: Bachelor of science and master of occupational therapy students at the European University Cyprus and the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, respectively. Intervention: Online video conferencing collaboration between occupational therapy students in which students discussed their perspectives and experiences regarding social injustice and occupational therapy's role in working with vulnerable populations. Outcomes and Measures: Each campus participated in focus groups, and students completed individual reflections. Themes were derived from the qualitative information gathered. Quantitative data were collected using the Cultural Awareness Scale for Occupational Therapy Students (CASOTS). Results: CASOTS did not reflect changes in cultural awareness. The qualitative measures identified students' desire to participate in more frequent and culturally diverse experiences. Challenges included length of preparation and actual communication time. Inclusion of prior asynchronous sessions and methods to overcome the language barrier was suggested for future implementation. Conclusion: Synchronous cross-cultural collaborations may enhance occupational therapy student's cultural awareness and may be more attractive than traditional in-class teaching. Further development is necessary to overcome challenges. What This Article Adds: Documenting the benefits and barriers of implementing Internationalization at Home experiences will allow academic institutions to create sustainable methods for enhancing occupational therapy students' cultural competence. Recommendations to further enhance Internationalization at Home experiences provide opportunities for increased cultural collaboration.

Background: Occupational therapy is a physically, psychologically and cognitively demanding job. This study aims to explore the epidemiology of musculoskeletal injuries, mental issues, and burnout in occupational therapy practitioners in Greece and Cyprus. Method: A survey was conducted, including the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, and the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Results: Out of 247 respondents, 70% reported severe lower back pain, 9.7% of Greek occupational therapists were in the moderate and high PHQ-9 scale, while disengagement and exhaustion were found 2.026 (±0.54) and 2.592 (±0.533) respectively. Conclusion: High rates of burnout, correlated with psychological and musculoskeletal disorders were identified in both countries. Work-related stress and musculoskeletal disorders may be more evident in countries hit by recession.

Background: Occupational therapy is a physically, psychologically and cognitively demanding job. This study aims to explore the epidemiology of musculoskeletal injuries, mental issues, and burnout in occupational therapy practitioners in Greece and Cyprus. Method: A survey was conducted, including the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, and the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Results: Out of 247 respondents, 70% reported severe lower back pain, 9.7% of Greek occupational therapists were in the moderate and high PHQ-9 scale, while disengagement and exhaustion were found 2.026 (±0.54) and 2.592 (±0.533) respectively. Conclusion: High rates of burnout, correlated with psychological and musculoskeletal disorders were identified in both countries. Work-related stress and musculoskeletal disorders may be more evident in countries hit by recession. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

ΟBJECTIVE To develop the Greek version of the Motor Activity Log (MAL) and to test its reliability and internal consistency. METHOD This was a multicentre study, conducted at four rehabilitation clinics in Cyprus and Greece between 2018–2021. Translation of the MAL followed established international guidelines. The Greek MAL was completed by occupational therapists for 46 patients with hemiplegia following stroke on three occasions; days 1 and 4 by interviewing the patient and additionally, within this interval by interviewing the primary caregiver, in order to establish the degree of agreement between patient and caregiver. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach’s alpha (α) and reliability was assessed with the use of intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). RESULTS There were no major issues that arose during the forward-backward translation of the MAL into Greek, neither cultural adaptation conflicts. The internal consistency was high (Cronbach’s α=0.95), while the test-retest reliability was 0.993 for both MAL Amount of Use (AOU) and Quality of Use (QOU) Scale. ICC between caregivers and patients was 0.987 for MAL AOU and 0.980 for MAL QOL. CONCLUSIONS The Greek version of MAL is a reliable assessment tool for adult patients with hemiplegia following stroke. It may be considered a useful tool for the out-of-clinic measurement of upper limb involvement in everyday activities for Greek-speaking clinicians. © Athens Medical Society.

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate the benefit to upper limb function of a home-based version of pediatric constraint-induced movement therapy, which was delivered across 2 months. Methods: Nine children (mean age: 6 years, 9 months) with hemiplegic cerebral palsy participated in this A1-B-C-A2 design, where A1 and A2 were nonintervention phases. In phases B and C, participants wore a splint on the unaffected hand. In phase C, motivating feedback through a computer game was added. Results: The Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function and the Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test scores were significantly higher at the end of phases B (P =.037 and P =.006, respectively) and C (P =.001 and P =.001, respectively). Melbourne scores remained higher at the end of phase A2 (P =.001). Conclusions: A nonintensive form of home-based constraint-induced movement therapy was found to be effective. Improvements were larger after the second month of intervention.

Rehabilitation aims at brain rewiring through intensive practice following brain injury. This paper presents a new supportive mechanism that will be used to isolate wrist movement and in combination to the use of serious games, to act as a motivational tool to improve adherence during home-based practice. The paper describes the proposed methodology employed to carry out the home-based programme while leap motion is used to monitor and evaluate these exercises.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was (1) to identify the most appropriate splint from children's and parents' perspective as reflected by effectiveness and adherence to home-based forced use therapy (FUT). (2) To provide guidance in the development of a practical and effective protocol based on forced use principles. METHOD: A crossover design with a convenience sample of children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy and their parents was used to test three types of splint (mitt, short splint and long splint) during home-based FUT. Children wore the splints for a minimum of 1 h/ day during physical activity. Outcome measures included a daily log and a questionnaire (completed by parents), an actometer worn on the affected hand to quantify movement and video recordings to inform quality of movement. RESULTS: The short splint was found to be the most effective and acceptable restraining device. Wearing devices for more than 1 h per day was not considered acceptable by either parents or children. CONCLUSION: A short splint, worn for 1 h per day was found to be the most acceptable protocol.

This paper presents a novel robotic system, which aims to enhance children's motivation through the gamification of the CIMT process. The system offers adjustability of the required movement skills, ensuring children will put increasingly more effort to achieve the rehabilitation goal, while keeping the task fun and engaging.

This paper presents a novel robotic system, which aims to enhance children's motivation through the gamification of the CIMT process. The system offers adjustability of the required movement skills, ensuring children will put increasingly more effort to achieve the rehabilitation goal, while keeping the task fun and engaging.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience sensory processing issues, affecting their daily behaviour and functional performance. Occupational engagement is viewed as activities a person participates in which involve occupational performance and environmental factors. This study aims to identify impaired sensory processing and occupational engagement, the relationship with demographic profile, and the relationship between impaired sensory processing and occupational engagement among children with ASD. A total of 169 children with ASD from a centre in Sentul were recruited. School Companion Sensory Profile and the Short Child Occupational Profile (SCOPE) were used as the outcome measurements in this study. The research finding yields those children with ASD appear to experience some degree of processing issues in “avoiding” sensory patterns and appear to have significant challenges in “communication and interaction skills” in their occupational engagement. Sensory processing issues and activity engagement are also found to be a minimal to moderate relationship with the demographic profiles of the children. The study also concludes that sensory processing and occupational engagement among children with ASD are interrelated. The correlation coefficients range from r =-0.20 to r =-0.36 indicating a fair to moderate correlation between sensory processing and occupational engagement. These sensory processing issues significantly impact children’s life, which can be seen through their level of engagement in daily life activities. Information on sensory processing issues and occupational engagement allows one to identify successful intervention strategies.