Document Type (Journals)
Educational Innovations
Abstract
While the World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) recommends that occupational therapists (OTs) competently respond to changing environments and new clinical practice and research demands (WFOT, 2012), there are many challenges for therapists to engage in professional development in countries where resources and specialized expertise are limited. The purpose of this article is to describe a successful educational collaboration between therapists in Trinidad and the United States to further training of Trinidad and Tobago therapists on evidence-based pediatric intensive therapy models, with a focus on pediatric constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT). The authors applied a translational framework to build capacity for pediatric CIMT in Trinidad which included in-country didactic education and hands-on experience with pediatric patients. This collaboration led to the development of a locally feasible and contextually relevant form of pediatric CIMT which was successfully piloted in Trinidad and Tobago. Intentional efforts must be made to build a competent OT workforce in countries with workforce challenges to ensure that children and adults seeking high quality care can receive an excellent standard of care.
Biography
Kimarah Reefe, M.S., OTR is a core faculty in the MSOT program at the University of the Southern Caribbean in Trinidad and Tobago.
Shasta Green, M.S., OTR is an OT practitioner in Trinidad and Tobago.
Raquel Martinez, OTD, OTR is the owner of Life Occupational Therapy in Trinidad and Tobago, a thriving private pediatric clinic.
Patty Coker-Bolt, PhD, OTR/L, FNAP, FAOTA is a Professor in the Division of Occupational Therapy where she teaches pediatric coursework and engages students in community-based learning experiences. She has over 24 years of OT experience, specializing in the treatment of high-risk infants and children with neuromuscular disorders such as cerebral palsy. Dr. Coker-Bolt has been involved in several global initiatives and has mentored students on interprofessional medical trips to South Africa, Romania, Uganda, and Nicaragua. She completed grant funded projects to train therapists in Ethiopia and Vietnam. She was selected as a US Fulbright Specialist in 2016 to work with the Episcopal University of Haiti and received a second US Fulbright Specialist award in 2019 to work with faculty in the Volga Region University in Kazan, Russia. She is completing a U.S. Fulbright Scholar Award to teach in the Master of Science in Occupational Therapy at the University of the Southern Caribbean.
Declaration of Interest
The authors report no declarations of interest.
Recommended Citation
Reefe, K., Green, S., Martinez, R., & Coker-Bolt, P. (2023). Expanding Practice in Trinidad and Tobago: Training Therapists to Implement Pediatric Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy. Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 7 (2). https://doi.org/10.26681/jote.2023.070218
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.