Category: Newsletter 8

#Heartbeat for the world

Occupational Therapy students and lecturers at Special Olympics World Winter Games 2017

70 students from our programme grasped the opportunity to work as volunteers at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Graz, Schladming and Ramsau in the province of Styria, Austria in March of 2017. Within the Special Olympic’s very own health program “Healthy Athletes”, and tutored by their instructors, some of them made use of their OT skills and expertise by practising stress coping strategies with athletes (“Strong Minds”) and advising them individually on matters of prevention and health promotion (“Health Promotion”.)  Some others prepared and carried out occupation-based workshops for athletes, their coaches and their families. Another group of students developed their intercultural skills by supporting the international participants as a part of the “delegation service team”. Our students contributed a total of 2504 voluntary work hours. The program “Strong Minds” was so successful that it has been made a permanent element of the respected “Healthy Athletes” program.

Preparation for these activities had started over a year before the Games.  Students analysed the athletes’ needs at the Pre-Games, learned about non-verbal and intercultural communication, then devised their programs and carried out pre- tests with similar target groups. 

Brigitte Loder-Fink; Stefanie Schwarzl; Gabriele Schwarze; Romana Toriser (FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences, Graz / Bad Gleichenberg, Austria).

Photograph showing Timothy P. Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics, with OT students and instructors.

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As part of the lecture “Project Development and Presentation” students at the faculty of Occupational Therapy at the Carinthian University of Applied Sciences were able to familiarize themselves with the process of additive manufacturing, also known as 3D-Printing.

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Marie-Antoinette Minis
(ENOTHE President)[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]Dear members of ENOTHE,

In our strategy plan it has been stated that building partnerships among members is an important goal. Therefore, we the board are pleased to announce that several efforts have been taken by members to find contacts through board members. However the task of the board is to encourage and empower members to find partners through the network themselves during the year and at the General Assembly. This is why we invite you all to use the website and this newsletter to publish announcements to find each other whether this about a certain topic, exchange of ideas or sending in an abstract for a workshop where ideas can be exchanged during the Annual Meeting. Use the network to learn from each other.[/ezcol_2third_end]

Topics mentioned in several e-mails:

• How to use simulation contacts in education.
• How to examine practice placement education for students in the changing educational landscape.
• Support in the Design and Delivery of Degree programme In Occupational Therapy.   

Also announcements and invitations find their way to the board:

“Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacău, in collaboration with “Angel Kancev” University of Russe, Bulgaria and the associations of both countries have undertaken the venture of organizing the 1st International OT Conference – Present State and Future Prospects on the 16th and 17th of June 2017 in Bacau, Romania (PDF 489 kB). 

Sincerely, PhD. senior lecturer, Marinela Rata

Further news:

The British Journal of Occupational Therapy invited the President of COTEC and ENOTHE to write an editorial about the output of the OT-EU workshops in Galway. The title of the publication is: Using evidence-based practice and research in political arenas.

Don’t forget: share the newsletter with your colleagues.

Sincerely yours,
Marie-Antoinette