National AOTA Convention in Nashville

My time in Nashville at the National Occupational Therapy Convention was an AMAZING week full of learning, opportunities, open doors, & God's blessings. By the end of the week I was overwhelmed by all the ways God had moved. I was truly blessed by the opportunity to go the national AOTA convention. I was suppose to be back in Haiti and so had not even looked into going plus I had never been to a national convention so it wasn't even on my mind. So how did I end up there... Well I had been helping a professor from Indiana OT department with information for a grant she was working on applying for and she is the one who encouraged me to look into going. I am so thankful & grateful for all Meg did to help me to get there. None of the following would have happened if it wasn't for her. And since then she has accompanied me to NYC for a CEU course (look for blog to follow) then I visited her in Indiana AND she will be coming into Haiti this summer!!! 

I flew into Nashville early Wednesday morning and had the wonderful opportunity of meeting up with a college OT friend Kathleen. She was so gracious to pick me up from the airport and then we had a wonderful time catching up during breakfast. She then took me to the hotel I was staying at. I was staying with a group of OT professors from Indiana who I had never met in person but had been working with Meg for a few weeks over the phone. It was so wonderful to get to know each of the 3 ladies pictured below throughout the week :-) We shared many stories, experiences, & laughter. We all learned a lot and enjoyed our time at the conference. It was fun at the end of the day to meet up and share stories about what we each learned throughout the day. 

Roxanne, Me, Paula, Meg

I had the wonderful opportunity of going out to dinner with them & their second year students 1 night and then on another night Meg & I went out for dinner with the first year students & then went to a karaoke bar with them. It was a lot of fun to meet there students as well as share with many of them the work I do in Haiti and the opportunity to do OT outside the country. 

Meg & some of her students singing Karoke

The conference was much bigger than I expected. It was nice though because most of the time it did not feel big because the sessions were smaller groups of people but the opening night ceremony is when you realized just how big it was with almost 8,000 OT's in one room. Below is a pictures from the opening night. They even had a semi famous country band play a little concert at the biginning which was a lot of fun!

Another highlight of my trip was catching up with old friends :-) 2 of my American students who have come to Haiti for internships under me were at the convention. It was so wonderful to see them both and catch up. I was also able to see 1 of my co-workers from when I lived in Vegas.

Allyson- 1 of my students 

Leah-another 1 of my students

Deborah- my co-worker in Vegas

I learned so much during the conference and was able to attend many sessions. Below I listed the sessions & Poster Presentations I attended just to give you a glimpse into how much I was able to learn.

~ Managing Ataxia and Movement Disorders

~The Impact of Global Service Learning

~Pediatric Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy: Innovative Programs for Low-Income Countries & Rural Areas

~Identification & Treatment Of Sleep Disturbances in Children

~International Telehealth Perspective: Development of the World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) Telehealth Position Statement

~Exploration in Global Health: Interprofessional Partnerships in Learning via TraveLearn to China

~Pediatric Practice in the Rural United States

~Faculty and student expectations and outcomes: Examine an OT study-abroadexperience in Ghana

~Best Practices for International Service Learning: What Does the Literature Tell Us?

~AOTA building a Globally-Connected Profession: AOTA Linking With World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) Initiatives-Progress and Collaborations

~Occupational Therapy Without Borders: Navigating an Interprofessional Medical Mission Trip to Undeserved Countries

~Designing Therapeutic Apps: A step by step guide

~Setting Stage for Professional Collaboration: Interprofessional Education for OT and PT students

~ Evidence-Based Executive Function Intervention That Improves School Participation Among Children on the Autism Spectrum

~A Measure of Participation and the Sensory Environment for Young children with Autism

~Best Practices for Occupational Therapy in the Schools

~It Takes A Village: Interdisciplinary Assessment and Intervention Addressing Feeding Disorders and Mealtime Challenges

~A Comparison of Classroom to International Service Learning Experiences in the Development of Cultural Competence

~Application of the Kawa Model To Inform International Inter-professional Community-Based Practice

~Integrating & Transforming Service Learning to Psychosocial Fieldwork

~An On-Campus Pediatric OT Clinic Provides Service Learning Opportunities for Students While Meeting Community Needs

~Community-Based Fieldwork: A Collaboration Between Occupational Therapy Students and a Foster Care Alternative Organization.

~Ghana Make a Difference: Health Promotion & OT

~Facilitating Occupational Justice For Kenyan Children & Women

~Community Based Practice With Refugees and Survivors of Torture: Innovations in Academia, Practice, and student fieldwork.

It was so awesome how many international seminars and posters their were. I loved getting to see what others in the OT field are doing around the world. I was also able to make some incredible connections including 1 professor offering for her students to make my etiology handouts for Haiti which will save me hours of work and another professor offer for her students to translate all my current handouts into spanish (my goal is that my handouts will be in different languages and thus be able to help more children & families). 

A Mind opening and door opening experience was learning about the World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT). WFOT takes a leadership role in the OT profession and increases its liaison with other international organizations. I did not know about this organization till my time at the conference. One of their goals is to help countries who do not have OT to develop it in their country. They also hold the certain standards so that all countries are held to a specific standard for the practice of OT. Haiti currently does not have an OT program. 

 Now to share my God moments....
First I have to start with a little back story Janet O'Flynn from NY contacted me a few weeks ago as she & some of her colleagues & friends were working to start the first ever 4 year OT and PT bachelor programs in Haiti. She got my name from a few people that had met me in Haiti and actually had gotten my name from my student Allyson as well. a few weeks before the conference in Nashville I was able to have a long phone conversation with her about their plans about this GREAT program. Well we had set up to meet on Saturday of the conference. On Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to not only meet Janet but some of the other team members as well as the delegate for Columbia for the World Federation of Occupational Therapy.

Allyson (my OT student), Liliana (Delegate from Columbia), Me, Jami Flick, Janet O'Flynn

During our conversation we realized that in order for the therapy school that will be opening this fall in Haiti to be recognized & accredited through the WFOT the country of Haiti had to have a National OT Society which it currently does not have. An OT living in Haiti is recommended to start the program. Since there are only 3 OTs living in Haiti (and I just learned about the other 2 from the WFOT) I was elected to start the national OT society. I have till March 2016 to write a constitution (i can request constitutions from other countries to assist in writing it). In March the constitution will be taken to Columbia to the next regional WFOT meeting. If the constitution is accepted Haiti will have a voice at the table for the rest of the meetings. This is so EXCITING and a HUGE step forward for getting OT into Haiti & recognized in the culture!

I am standing in Awe of all the doors God opened during the convention. A little overwhelmed...like what did I get myself into but also excited to see how God moves and uses this.