Falls Prevention with @clareRCGP on Twitter

Holistic care

As regular readers will know, my main practice interest is in mental health, however, all OTs are trained in both mental and physical health. Providing holistic care to the people I’m working with is enhanced by this training. For instance, in mental health services for older people, falls are as relevant as in orthapaedic OT, so it’s always useful to revisit other practice area specialities and share knowledge within the profession. 

Professional Development

With this in mind, it is always a pleasure to get drawn in to chats on Twitter about areas of practice that use knowledge that would otherwise become rusty due to lack of use: and it’s an exciting challenge for me to revisit my knowledge of falls prevention and to participate in #fallschat recently, on Twitter. 

I was excited to be asked by Dr Clare Gerada (who had attended a workshop on falls prevention) to contribute to her weekly RCGP Blog about falls prevention. I sent her my “Ten Top Tips for Falls Prevention”, repeated below. 

My 10 Top Tips for Falls Prevention:

1. Make sure the hallway and stairs have working lights- if possible, replace with low-energy light bulbs and keep lights on overnight. 
2. Wear slippers with an appropriate heel, so that they stay firmly on the feet.
3. Regular, gentle exercise can help reduce risk of falling and also fear of falling. Exercise such as Tai Chi is particularly helpful at improving balance. 
4. Check out signs that a person is unsure on their feet such as “furniture walking”, or clear dirty marks where walls are used for support. Having grab rails installed at key sites around the home or at the entrance to the home can be arranged by local community OT services.
5. Fasten any torn bits of carpet or lino down- gaffer tape is ideal for this, if an older person can’t afford to replace floor coverings.
6. Tripping over the edges of rugs is really common- either remove rugs, or fasten down the edges to reduce this risk.
7. Medication management- GPs are well placed to review medications and watch for interactions, non-compliance etc.
8. Check for use of alcohol- which increases falls risk and may  interact  with medications, or even be used to self-medicate undiagnosed depression.
9. Poor foot care can be a reason for not wearing slippers, and can contribute to falls. GPs can check if a person would like a Chiropody referral, if foot care is difficult for an individual.
10. Multi-disciplinary teamworking can solve many issues- so don’t be shy about asking for help! Occupational therapists, physiotherapists and chiropodists can be really useful contacts for falls prevention.

A Few Falls Facts: 

1. A fall at home that leads to a hip fracture costs the state £28,665 on average (726 million a year in total). This is 4.5 times the average cost of a major housing adaptation and over 100 times the cost of fitting hand and grab rails to prevent falls (Heywood et al 2007).
2. The provision of a home safety programme and exercise programme delivered by occupational therapists was found to reduce falls significantly (Campbell AJ et a, 2005).
3. A community based occupational therapy based falls prevention service cut the number of falls among older people by half according to evidence published in the BMJ“

(from COT website available at http://www.cot.co.uk/ot-helps-your-client/falls-prevention)

Can I use the “Top 10 Tips” as a resource for my work/ care setting?

The “10 Top Tips and a Few Falls Facts” post is available as a free-to-use PDF that you may print off and use in your care setting (or as a reminder when visiting an older relative?) please see the following link:

http://binscombe.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/10-Top-Tips-for-Falls-Prevention.pdf

Further learning

I was delighted that the post was so warmly received by many health professionals and carers, who said they would be interested in using it. I was also pleased to hear further information from professionals with expertise that I don’t possess- from Optometrists, Pharmacists, Telecare consultants and Cardiac Doctors- who all had further info to share. I bookmarked Tweets that contained further links, so that I could share them with you, here.

8th Feb from @Vision2020UK: Really good stuff from the @CollegeOptomUK re vision and falls well worth talking to them http://bit.ly/m2ZCyx  Top 20!

8th Feb from @helen_whiteside: NECESSARY drugs increase falls risk too- need reg. review/monitor. ref selection 4 ur doc Google scholar search for medications and falls

8th Feb from @ClarkMike: Falls tip -make sure any daily living equipment is well-maintained and meets your needs – secondhand could be poor quality/unsafe

8th Feb from @ClarkMike: Falls tip - #telecare can turn on lights when you get out of bed or raise the alarm if you fall or don’t return to bed

8th Feb from @ClarkMike: “Falls tip- telecare and falls- Exploring the use of Telecare  

10th Feb from @cardiacdoc1: “Don’t forget this… The overlap between syncope and falls in the elderly“ Shaw and Kenny (1997) The overlap between syncope and falls in the elderly. Postgrad Med J. 1997 October; 73(864): 635–639.

Lessons learned

Obviously, no quick “Top 10 Tips” guide can ever be a substitute for good multi-disciplinary assessment and intervention to prevent and manage falls. I thought our experiment in crowd-sourcing tips from the was a big success. It stimulated discussion among healthcare professionals who self-select to collaborate on Twitter, and was widely spread through their networks. It was critiqued as being quite basic, but the point of it was to show how small actions can help to keep someone safer at home- it was never meant to be a piece of post-graduate medical education.

And yes, next time, I’ll be sure to add in tips about how regular sight checks, telecare solutions, and underlying medical explanations can all add to our understanding of falls prevention! Perhaps we could see similar guides produced by others with more education about these areas than I?

Using social media for professional development at the Leeds #SMSmhealth

I was delighted to attend a social media event in Leeds today, designed for people interested in mental health. I was asked to deliver a workshop  for people interested in using social media for professional development. I was hoping to Live-Stream the workshop, but wasn’t able to connect to the internet from the room I was in, so I promised to blog about it so that you could share in the conversation and add any comments you might have.

What is professional development?

The group kicked off the session explaining a little bit about who they were, what their level of experience in social media was, and what they felt were important elements of professional development. We were able to identify universal elements of what contributed t professional development, in order to look at how we could apply this knowledge to the online media we chose to use. We picked out the main elements we identified as important and listed them- here’s a picture of the jolly selection we made.

Searching for keywords related to fields of interest

After listing the elements of professional development, we were able to identify key words associated with each element, this gave us an idea of some keywords to search for using search engines or social networks. Some of the group were surprised to learn that social networks could be searched for information in this way, and hadn’t considered doing this before. It was pointed out by a group member that Facebook ha just overtaken Google as the pre-eminent search engine (thanks, @northernlightspr!).

We discussed how finding appropriate hashtags could be a useful tool- not just for Twitter, but in using the same principle to locate search terms for any website we wanted to use to find out things we found interesting. We looked at the example of building a network related to occupational therapy.

Searching for individuals to add to our networks.

Another group member (@philjewitt) was able to contribute that by searching in this way, we could find the individuals who were regularly using these searched-for terms, and hence discover new people to add to our networks. Thanks Phil- this was an important point. So, by searching using a tool like Twitter, we could find not only what people were saying about something, but also find out who said lots of things about a topic- this indicates to us they could be interesting to follow, friend, or connect with, as we are likely to be able to talk with them about our shared interest.

Let’s look at searching Twitter for information about using social media in local government, which was an area of interest to several #smsmhealth group members. We identified search terms that we could use:

• localgovernment
• #lgovsm
• #Leeds (or whatever town we’re interested in)

We can then run a search using Twitter:

We can see that conversations are happening around this hashtag, so we know it was an effective search term. We can see current popular discussions taking place, and we can also see some people who are having conversations about the topic that interests us.

Separating and connecting

The best use of social media for professional development comes from having conversations about things that interest us, professionally. To do this, we need conversational partners. We know of a couple of ways we could search in social media to find both topics that interest us, and the people talking about those topics. So, how do we identify if it is a “useful” conversation to have? How do we know that this connection, this conversation, will add value to our experience?

We don’t. But we can make a good guess based on what the other person is saying, and whether they are willing to connect with other people and have conversations. And, we don’t need to make a “forever” decision we can choose to separate and connect with people according to our own rules, interests, time constraints- it’s really up to you.

At a party, you might decide the person that happens to be in the kitchen with you is a total hoot, and spend the rest of the evening having a great time chatting together, whether you disagree about everything or if you find you have lots in common. Or you may locate the person at the party that you find you have uncomfortable silences with. That’s okay. We are always civil with each other, but we employ the same social skills we use everyday at work or at a party to continue some conversations, and politely separate from others. We’ve got finite attention and time, and we get to choose how we spend it. It’s not a judgement on anybody else.

Building a network

The purpose of all this connecting and having conversations is to build our network. By developing the links we share with people we “meet” in social media, we can gain insights, share experiences, discuss issues that matter to us, and develop in a professional sense. We are developing a network based on shared interests, or a professional practice-based network (or both!)

To develop professionally, it is important to have access to high quality information, access to research, and membership of professional groups (as we discussed earlier). We’re using social media to achieve these aims. If you’re trying out Twitter for professional development (and I recommend you do), then aim to gather about 100 people to “follow” before you decide whether or not the network works for you.

Becoming a “network node”

Building a network and becoming more influential within it is the process of  becoming “network nodes“. This means we are becoming a person or link in the network where information (stories, opinions, facts, fallacies) is efficiently passed further on through the network. The better the network, the better the information contained within it.  As we become “network nodes”, we’re adding value to the overall development of the networks, by virtue of our curation both of the network and of the information within it.

Curating your network

Growing a network is great fun and very rewarding, but how do we avoid becoming overloaded with all this information, and all the conversations we would like to join in with but don’t have time? The answer lies in curating the network, and via this, curating the information flow. This can be done in several ways.

• Trim your follows

As you follow or friend lots of people, you might find it becoming difficult to keep up with everything that’s going on. This is a clue that it’s time to curate, cull, or trim your follows. This can be done in several ways, including by putting people in lists, by using various tools to clear out people who aren’t active members of the network, or just by redefining your own rules about what you talk about or how much time you have to spend on a network.

• Think about time in the network

Are you being strategic about the scare time resource you have in this network? Do you have expectations of doing professional development within a 9-5 framework? Are you able to committ to times when people are having the best conversations? Early morning is my favourite time, but most people Tweet from 7-9pm, that’s why so many Tweetchats are  on at this time.

• Its okay to be non-linear!

Social network chatting is great when you are online at the same time as the person you’re chatting with, but people don’t expect instant responses. We are all busy, and that’s okay. It’s great to send a quick message saying you’d like to pick up a subject with someone another time, but lots of people find it better to write a blog-post to expand an opinion and share it widely by linking to it in social media- commenting on people’s posts and writing your own is a great way to have deeper conversations with other people in your network. So if you find yourself worrying about “keeping up” with what’s being said, please relax. As your network grows and you curate a network that is bespoke to your professional interests, your network will start to filter information. Things that you find interesting will probably be shared several times, from different directions. Trust that the information you need will get to you. It will.

I hope you’ve found the information I’ve shared useful, and I hope you can take away a couple of strategies to apply to your own practice. Social media can enhance our professional development in new ways- and I find Twitter particularly useful. Go on, give it a try!

I’m interested to know what you think- what tips would you share for people who are just starting to think about using social media in this way?

Thanks to all the participants in the workshop at #smsmhealth in Leeds today, and to Leeds and York Partnerships Foundation Trust and Leeds Mind for co-hosting the event.

If you would like to talk to me about delivering training and mentoring in using social media professionally within your organisation or practice, do get in touch.

Other blogs about #smsmhealth:

@VictoriaBetton http://digitalmentalhealth.co.uk/wp/?p=271

@_jonb http://smsmhealth.tumblr.com/

Resources for Social Media for Professional Development

@claireot on demonstrating clinical leadership through using social media http://theclnnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/social-media-not-just-peter-andres.html

@claireot How to Tweet http://claireot.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/how-to-twitter/

@wenurses Twitterversity guide to Twitter http://www.wenurses.co.uk/Resources/twitterversity.php

The Not So Big Society blog with great example of how NOT to do it http://notsobigsociety.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/how-not-to-debate-with-health-professionals-on-twitter/

@claireot on Littlefeet- a case study of the consequences of poor staff digital literacy in a mental health inpatients unit http://claireot.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/censorship-or-duty-of-care-little-feet-blogging-on-an-acute-mental-health-inpatients-ward/

and the Littlefeet case study develops the Streisand Effect http://claireot.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/little-feet-pursues-pals-an-update-in-the-mental-health-inpatients-blogging-debate/

OT Resources:

OTalk and Occhat Blog

OTalk and Occhat Twitter

OTalk and Occhat Facebook Page

OT4OT Facebook Group

OT24Vx- the 24hr Virtual Exchange- on Facebook

#MedEdMOOC, #HCPMOOC or #HealthMOOC?

The process of developing the MOOC for HCP continues apace, but there are still issues we need to hammer out in order to see the maximum possible engagement in the event, and the greatest possible learning opportunities presented to the greatest possible number (at least, that’s where I’m coming from).

There are currently 240 000 Allied health professionals in the UK alone, and over 350 000 nurses and midwives. But the focus of the MedEdMOOC, from the naming of it onwards seems to reflect almost exclusively the narrow group that is concerned with the education of Medics. I am glad that Dean Jenkins picked up on this idea in his recent blog, and that it is reopened for discussion.

But, how did this happen? Is it that medics are ahead of other HCP groups in their use of online technology? Is it that medical educators are a particularly technologically gifted group? Is it that other HCPs dont yet have an understanding of the potential of online technology? Is it that somehow we are excluding other HCP from the development process? I’m not sure of the answers to these questions, but I think it is useful for me to frame them such that I may reflect on them throughout the process and beyond. If you have any views about this, I would love to hear them in the comments.

The topics we are planning to cover over a six week spread are based around these working titles:

Week 1. Theory- Connectivism vs constructionism

Week 2. Learning- where are we now on the social web?

Week 3. Doing- Improving healthcare delivery in a networked world

Week 4. Collaborative Models (including CPD in social spaces)

Week 5. Barriers- what are they and how can we overcome them?

Week 6. Content to be decided by participants.

Now, looking at these titles for the weeks’ content, there is nothing that is exclusive to medics- in fact, all these topics can be used by any healthcare professionals. As a MOOC is likely to contain more content than any one person wishes to engage with, it may be that there are profession specific items that appeal more to one profession than another. But it is interesting to me that event though I have been involved in the planning of the event, I am holding prejudices about the process; doubts about whether my professional skills are of value to the process; wondering why more Allied Health Professionals are not on board with the development of the MOOC.

For what it’s worth here are my thoughts.

The name MedEdMOOC is an exclusive title, implying that content to be developed must be relevant to medical practice and be concerned with the education of medical practitioners. In my view, we could re-visit this naming decision to reflect a more inclusive title.

The development team is composed largely of medics. This means every decision is taken through that filter. Decisions are unconsciously made using the frame of reference from within medicine and medical education.

I’m excited about taking advantage of the principles of the MOOC to explore connectivity, horizontal flows of information, networked learning and professional developments that include exposure to the broad range of models used in healthcare delivery. But, to do that successfully, we either need a broader range of HCP involved in the planning, or very committed participants from different disciplines, who will then generate further content.

I also believe that the event will benefit from some real life experiences that participants can choose to be a part of. Myself and two colleagues are delivering a “Social Media Surgery” at our professional conference in Glasgow during the MOOC. This will provide us with the opportunity to explore either LiveStreaming an element of the workshop, or at least utilising Skype chat facility or similar to ensure people outside the room can be included. We may also choose to deliver an additional session for the participants online (venue and organisers’ indulgence permitting!)

I am planning an event in Leeds towards the end of June. I aim to get together the community of practice surrounding the #nhssm Tweetchat and some health and social care stakeholders. I hope that this event will similarly be able to be integrated into the MOOC, perhaps as an opportunity to ask questions, perhaps to hack some solutions to challenges we have identified in the uptake of some of these technologies.

Please do engage in the debate surrounding these ideas- we know this is the first health related MOOC planned, and its success is entirely dependent on how well we can identify and meet your learning needs!

What should be included in a #MedEdMOOC? Social Media in Continuing Professional Development

After previously considering what a MOOC for OT, and indeed for healthcare should look like, I am delighted to report that plans are underway to develop the first MOOC for Healthcare Professionals and other interested people, and the name chosen is MedEdMOOC (Medical Education MOOC).

One of the things to be considered, is what content we would wish to see included in the MOOC. I’m hoping to use some posts to record my hopes and fears for the MOOC, and I look forward to reading your comments about what I’ve written.

First, a quick reminder of what a MOOC is.

Social Media in CPD (Continuing Professional Development) for HCP (Healthcare Professionals)

One of my passions is the use of online technology and social media by HCPs to enhance and update their skills and experience, in order to offer the very best care to their patients. This can take many forms, and perhaps one of the nearest “real life” analogies I have is that of a peer supervision group.

Within peer supervision, a group of people without large differentials in status and seniority come together to share their thoughts, feelings, challenges and successes around their practice. Whilst patient confidentiality is observed during such sessions, challenges in particular cases may be shared with the group in order to get renewed insights and ideas about how to move the treament on. Additional insight may feed back into the case formulation, and therefore affect the future direction of treatment. Similarly, where a success has been hard won by our clients, the delight of the therapist involved might be shared with the group, who might be invited to help reflect on what the critical factors might have been.

Other ideas can be introduced, for example in a Journal Club, where people discuss and critically evaluate as a group recent research relevant to their treatment area(s). New assessments may be discussed, evaluated, or even tried out on each other. Audit tools, ways to collate evidence and interpret statistical information- anything at all that affects the way we can provide care is up for discussion.

Peer supervision is a time efficient way of supporting occupational therapists and HCPs in practice, using the benefits of group process in addition to the benefits of the individual reflective process. In some ways, it can be seen as the equivalent to a therapeutic group as used within OT practice- in that group process and support from peers is as important as the quality of the supervision received.

I see many parallels in the use of peer supervision offline and the use of communities of practice that form online through social media use, or by clustering around topics of mutual interest. One of the differences is that in the online space through the use of social media, this process often happens in a public space, rather than a private one. This changes the experience of membership of the group.

It contains opportunities as well as challenges:

Opportunities

• By extending the membership beyond natural boundaries such as the employer or the physical location, groups may coalesce around mutual interest where before insufficient members were present in any single location.
• Groups can be flexible, and a fluid membership can mean that new members can join the group at any time.
• The non-heirarchical nature of the medium supports the formation of a group of “peers”, despite differences in status that might be apparent in “real life”. This can offer new opportunities to freely share with each other.
• Groups can offer opportunities to develop confidence and skills in presenting information in an online format.
• Group membership can lead to “real-life” relationships and support in an offline setting.
• The public nature of the setting may serve as a reminder of acceptable public behaviour and mores related to professional role, embedding these behaviours in further online activity such as social networking; in line with professional guidance.
• The public nature of the group means that insights from experts can be fed directly into the group, ensuring accuracy of the information and relevance of the opinions present.
• The transparency of this approach may be attractive to HCPs who find it in line with their personal philosophy.
• Patients and the public may be reassured to understand that this process is part of the “back end” of therapeutic work or medicine, ensuring the support they receive is evidence based, and the basis for clinical decision making may be better understood as a result.

Challenges

• The public nature of the group can inhibit the most frank discussions of difficulties in practice.
• Where social media guidance is lacking or insufficient, mistakes around information governance, or exposure of the individual practitioner to risk, may occur.
• Rich information captured in body language and non-verbal cues in the “real-life” group setting may be lost in the online group.
• Engagement in the activities may not be valued by the employer and traditional line-management structure, undermining the value of the process.
• Participants could undervalue the process because of the fluidity and ease of membership, thus “drop out” before real benefits are gained.
• Disruptive influences could “flood” the online space making positive progress of the group within the space difficult.

It is my hope that the MOOC will offer space not only to develop CPD for HCP, but also offer a structure around which HCP can reflect and discuss these challenges and opportunities presented by CPD in a community based in an online environment.

These are my initial thoughts about the value of looking at CPD within a healthcare MOOC, what are yours?

Social Media Analytics (1) Klout and Algorithims

A short post today about analysing your social media impact.

Opinions vary about the usefulness of this, especially since the results are based on aalgorithims that we do not, as end users, have access to. Rumours abound on social media about how these algorithims work, so I would have to add this proviso when inspecting your own analysis:

• algorithims do not take full account of your influence online
• algorithims tend to downgrade your score according to the amount of contact you have with lower scored members- this can run counter to efforts to promote digital engagement, and to mentoring newer members of social networks.
• there is no accepted final evaluation technique of network influence- all we have are the products available to us online, which are subject to the above provisos.
• algorithims are, however quite fascinating. See this fantastic TED Talk by KevinSlavin:

You will be able to see industry leaders in your topics of interest are generally at the top of lists whichever product you use, what is harder is to correctly capture the influence of people who are not “power users” of social media.

This can mean that job role can have an impact on the eventual scores- if your job does not allow you to Tweet regularly, then you may have a lower score no matter howw reliable and trusted your links will be.

1. Klout this free service recently tweaked it’s algorithim; some users were unaffected whilst others (including me!) saw their score reduce significantly. What does that mean? Watch this video to find out:

Klout allows us to offer +K to our “influencers”, people who have contributed to our understanding of a topic of mutual interest. It shows which topics we are supposed to be influential about, although this is a bit of a standing joke- most people hae experienced some confusion the first time they are announced to be influential about, for instance popcorn, skating, or entymology, if they have only ever Tweeted about their professional interests! Mashable have developed this guide to Klout.

That’s all for this post, next time I will be looking at other ways to measure online influence including:

1. Peer Index
2. Tweet Reach

Using Facebook to foster social interaction in older people after acquired brain injury. Anita Hamilton 2011

I have found a great example of how we can use Social Media (in this case, Facebook) to foster social engagement in older adults after acquired brain injury.

A.hamilton festival of teaching 2011

View more documents from Anita Hamilton

As can be seen, as Occupational Therapists we need to look at Social Media such as Facebook and adapt and grade the activity of engaging with them in the same way we would with any offline activity. By instilling another layer of support, of educating in digital literacy, in enabling our clients to use motivational activity such as computer gaming; by these mechanisms we may enable recovery through Social Media as we would through any other OT activity.

Anita Hamilton can be found on Twitter as @VirtualOT

Excuse me, I think I just did a MOOC.

I stumbled across this description of a MOOC when reading this OT blog last week.

Blimey. I thought. That’s what I’ve been looking for. In fact, that’s what I’ve been doing!

In fact, I haven’t. Not by a long chalk. Helen has been participating in an incredible event, called #eduMOOC2011, which is an eight week course now into it’s fifth week. So it’s not exactly what I’ve been doing, but rather, something I wish I’d been doing…

It really is a great concept aiming to develop networked learning. This reminds me of how knowledge is spread through insect colonies.

In a bee hive, for instance, the various worker bees go out to find food. On their return , they perform little bee dances to tell the other hive members about what the food is, where it is, how far you have to fly, and all the other stuff bees like to know. Excuse my rather vague handle on this- I’m no entymologist!

My point is, that this is how social media works. Like the bees, we tell others in our networks where the good information is, and others then follow our pointers to events, to URLs, to engage in “clicktivism”, whatever.

Gradually we develop trusted networks for curation of content and they become a short-cut- we know we can trust their opinion on how useful the content is.

(Question- do bees ever tell lies about food? or do they have better and worse bees/colonies for successfully transmitting information? I would love to know!)

Over time, we develop networks of people who are looking for similar content. Like the bee hive, we are greater than the sum of our parts, because we can utilise far greater “processing power” by collaborating together online than we can as individuals.

Okay, I’m going to leave the analogy there, and talk about MOOC.

As the video above explains, MOOC is just a way of describing the process of acquiring knowledge which, in previous times, may only have been available through learned institutions, and through diligent attention to books, journals, or lectures. People without access to these forms of learning could therefore be left behind. But as this clip from RSA shows, how we conceive of education now has to change, for several reasons.

• Cost. University education is now very expensive. For people who do not wish to become endebted, it could be the case that this form of learning is an effective way to continue to develop and learn without attending university. Perhaps universities will spot this and offer a discounted rate for people to sit qualifications without access to their limited spaces in lecture theatres?
• Social exclusion. People who experience stigma because of mental illness or other reasons could find that they are able to learn removed from the pressures of the social environment of a university? I wouldn’t want to recommend this as an adaptive response to social phobia or fear of stigma, but I can imagine circumstances (Asperger’s?) where this would make accommodation for someone’s particular needs or sensory sensitivities.
• Lifestyle. People who are looking after children or other family members may wish to work from home, in hours of their own choosing. This could offer a solution for those groups, much like the OU does, but again, at less cost.
• Bad experiences in formal education. So many people have felt excluded from education due to their bad experiences at school. Some of them may not have been diagnosed with learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyscalculia or dyspraxia until later in life, and suffered bullying in school from pupils or staff. Many people who have had poor experiences could be encouraged to gain basic skills, or update their knowledge ahead of trying out more formal routes of education, in a supportive network of people.

So what is my point?

What I am thinking of, as ever, is the application of this understanding to my OT practice and to the possibilities for growth it represents.

• I love learning. I intend to continue learning all my life. I am determined to engage with the idea of a MOOC, just to see where it takes me.

• I would love to see an OTMOOC event shape up- perhaps after this year’s virtual exchange we could plan one to culminate in next year’s virtual exchange? However, for the time being, I’m going to MOOC about using the online resources I already have.

1. My network of OT blogs that you can see on the right hand side is a good place to start——–>
2. And if you are dipping your toes in the water of online technology as an OT, I would strongly urge you to complete this short survey to provide us with more of an evidence base about how our profession is using online tech (add your email at the end if you want to be entered into the prize draw for an iPod!)
3. Also, are you aware of the OT4OT blog? It’s a good place to share information about how OTs are using online technology.
4. Coming up is the 24 hour OT Virtual Exchange- widely billed as the conference you can attend in your pyjamas- on 26th October 2011, 24 presentations from around the world highlighting a range of different OT approaches available at a computer near you, and at absolutely no cost. Check out the facebook group.

• As ever, we need to remember that there are possibilities for practice within this model.

1. One of the roles of the OT is in health education. We can offer our unique occupational perspective through this technique as much as any other.
2. Education about aids and adaptations can be hugely useful. I have lost count of the numbers of people I have shown products to through websites when they would never have set foot into a mobility showroom. We could make great strides in ensuring our service users have access to this information online.
3. Perhaps videos of people who are doing Occupational Therapy, to show how this benefits them? (With all appropriate consents etc.)

Once more, this doesn’t solve the problem of digital exclusion. That has to be tackled. But as more and more people have access to technology such as smartphones, we can hope that the day is not far off that we can ensure fair and equitable access to information.

On that day, we can all MOOC together.

I like the sound of that. Do you?

Google+ has arrived

First of all, let’s get one thing straight. I am very conflicted about Facebook. On the one hand, I dislike their ownership of my content, their constant default privacy settings that are too public and I have to go in and change them every few weeks, it seems. But on the other hand, EVERYONE is on Facebook, so whether I want to connect with family overseas, or I want to extend my professional network, Facebook is where I have to go.

Cartoon by xkcd. Original here.

But now, Google+ has  arrived. And it is ever so shiny and new and out-of-the-box use-able. I admit. I’ve fallen a little in love with it this weekend. There is already plenty of information out there about how to use it, and I thought I would collate it for the benefit of OTs. I thought I would share with you some of my brainstorm about how tech. like this could change the way we work.  Because if this takes off, it’s going to transform how services are delivered, how we connect professionally, how we manage our online content. The possibilities are there, evident already (although there are still some bugs that need fixing).

Firstly, about inclusion. I think we all know that with the use of FB lists we can keep our privacy and still maintain engagement with the wider online world. But personally, I have always found FB lists to be awkward, and I have found it hard to keep up with adding people to lists when friending them. With G+, in a similar way, people are added to circles. Now, this is pretty much the same trick as a list, posts can be restricted to a certain circle or individual, or offered up to the entire interwebs. The difference is that this is much more of an iOS feel to it. People are clicked and dropped into circles, and there are sweet animations to show people adding and being taken away from circles. You may define the names of your circles, and the names of the circles are not disclosed to the people in them. This means it is easier, and more natural, to drop people into circles. And the feature is an accurate reflection of our natural social groupings, or indeed, work groups.

Hangouts is a great feature and one which FB will be working double time to replicate within the platform (rumour has it they are making a deal with Skype to be announced next week). Hangouts are video conferences which can be shared, as circles, with as closed or as open a group as you wish. There are also Huddles, which are available on Android phones currently. these are a little like FB chats, and I can see them being useful in the same way we use chats now.

Unlike FB, at any time, you are free to download all your data from G+, which is a concern for many people (me included) and means you need never worry about losing photos and video. G+ is also much more transparent about how your data will be used.

From Mashable

Initially, it seems as if the revenue stream from the advertising that Google sells will be sufficient to allow G+ to operate without annoying ads. We’ll have to see how that one pans out.

I like the way that Google have started from the principle of the social web, and superimposed the layers of functionality upon it, something that was noted by the founder of MySpace when asked about it. This means that rather than trying to code a social layer on top of the already extant web function, the social nature of G+ feels more like it should. Natural. Because humans are social creatures, it should feel natural for us to be social through this medium. (idea- perhaps some social skills training can be delivered by MH OTs online?)

G+ is delivered very naturally through Android as a mobile app. This is good, because Android smartphones are cheaper entry-level devices (than Apple), and the app stores are gaining ground on Apple all the time. But the reason that is important for us, is that if we re-frame this kit as adaptive equipment, we can see that affordability is an important feature (could we see the day a smartphone is paid for by direct payments? through Access to Work? through Disabled Student’s Allowance? through small, voluntary sector grants?)

Potentially, these features add up to a pretty unbeatable platform. And the fact that once in, it feels natural to try out other Google products that we may not have used yet could mean G+ has a big future ahead.

There are many possibilities of how we could use G+ in practice. Here, I’m going to brainstorm just a few that immediately spring to mind.

• How about a closed network of people- perhaps a journal club, or a long-arm supervisor and supervisee on an emerging role placement. They could share information through the circles feature, and have a weekly hangout meeting within G+.

• I believe that G+ could be used with service users, perhaps to maintain engagement in therapeutic programmes, such as a Recovery Group, and offer peer support between sessions.

• Perhaps G+ could be used to deliver sessions- either in an educational context a tutorials for OTs, or for service users and carers, around specific issues or for mutual support.

• The possibilities for Telecare. With this (FREE!) technology, social enterprises could be developed which check in with clients-through video as well as text, enabling people to remain more independant for longer.

• Perhaps there’s a use with people with learning disabilities who are living independantly for the first time, but need a little support as they attempt the recipe they practised with the OT last week?

You see, OTs are great. As we know, OTs are able to adapt environments to suit an individual’s strengths and needs to enable them to perform meaningful activity. And there’s no reason why the online environment is any different than any other. It just got a whole lot easier.

A quick summary of stuff I’ve read about G+ so far:

• As usual, Mashable is on the money with a quick round up of the pros and cons of G+ and has also reviewed Google+
• Katie Bacon blogs about the potential G+ vs FB battle for our screentime
• PC World blogs 10 quick tips to get started on G+
• Great easy 25 tips to help you get started- by Webtrikz
• A great plug-in by Mohamed Mansour (of RIM) which means your G+ updates can migrate to FB and Twitter, and therefore can be used like Ping, Posterous etc.

Have a look at this guidance

A working group has already been developing the guidance for nhs professionals using social networking sites in their professional practice.

Link available here: http://www.library.nhs.uk/KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENT/ViewResource.aspx?resID=289920

edit: sorry, this link no longer seems to work 24/07/2011

Link provided by Sarah Bodell, who is running an excellent entirely online MSc programme in Occupational Therapy at Salford.

The conference was reported in the informaticopia blog:

http://www.rodspace.co.uk/blog/2008/05/masterclass-event-social-networking-in.html

This link to a blog shows how the simplest social networking tools such as Flickr can be used in order to get people “switched on” to social networking- which I find pleasing to hear since this is my tactic!

http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conBlogPost.436

Another interesting link, although this research is not systematically carried out and therefore the results are not reliable. This is a view of some of the staff I have worked with, who are concerned for the social implications of the people we work with on social networking sites.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/02February/Pages/Facebookhealthstudy.aspx

So much food for thought…will digest some of this and try to formulate my thoughts more coherently.