Monthly Archives: November 2017

Occupational Therapy Scholar Series: Fall 2017

The Fall 2017 semester brought three expert guest speakers to the department of Occupational Therapy as part of our OT Scholar Series. We were honored to have these insightful researchers visit the department to speak to students, faculty, and staff about current issues in the field.

Dr. Peii Chen, Research Scientist, Kessler Foundation
Topic: Rehabilitation Research on Spatial Neglect

Dr. Peii Chen is a neurorehabilitation scientist at Kessler Foundation. Dr. Chen’s work is mostly focused on spatial neglect. It is a common syndrome following a traumatic brain injury or a stroke. Spatial neglect and its related disorders provide great insights to the understanding of spatial cognition and its underlying neural networks. Symptoms of spatial neglect can be manifested in various ways depending on the impaired sector or reference frame of spatial representation, the affected perceptual modality, or the ability in motor control. There is no single treatment that effectively ameliorates every symptom.  Dr. Chen has been working on developing and refining clinical assessment and treatment tools for patients with spatial neglect, naming the Kessler Foundation Neglect Assessment Process (KF-NAP™) and the Kessler Foundation Prism Adaptation Treatment (KF-PAT™).

Abraham A. Brody, PhD, RN, FPCN, Associate Professor, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, Associate Director, Hartford institute for Geriatric Nursing
Topic: Utilizing Community-Based Participatory Research to Develop Interprofessional Interventions in Caring for Vulnerable Populations

Dr. Brody is an expert in home-based inter-professional care of seriously ill older adults. His program of research focuses on how to improve symptom assessment and management of dementia and other chronic conditions through inter-professional care in community based settings including home health and hospice. He also seeks to understand how effective inter-professional care in these settings effects quality of life, healthcare utilization, and healthcare costs. Dr. Brody is a current Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar, a Cambia Healthcare Foundation Sojourns Scholar, and has multiple grants from the NIH, John A. Hartford Foundation, and VA in this area.

Dr. Ji-Hyuk Park, PhD, OT, Chair, Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Health Science, Yonsei University, Republic of Korea
Topic: Therapeutic Effects of Occupation in Neurological Disorders

In occupational therapy, occupation is the therapeutic media used to improve the functional performance of participation and quality of life. Natural motivated behavior, animal model of occupation, increases the levels of neurotrophic factors enhancing neural plasticity. Experience and occupation guide changes in the neural system, as reported by nonscientific evidence in animal and human studies. Experience-dependent plasticity is induced by occupational experiences in human. Therapeutic occupation used for patients with neurological disorder should be a motivated task-oriented activity specified to a target performance skill, highly intensive, and close to a real occupation in everyday life. This kind of therapeutic activity can enhance functional recovery through experience-dependent plasticity in the human brain.

 

Kristie Patten Koenig Wins Patricia Buehler Legacy Award for Clinical Innovation

We are proud to announce that department chair and associate professor Kristie Patten Koenig was awarded the USC Chan Division’s 2017 Patricia Buehler Legacy Award for Clinical Innovation. Dr. Koenig was presented the award on November 14 when she presented her research on the efficacy of interventions utilized in public schools for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders, with a special emphasis on applications of strength-based paradigms in inclusive settings.

Janet Njelesani Awarded Funding from Provost’s Global Research Initiative

Janet Njelesani, assistant professor in the OT department, has received funding of $10,000 from the Provost’s Global Research Initiative to establish a Global Disability-based Violence Research Group for the field of occupational therapy.
Reducing violence against persons with disabilities is a task not just for social and justice services but for the health and rehabilitation sector too. To date occupational therapy has played a limited role in this discourse. The aim is to bring together occupational therapy researchers and have an initial coordination workshop to discuss the feasibility of establishing a Global Disability-based Violence Research Group for the field of occupational therapy that aims to gather, collate, review, and carry out research to help understand, monitor, and alleviate disability-based violence.  The initial workshop will be held in Cape Town, South Africa in May 2018.

 

Now Accepting Nominations for the 2nd Annual Jim Hinojosa Award

The annual Jim Hinojosa Alumni Award was established in honor of Dr. Jim Hinojosa‘s immense contributions to the NYU Department of Occupational Therapy and to the OT profession as a whole. This award seeks to recognize an outstanding NYU OT Alumni who has made significant contributions to the profession. The award will be presented at the Department’s 2018 Alumni Reception at the annual AOTA Conference. Recipients will receive $500 and will be featured in the Department’s Blog/Newsletter.

The nomination period for the 2018 Jim Hinojosa Alumni Award is open through January 15, 2018. In order to submit a nomination, please complete the form below.

Follow this link to the Application: 
2018 Jim Hinojosa Alumni Award Nomination Form