Tag: occupational therapy

The pandemic may have forced it to take place over a video conference instead of in person, but the physical distance didn’t prevent Thursday’s Kosair Charities and enTECH Virtual Day of Celebration from living up to its name in the joyful, celebratory spirit of the holiday season.

Leaders from Spalding University and Kosair Charities joined the online call to meet the families that are receiving gifts of assistive technology for their children who face physical challenges and cognitive differences.

The gifts, to be distributed in the coming weeks through enTECH and its Kosair Charities Financial Assistance Program, will provide the children with therapeutic, educational and sensory benefits and help them with communication, speech, mobility and play.

enTECH Overview| Visit home page of the assistive technology resource center

The gifts included Apple iPads with the latest assistive-technology apps and accessories, switch toys, floatation devices that help with bathing, and communication and writing tools. The devices and apps are often not covered by insurance and can very expensive if purchased out of pocket.

Brittany Farris was thankful that her 23-month-old daughter, Leah, would being receiving a series of specialized switch toys to help her play.

“Most toys that are typical for a child her age, she just cannot play with,” Brittany Farris said. “It’s been one of those things where we’re like, ‘How can we get her switch toys?’ Insurance does not want to pay for play things for children sometimes. So it’s been quite difficult to get some of these items, and we’re just truly so appreciative of each and every item. And I promise we will utilize them and really appreciate what you guys are doing.”

Shamenda Harper Livingston said her sixth-grade son Kinjay would benefit from the LAMP Words for Life communications app he’d be receiving, adding that he has been thriving as an honor-roll student at Johnson Traditional Middle School. Additionally, Kinjay’s new Apple Pencil “will really help him make his letters and writing a little better and more legible,” his mom said.

The Kosair Charities Enabling Technologies of Kentuckiana assistive technology resource center – or enTECH, for short – is a division of Spalding’s Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy and is located on Spalding’s campus at 812 S. Second St. in the former Kosair Shrine Temple. It is one of five state-designated assistive technology resource centers in Kentucky, and it offers a range of therapy services. Kosair Charities is a major supporter of its programs and facilities.

“This partnership with Spalding is so important because Spalding is not afraid to think big and bold, and that’s what we need in this world: big and bold thinking,” Kosair Charities President Keith Inman said. “So this is going to be a partnership that’s going to last a long, long time.

“… We’re just honored that we we have the ability to do the little piece that we can do because what you do at Spalding and enTECH, top to bottom, that’s hard work. For 97 years, we have had one goal, and that’s to help children overcome some significant obstacles to reach their full potential. And nowhere is this more evident than on this call.”

Spalding President Tori Murden McClure said that in a year in which the pandemic had limited the joy of so much, Thursday’s virtual celebration with Kosair Charities and enTECH was a return to fun.

“This event (is an occasion in which) we give really important technology and mobility tools to the young ones in a setting where you’re just thrilled to see them, and see the families and the joy and the relief and the fun,” McClure said. “And so I just want to, say, I really love our Kosair Charities partners, and I love enTECH.”

Watch the video of the full Kosair Charities and enTECH Day of Celebration below:

With one of Kentucky’s premier certified hand therapists serving as a lead instructor, Spalding University’s Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy is offering a new graduate certificate and post-professional doctoral track in Upper Extremity Rehabilitation. Unique to this region, the programs will provide occupational therapists with advanced knowledge of the complex physiology and occupations of the hand and arm as well as training in how to evaluate and treat upper-limb injuries.

Spalding is now accepting applications for Fall 2020 for both the certificate and the post-professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) track. Assistant Professor Dr. Greg Pitts, a licensed OT and certified hand therapist who owns and operates Commonwealth Hand Therapy clinic in Lexington, will teach multiple courses.

The 15-credit-hour certificate program in Upper Extremity Rehabilitation consists of three five-hour courses presented in a hybrid format of online instruction and face-to-face skill development. Applicants must have a professional degree along with certification or licensing in occupational therapy or physical therapy.

The 30-hour post-professional OTD track, meanwhile, is designed for licensed occupational therapy practitioners who want to progress to the full doctoral degree. It involves five 13-week courses of online instruction blended once a trimester with in-person testing. It includes a three-hour course in upper-extremity wound care. A self-directed capstone is the final requirement.

CURRICULUM | Courses for the post-professional OTD
RELATED | All Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy programs

“These Upper Extremity Rehabilitation programs are really going fit a need – and not only in the Louisville area,” said Dr. Rob McAlister, Chair of the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy. “Because the classes are primarily online, we can also serve the rest of the country and even beyond the limits of our country if a person can come to Louisville once every three months for a weekend. Then that person can attain a credential that really makes them more marketable in their profession.”

In addition to teaching the scientific principles related to upper extremities and injuries, Spalding’s new programs will also place an emphasis on teaching management skills and business applications in an upper extremity rehab clinic.

“Our dream was to develop a program where a post-professional occupational therapist could come to Spalding and learn real-world applications for both basic and complex orthotics and develop skills that will help perpetuate their careers,” Pitts said. “Students will also develop an understanding of the value of mentorship and the value of science as they apply it to the treatment of patients. You can become a very valuable employee because you can learn to help manage therapists and help provide good functional outcomes. You can become a leader in upper extremity rehab.”

Pitts is well-established as a leader in the field. He is the past chair of the American Hand Therapy Foundation, and he is currently on the board of the Hand Therapy Certification Commission. For years, Pitts has served as Clinical Director for On-Site Rehabilitation for Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, and he is a past recipient of Kentucky’s Outstanding Occupational Therapist of the Year Award.

“Dr. Pitts is so passionate and so knowledgeable,” McAlister said. “He is a nationally recognized authority on upper-extremity care, and he is one of the foremost practitioners in the country. He owns his own business, so from a practitioner’s standpoint and from a business standpoint, he knows what it takes to succeed, and he can communicate that knowledge really well to students. The faculty teaching in these programs are world-class.”

Spalding Dean of Graduate Education Dr. Kurt Jefferson said the Upper Extremity Rehabilitation certificate and post-professional OTD track “continue the important tradition of Spalding’s occupational therapy program expanding its footprint both academically and clinically in Louisville and beyond.”

He continued: “The opportunity for healthcare professionals to gain continual knowledge and expertise in this area will benefit practitioners in important intellectual and professional ways.”

Visit spalding.edu/occupational-therapy for more information. Email [email protected] or call (502) 588-7196 with questions.

Spalding University’s enTECH center, Kosair Charities and the families of nine children enjoyed a happy holiday gathering on Wednesday during the second annual enTECH Day of Celebration. Gifts of assistive-technology devices and toys were distributed to the children, who range from 2 to 16 years old and who all face physical or cognitive challenges.

The gift distribution was made possible through the support of Kosair Charities. After enTECH therapist Alison Amschoff announced the recipients and explained how the children would benefit from the devices, Kosair Charities President Keith Inman and Board Chair Hugh I “H.” Stroth were on hand at enTECH to deliver the gifts.

The participating families applied for the devices through enTECH and its Kosair Charities Lending Library and Financial Assistance Program. The assistive-technology gifts, which included iPads and iPad accessories and various other switch toys, provide therapeutic, educational and sensory benefits and help with communication and play.

“I just want people to know that enTECH is a really significant part of this community for families who have kids with disabilities,” said Eric Wright, whose teenage daughters, Ella and Elsie, received an iPad and Apple Pencil on Wednesday. “Their advocacy and what they do for parents in the realm of therapy and the realm of assistive technology is truly amazing. I’ve been blessed to be able to have this for my family. We love the therapists we’ve worked with, particularly Alison, who we’ve known since Ella (who’s now 16) was 2 years old.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT enTECH, THE SERVICES IT OFFERS AND ITS STAFF

Wright said assistive-technology devices like the ones that were distributed on Wednesday can be expensive for families to purchase and may be difficult or impossible to acquire through insurance.

He said Ella’s old iPad, which she relies on to communicate because she is nonverbal, constantly freezes up but that it was unlikely the family would have replaced it anytime soon.

“To have Kosair Charities partner up with Spalding and enTECH to make this gift happen is really amazing,” he said. “This makes a big difference for us, particularly as we move into the new year.”

The Kosair Charities Enabling Technologies of Kentuckiana (or enTECH) assistive technology resource center is a division of the Spalding University Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy. EnTECH is one of five state-designated assistive technology resource centers in Kentucky. Its mission is to create assistive technology solutions to meet the needs of the times through the enhancement of all people’s participation in everyday life activities. Its Lending Library provides families or individuals the opportunity to rent or be loaned pieces of assistive technology.

Five years ago as a college freshman, Miranda Wray attended a student activities fair – the kind of event that occurs every day on university campuses across the country. She walked around checking out  tables and booths for information, including a table promoting bone marrow and blood stem cell donations.

Without thinking much of it and figuring nothing would ever come of it, Wray said agreed to register as a potential stem cell donor. After providing a quick cheek swab, Wray left and didn’t think about it again.  It wasn’t long until she completely forgot that she’d even signed up.

As it turns out, a half-decade later, that afterthought of an afternoon put Wray in position to save a person’s life.

This May, Wray, who is now a second-year graduate student in Spalding’s Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy, was contacted seemingly out of the blue by the donation service, DKMS, and informed that the sample she’d given five years earlier was a perfect match for an anonymous young woman with leukemia who was in need of a transplant.

At first, Wray didn’t remember that she’d ever registered to be a donor, and it took her a while to process it all.

“I was like, ‘Wow, what is this?'” she said.

Wray followed up with a long phone call with DKMS, which carefully explained the process to her and left her time to make a decision on if she wanted to move forward.

“I knew I wanted to do it, but I’d never even given blood before or anything like that,” she said. “So I was nervous. But (DKMS coordinators) were amazing, and there was no way I wasn’t going to do it.”

Wray was eager to participate, but making a stem cell donation is no simple task. It was a four-month process, with an arduous final week.

Wray doesn’t like needles, but she had to have her blood drawn five times over the course of several months. She said she nearly passed out the first couple times. Then, in the week leading up to the donation, she received 10 injections in order to boost her stem-cell production. The injections made Wray feel like she had the flu, but they worked. She entered the donation day with stem cell levels triple their normal amount.

Finally, early last month after undergoing a full physical, Wray traveled to a medical facility to complete the donation, called peripheral blood stem cell collection. The method required Wray to lay still in a chair for six hours with a tube in each arm while her entire blood supply was cycled five times. The blood exited through one arm and was sent to a machine, where millions of stem cells were separated out and collected. Then, the blood reentered her body through the other arm.

On the day of the donation, Wray so nervous that she needed about an hour before the donation began to calm down and get her heart rate down. But she never had second thoughts, and the donation was successfully collected.

MEET MORE SPALDING WORLD-CHANGERS | spalding.edu/changetheworld

“To be a perfect match with a stranger is so rare, so I just thought it was really awesome,” she said. “I knew there was a living, breathing person somewhere out in the world who needed it. If I didn’t do this, she eventually could have passed away.”

DKMS operates on a system of strict donor-recipient confidentiality and anonymity. Wray doesn’t know the name of the woman who received her stem cells and has been given almost no information about her. But it’s possible that if the transplant ends up successful and both parties agree to it, that they could meet in a year.

Wray hopes to meet the woman someday and said she has thought a lot about what a potential meeting might be like.

“I would definitely cry a lot,” Wray said with a laugh. “Just knowing that that person maybe could build a new healthy body with my cells is the most rewarding feeling I think you could ever have.”

Wray said Spalding’s occupational therapy faculty has been fully supportive during her donation process and excused her absences she needed to miss class.

Coincidentally, DKMS’s first contact with Wray came about a week after Dr. Laura Stimler gave a lecture in her pediatrics class about blood cancers and the work of occupational therapists in oncology settings.

Wray said Stimler lectured about the exact same transplant process in which Wray ended up participating, and Wray said that her Spalding coursework had helped inform her as she moved ahead in the process.

“I was inspired to hear that Miranda was going to be a stem cell donor,” Stimler said. “Her choice to step up and help someone with complex needs is consistent with the generous spirit among our ASOT students. Miranda put her busy life on hold to give a stranger a second chance at life. This is one of the most authentic demonstrations of compassion that I have observed while teaching at Spalding.”

Stimler, who spent most of her clinical career working in pediatric oncology rehabilitation, said that in practice, the focus is primarily on the stem-cell transplant recipient, not the donor. However, Stimler said, “Miranda’s journey reminded us to consider the perspectives of all individuals involved in the transplant process.”

Stimler added that she was thrilled to hear that the class at Spalding had helped her recognize some of the complex terminology and diagnoses that came up during her donation experience.

“Miranda’s story is inspiring,” Stimler said. “We are proud to have her in ASOT.”

In another coincidence, Wray gave the donation during September, which is Blood Cancer Awareness Month.

Now she hopes that sharing her story will inspire others to register to become stem cell or bone marrow donors.

“It’s so crazy and so rare that you may get the chance to give someone a second chance at life,” she said. “I don’t know anyone else who’s ever had the chance to do this and ever matched with someone who needed a life-saving procedure like that. It was definitely one of the coolest days of my life.”

With Commencement approaching on June 1, Spalding is publishing a series of stories and Q&A’s that highlight students from a range of degree programs who are set to graduate. Next up is Devyn Tompkins, who is earning the degree of Bachelor of Science in Health Science as part of a longer occupational therapy graduate program.

What is your favorite Spalding memory?
My favorite Spalding memory is being on the volleyball team for two years and making lifelong friends as well as being accepted into Spalding’s OT program my sophomore year.

Which accomplishments are you most proud of during your time at Spalding?
My biggest accomplishment that I am proud of is graduating with my Bachelors of Science in Health Science in three years and working on my master’s in occupational therapy.

What’s your favorite spot on campus?
Being at the Pod with my friends.

At Spalding, we like to say that, “Today is a great day to change the world.” For many of our students, Commencement is a world changing experience. After graduation, how do you plan to change the world, big or small, and who inspires you to be a #spaldingworldchanger?
My family inspires me to be a #SpaldingWorldChanger. They push me to do my best and have supported me throughout my college journey. I plan to change the world by being the best occupational therapist I can be and provide exceptional services to my future clients.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your Spalding experience?
I am so grateful for the endless opportunities Spalding has given me.

Spalding University, enTECH and Kosair Charities helped make this early part of the holiday season bright on Tuesday for the families of six children who face special challenges.

Surrounded by holiday decorations and gathered by the tree at the Kosair Charities Enabling Technologies of Kentuckiana (enTECH) Assistive Technology Resource Center, those families received gifts of assistive technology that will help the children learn, play and communicate. The devices were distributed to families who applied through the enTECH and Kosair Charities Financial Assistance Program, which is supported by a grant from Kosair Charities.

Kosair Charities President Keith Inman was on hand to deliver the devices to a thankful group of kids and their parents.

“Any kind of help we can get is a true blessing,” said Heather Vanover, whose 9-year-old son, Hunter, who has Poland syndrome and autism, received a Buddy Bike tandem bicycle that he can ride with a parent.

Hunter has been coming to enTECH and Kosair Charities Integrated Technology Experience (KITE) camps for most of his life and has worked with enTECH therapist Alison Amshoff since he was an infant.

“Good job, bud!” Amshoff told Hunter as he climbed on the bike. “Look at you go!”

The bicycle will help Hunter work on his balance and develop his core strength while, above all, enabling him to interact with his family and experience the joy of bike rides with them, Heather Vanover said.

“Every parent wants their child to gain access to as much as they can or to learn as much as they can,” Amshoff said. “Through the support from Kosair Charities, we’re able to have materials and to have technology to offer these families so that their children can have the maximum potential.”

Brantly Grienenberger, 5, received a Tobii Dynavox Indi speech tablet device that will help him communicate with his family. Brantly has been nonverbal his whole life and has a neurological disability, his father, John, said, though doctors have so far not been able to give an exact diagnosis. That has led to limitations in the family’s insurance as far as obtaining assistive technology.

Using the gift from enTECH and Kosair Charities, Brantly is able to make gestures or point to images or buttons on the device to help express that he’s hungry, thirsty, wants to play or has another desire.

The device “has advanced our son’s quality of life by giving him a voice,” John Grienenberger wrote in his application for the program.

“It’s awesome,” John Grienenberger added on Tuesday. “We’re so happy about it. It’ll help us out a lot.”

Other families received Apple iPads that can be installed with an array of apps that are designed for children who face special challenges.

The enTECH Kosair Charities Financial Assistance Program is part of an outreach program from the enTECH Lending Library. The Lending Library provides families or individuals the opportunity to rent or be loaned pieces of assistive technology and give them a try, helping inform their decision before they make what is usually a significant purchase.

Spalding and enTECH encourage members of the public who need assistive technology to give the Lending Library a look.

“It allows families to see if a certain type of technology will benefit their child and how it can improve skills in their life and benefit the family,” Amshoff said.

Related: Find out more about the Lending Library and other enTECH services

enTECH, located at 812 S. Second St., is a division of Spalding’s Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy (ASOT) and is one of five state-designated assistive technology resource centers in Kentucky. Last spring, enTECH expanded with the unveiling of the Kosair Charities Virtual Immersive Playground, a clean, open space that’s loaded with assistive technology and sensory devices that are therapeutic, entertaining and educational for children with special needs.

Related: Spalding, enTECH unveil ‘stunning’ Virtual Immersive Playground

Spalding’s graduate-level occupational therapy students use enTECH and the three-times-a-year KITE camps as a training ground for interacting with pediatric clients.

The Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy graduate program now offers an entry-level doctorate in occupational therapy (OTD). It is accessible to any student with a bachelor’s degree in any field.

Related: Learn more about the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy

Spalding University announced Wednesday, Sept. 5, that it has reached a milestone in its ongoing, largest-ever capital fundraising campaign: surpassing $30 million in total contributions since 2014. They have supported new construction projects, facility improvements and academic and scholarship programs that broadly impact campus and student life.

The $30.4 million raised to date is a record for a Spalding campaign, and it far outpaces the original fundraising goals – $20 million by 2020 – set by the university’s board of trustees when it voted to launch the campaign four years ago. The goal was officially upped to $30 million in 2016.

“We are extremely grateful for the individuals and organizations who have stepped forward in support of our campaign and the mission and progress of Spalding,” Chief Advancement Officer Bert Griffin said. “We’ve made improvements all over campus and have not used any tuition dollars to make it happen.”

Spalding President Tori Murden McClure added: “Through this campaign, we have provided our students and the community with more resources and services while making our campus greener and more beautiful. We are grateful to our many partners who are helping us meet the needs of the times and change our community for the better.”

Some highlights of the $30 million capital campaign:

● Nearly $11 million in student scholarships and fieldwork stipends have been or will be distributed by way of the campaign, including more than $4 million in federal grants for clinical psychology and social work students from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

● More than $7 million has been donated or pledged in support of a greening initiative that has beautified the 23-acre downtown campus. Completed projects include the Mother Catherine Spalding Square green space on West Breckenridge Street between South Third and South Fourth and 2.2-acre Trager Park, which, in partnership with Louisville Gas and Electric Company and the Trager Family Foundation, opened last fall at the corner of South Second and West Kentucky. The Trager Park site was formerly an unused asphalt lot.

Ongoing outdoor projects are the seven-acre athletic fields complex between South Eighth and South Ninth streets that will be the home of Spalding’s NCAA Division III softball and soccer teams, and the Contemplative Garden at Spalding University, which will be a meditation space at 828 S. Fourth St. that is designed to honor Trappist Monk Thomas Merton and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Thanks to a recent anonymous $500,000 challenge grant, installation of the playing surfaces at the fields complex is expected to begin this fall, and it could be ready for competition by late spring 2019.

FROM WHAS: Spalding works to build Ninth Street ‘Field of Dreams’

● Kosair Charities has contributed more than $1.2 million to Spalding in support of the Kosair Charities Enabling Technologies of Kentuckiana (enTECH) assistive-technology resource center, the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy and the Spalding School of Nursing.

RELATED: Spalding, enTECH receive $275,000 grant from Kosair Charities

● A $500,000 challenge grant from the James Graham Brown Foundation has helped raise $1 million to develop programs focused on restorative justice and restorative practices as well as Spalding’s Center for Behavioral Health.

● Nearly $1 million was raised to renovate the lower level of the Columbia Gym into a student fitness center and lounge.

● Other facilities that have undergone major improvements and modern updates are the Republic Bank Academic Center, which is the home of Spalding’s nursing and social work programs; the Spalding Library; the historic Tompkins-Buchanan-Rankin Mansion; and the Egan Leadership Center Lectorium.

Kosair Charities has awarded a grant of $275,000 to Spalding University for the 2018-19 year that will be used to enhance and support growth at the Kosair Charities Enabling Technologies of Kentuckiana (enTECH) assistive technology resource center, which primarily serves children with special needs, and to continue a pediatric fieldwork cooperative involving Spalding occupational therapy graduate students.

The grant continues the longtime support of Kosair Charities for Spalding and enTECH, which provides affordable access to assistive-technology toys and therapeutic devices while also offering therapy and community engagement programs. Since 2014, Kosair Charities has contributed more than $1.2 million to enTECH, Spalding’s Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy and the Spalding School of Nursing.

“EnTECH is a tremendous community resource on Spalding’s campus that uses modern technology to help children learn, grow and play,” said Keith Inman, President of Kosair Charities. “We support its desire to grow and serve as many children and families as possible as this directly aligns with our mission.”

“Through the Kosair Charities Scholars Program, students will gain valuable pediatric fieldwork experience. We support the efforts of Spalding’s Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy to train skilled, compassionate students who want to work with kids.”

enTECH improvements

Located on Spalding’s campus at 812 S. Second St., enTECH will use $200,000 of the 2018-19 grant funding in the following ways:

● Create “switch camps” and pre-vocational computer training for children 10-17 years old who have disabilities or limited mobility. The camps will introduce the children to assistive technology devices known as switches that allow users to navigate a computer and operate programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel. Conventional keyboards, mouse devices and other computer accessories are often inaccessible to individuals with limited mobility, making it difficult to get a job or succeed in classroom environments that require typing on a word processor, entering data or navigating a web browser.

EnTECH will upgrade its computer lab with switches that are designed to sense pressure, heat, puffs of air or facial movements in order to detect computer users’ intentions and help them navigate a program.

● Purchase two interactive autism robots – known as Milo ($7,500) and Nao ($10,500) – that will help children on the autism spectrum develop skills such as communicating verbally, making eye contact and understanding what others are thinking or feeling.

Milo has a life-like face that mimics emotions, and the robot speaks directly to the child. Nao performs fun, playful actions like playing a drum, pointing and dancing.

● Purchase four OptiMusic Beam systems ($7,500 each) that use a combination of lights and sounds to encourage children with disabilities to explore and interact with their environment. EnTECH’s Kosair Virtual Immersive Playground room already has four OptiMusic Beams, and their popularity has led to increased demand.

● Renovate the entryway and transitional spaces of the enTECH facility – housed in the former Kosair Shrine Temple – into a lively, clearly defined space that is appealing for children and celebrates Spalding’s partnership with Kosair Charities.

● Revamp the enTECH website and enhance enTECH’s marketing efforts in order to help grow the number of children receiving services and resources.

Continuation of Kosair Charities Scholars Program

The other $75,000 of grant funding will be used to continue and expand the pediatric fieldwork cooperative known as the Kosair Charities Scholars Program, which began in 2016. The grant will fund stipends for 15 graduate students from the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy to perform their 12-week Level II training at approved child-centric sites.

The fieldwork placements will result in dozens of children receiving services.

To qualify for the Kosair Charities Scholars Program, students must commit to working with children or providing occupational therapy services to youth for a minimum of three years after graduation.

“We’re extremely grateful for the support of Kosair Charities,” said Cindee Quake-Rapp, chair of the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy. “This grant will help make enTECH an even better resource for children, and it will strengthen Spalding’s ability to train great pediatric therapists.”

About enTECH: Kosair Charities’ Enabling Technologies of Kentuckiana (enTECH) is a division of the Spalding University Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy. It is one of five state-designated assistive technology resource centers in Kentucky. Its mission is to create assistive technology solutions to meet the needs of the times through the enhancement of all people’s participation in everyday life activities. More information is available at entech.spalding.edu.

About the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy: Established in 1995, Spalding’s Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy prepares students to become outstanding occupational therapy practitioners in varied health, education and community settings. Its nationally ranked master’s-level training program is leading the way by transitioning to a doctorate-level program well prior to a deadline mandated by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education. More information is available at spalding.edu/occupational-therapy.

About Kosair Charities: Established in 1923, Kosair Charities’ mission is to protect the health and well-being of children in Kentucky and Southern Indiana by providing financial support for clinical services, research, pediatric healthcare education and child advocacy. More information is available at kosair.org.

While dozens of graduates from Spalding University Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy work in and around Louisville, many other alumni have found jobs across the country that they said pay well and are personally fulfilling. Here, we highlight one of them, Clarissa Tenido Perry, who works at the Villa Pueblo Skilled Nursing and Rehab Center in Pueblo, Colorado.

Clarissa Tenido Perry, a native of Hawaii who attended high school in West Virginia, got job offers in Southern Indiana and in Colorado – where she wanted to be – shortly after graduation from ASOT in 2015.

“Anywhere on the West Coast, there are a lot of jobs,” she said. “Anywhere in the South and in any rural areas there are plenty of jobs.”

She said she felt eager and prepared to go work out west after Spalding placed her at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland for her Level II fieldwork.

Tenido also got her bachelor’s in health science from Spalding, participating in the bridge program in which senior undergraduates can begin working toward their graduate-level OT coursework and finish a year sooner. She said she enjoyed the small class size of the ASOT program.

“I felt like it was more of a family atmosphere, and that was really nice,” she said. “They promoted that feeling and culture. … I think Spalding helped me become a well-rounded therapist. I’m doing a little bit of outpatient and a little bit of skilled nursing. But if I wanted to go on into mental health, or community therapy, I would be able to do it with all the knowledge and all the education I received from Spalding. So I would highly recommend it. I think they did an excellent job in educating and getting me ready for whatever setting I chose to work in.”

Learn more about the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy.

Watch a video about the Spalding Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) program.

Register for a Aug. 28, 2018 Spalding OTD info session.

While dozens of graduates of Spalding Univesity’s Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy  work in and around Louisville, many other alumni have found jobs across the country that they said pay well and are personally fulfilling. Here, we highlight one of them – 2015 alumnus Tom Cox, who is a hand therapist in Florida. 

Tom Cox credits his Spalding Level II fieldwork under and current ASOT faculty member Dr. Greg Pitts for setting him on the path to success in hand therapy. He said that right after graduation, he earned a job in Washington, D.C., making $79,000 initially and that within the first year received a raise to six figures. As of the summer 2018, he works under a group of hand surgeons and orthopedic surgeons in South Florida.

Cox said Pitts instilled in him the “Four C’s” of a successful therapy practice – caring, communication, confidence and competence. “His big philosophy is that if you love patients, they recognize that, and you’ll never be slow at your clinic,” Cox said. “That’s how I’ve operated, based on his philosophy. If patients know you genuinely care about them, genuinely love them, and are genuinely invested in them getting better, they’ll bend over backwards for you with what you ask of them.”

From 2013-17, 95 percent of Spalding graduates passed the National Board Certification of Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) exam, which is required to become a registered and licensed occupational therapist. Cox said he was impressed by the way the Spalding faculty prioritizes board exam preparation.

“At Spalding, you’ve got some of the best professors in the nation, in my opinion,” Cox said. “You had really good professors who were passionate about the subjects, so they armed you with the information you need. And they prepare you for that NBCOT extremely well, and that’s what you want to be prepared for. If a program doesn’t prepare you for the boards, it’s not worth going to. … If anyone wants to be set up for success, Spalding would be the place to go.”

Learn more about the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy and its new doctor of occupational therapy (OTD) program.