Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects

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https://hdl.handle.net/1805/23238

This collection includes capstone projects authored by doctoral students in the Department of Occupational Therapy.

If you are an OTD student and need access to upload your project, please contact the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Scholarship (digschol@iupui.edu).

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 34

Improving Family Engagement, Cultural Competence, and Socioeconomic Awareness in First Steps Provider Training
(2021) Cousins, Kaela T. O.; Chase, Tony; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Young, Constance V.
To effectively demonstrate equity within the practice of early intervention, providers must feel that they are supported and equipped with family-centered and evidence-based strategies encouraged by their early intervention programs, such as First Steps. First Steps is the statewide early intervention program from the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services for Indiana. To perform best practice and encourage positive child outcomes, early intervention providers should continuously apply family engagement, cultural competence, and socioeconomic awareness throughout their work. Although the importance of these aspects is emphasized in various core values and principles, it can be a challenge to apply them due to ambiguity of these terms, lack of professional development on these topics, and the tendency to solely focus on the child. To address these challenges, this capstone will aim to reduce the ambiguity of these terms, to provide training for First Steps providers on these topics, and to better understand the perspectives of different families on how to strengthen these domains within First Steps. The overall purpose of this capstone is to conduct virtual focus groups with families of First Steps and to use their feedback with evidence-based principles to create a professional development course for First Steps providers. Thus, this capstone will aim to practice inclusion of family voices within the professional development course on family engagement, cultural competence, and socioeconomic awareness to promote First Steps providers in producing more positive child outcomes.
Intervention Development for Camp Mariposa Aaron’s Place: Increasing Functioning in Families Impacted by Substance Use Disorder
(2021-05-06) Solesky, Allison; Wilburn, Victoria; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Wilburn, Victoria
Substance use disorder (SUD) has negatively impacted many children and families across the state of Indiana. Camp Mariposa Aaron’s Place was recently established in the Indianapolis community and serves children aged nine to twelve along with their families to mitigate the harmful impacts that SUD has placed in their lives. This camp offers family and group interventions to instill and equip each individual with the skills needed to navigate relationships and conflicts within the family as they arise. By giving families impacted by SUD a safe space to participate in evidence-based, occupation-driven, and trauma-informed activities, the camp will be able to promote resiliency and enhance communication within the families to increase functioning within the home.
Community Transition: Addressing Factors that Lead to Readmission in Inpatient Psychiatric Units
(2021-05-07) Chim, Chhattrah; Wasmuth, Sally; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Button, Jo
Psychiatric readmission is a common problem for individuals with psychiatric illness worldwide. Approximately one in seven individuals hospitalized for psychiatric illness are readmitted within 30 days of discharge. 30-day readmission is a common outcome measure to indicate quality of patient care. Frequent readmission for patients decreases their quality of life, disrupts their recovery, and fosters dependence on psychiatric services. The purpose of this doctoral capstone experience is to develop a clinically useful screening tool used to identify at-risk patients for readmission to improve transition into the community. In doing so, effective patient-centered interventions focused on individualized needs can be provided to possibly decrease the risk of readmission. The screening tool was developed using retrospective clinical data collected from electronic medical records of all patients readmitted to SEMHRC within 30 days of discharge in 2020. The screening tool examines 5 domains which include previous admissions, risk of harm to self and others, individual factors, community barriers, and engagement in treatment. In 2020, Sandra Eskenazi Mental Health Recovery Center discharged 1,119 patients. Of those patients discharged, 10.3% readmitted within 30 days at least one or more times. A bivariate analysis was done using the developed screening tool on 19 patients that were first time users of the psychiatric unit comparing their hospital index admission to following hospital readmissions. These patients averaged a score of seven on the screening tool for risk of readmission. Individuals with 3+ readmissions within 30 days of prior hospitalization had an average score of 12.7 upon assessment. The study showed that the higher score on the screening tool increased the probability of readmission. The study shows the use of a screening tool to assess patients' risk of readmission on a psychiatric unit has the potential to improve delivery of mental health services.
Technology Use of Older Adults to Promote Aging in Place at Franciscan PACE Center
(2021-04-27) Gregory, Lauren; Zeigler, Jayson; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Barnes, Carol
Technology use among older adults has been shown to be beneficial for their overall health, independence, socialization, and quality of life. Technology promotes aging in place for these individuals, especially during the coronavirus pandemic where social isolation is more prevalent. The capstone project with the Franciscan PACE center focuses on providing evidence-based resources for participants to increase occupational performance through the use of technology. Healthcare providers at PACE were provided with the same resources to better educate them on the technologies available and their features that promote aging in place for older adult participants. The technology resources, including an excel sheet and educational videos, were reported by staff and participants to be beneficial and likely to be referenced in the future. Through education, older adults and numerous healthcare workers were made aware of how useful technologies can be to improve functionality and everyday life performance.
Doctoral Capstone Experiential at Camp Mariposa: Aaron’s Place
(2021-04) Huber, Megan H.; Wilburn, Victoria G.; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Wilburn, Victoria G.
Dependence on alcohol, illicit substances, and opioids impact the parent-child relationship, childhood development, and child behaviors (Romanowicz et al., 2019). There is a strong association between parental substance abuse and subsequent child maltreatment (Opioids and Youth, 2018). Substance use disorder (SUD) can lead to family trauma and significantly impact the child’s life trajectory. However, given the support, knowledge, and tools necessary to intervene, it is possible to mitigate the negative effects of SUD and trauma. Camp Mariposa: Aaron’s Place is a camp for youth ages 9-12 who have been impacted by a family member’s SUD. By applying underutilized approaches to family and group therapy, such as yoga, theatre, and nature-based crafts, this camp promotes resiliency, protective factors, and post-traumatic growth.
Improving Multidisciplinary Approach to Complex Discharge Patients: An Evidence Based Approach
(2021-04-23) Din, Noor; Bednarski, Julie; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Tom, Lauren
Eskenazi Hospital’s rehabilitation therapists have identified a gap in how complex discharge patients care is approached. With increased caseloads and high role demands, the therapy team is not able to provide this population with the level of services they may benefit from during their stay. Moreover, a defined approach to discharge planning for this population is needed to identify barriers to discharge from admission. This capstone student worked collaboratively with identified stakeholders to complete an in-depth needs assessment and propose a multidisciplinary guideline for providing the best level of care for this population. A proposed method to facilitating patient routines during hospitalization was created through multiple rounds of feedback and implementation.
Providing Therapeutic Materials to Families with Children Participating in Telehealth Services: Caregiver and Therapist Perception of Impact on Telehealth Services
(2021-04-27) Benich, Jacob; Zeigler, Jayson; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Blain, Barb
Telehealth has been a lesser-known service delivery option for occupational therapy for many years. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has now become mainstream and had even been utilized as a complete replacement for in-person treatment at certain points during the pandemic. The telehealth sessions at the capstone site, a private Pediatric therapy clinic, have been found to be limited by what materials the family has in their home. At the clinic, every therapeutic item one could think of is available for use, but when stuck at home, families must use what they have. This capstone project sought to provide care packages with therapeutic materials to families receiving telehealth to determine if both their own and their therapist’s perception of telehealth changed. A non-standardized survey was utilized for data collection, and slight improvements had been found for the caregiver perception of telehealth, with little change in the therapist perception. Further exploration of results and implications on OT and telehealth are discussed as well.
The Role of Occupational Therapy Services in Addressing the Mental Health of Black Girls: A Community Engaged Program Implementation Project
(2021-05-03) Milton, Cierra; Wasmuth, Sally; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Wasmuth, Sally
Literature illustrates mental health disparities experienced by young Black girls (Leary, 2020; Morris, 2016) in the United States. Occupational therapy (OT) is an ideal profession to address these disparities through mental health group interventions (AOTA, 2020). The goal of this occupational therapy doctoral capstone (DC) project was to implement and examine the efficacy of an occupation-based program in addressing the mental health of Black girls in a community setting. Intervention implementation took place at a community-based afterschool center over eight consecutive weeks. Intervention activities were aimed at improving the participants’ understanding of social emotional skills, self-efficacy and self-esteem. The activities were versatile, culturally rooted, incorporated principles of trauma informed care (Menschner & Maul, 2016) and were cost effective. Program implementation efforts were assessed through mixed methods data analysis. The capstone experience also included the professional dissemination of results from a community-based mental health intervention program for young Black girls.
The Efficacy and Feasibility of Occupational Therapy Programming Focused on Health and Wellness within a Homeless Shelter
(2021-04) Munson, Victoria; Wasmuth, Sally; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Hoffman, Lisa
Homelessness is a serious problem and can have many negative effects, including poor health (Hodge et al., 2017). Homelessness is closely tied to occupational deprivation and occupational injustice (Cunningham & Slade, 2019). The purpose of this doctoral capstone project was to address the occupational needs of individuals experiencing homelessness. By working with the Wheeler Mission Center for Women and Children, this project aimed to decrease occupational deprivation and increase overall wellness through the implementation of occupation-based programming. Occupation-based programing was introduced over the course of 14 weeks, in combination with ongoing program evaluation. Success of the program was evaluated in a number of different ways, including distributing pre- and post-program surveys, evaluating results from the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and by receiving verbal feedback from staff members. Participants were recruited from the Foundations of Wellness program at the Wheeler Mission and included individuals with a wide range of health concerns. Results indicated that participants had statistically significant increases in satisfaction with programming following the implementation of occupation-based programming, as well as significant increases in self-perceived occupational performance and satisfaction. These results can be used to advocate for the role of occupational therapists within homeless shelters, as they can increase occupational engagement and participant satisfaction. Additional research is needed to further define the role of occupational therapists within homeless shelters and to further investigate the impact occupational therapists can have on homeless populations.
Mental Health Among Frontline Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic
(2021-05-04) Nguyen, Phuong; Bednarski, Julie; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; White, Debra
Leadership from a local nonprofit organization serving families in Marion County, all of whom face numerous disparities, identified a need for mental health services for their frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surveys were distributed to employees were used to investigate the impact this pandemic has had on their occupation, their confidence in managing mental health concerns, and areas of interest based on current in-place structures. Weekly in-services were conducted based on these results. Improvements were observed in exit surveys and feedback; participants reported positive attitudes towards the in-services they attended, desires for future in-services, and that the in-services addressed their desired focus areas. These findings suggest that programs and protocols that prioritize mental health in the workplace have a positive effect on perceived mental and physical health as well as confidence levels in addressing mental health at this site.

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