MINI-ACTIVITIES – A PRACTICABLE APPROACH TO EMPOWER CLIENTS' RESILIENCE

Introduction: Resilience received growing interest regarding its potential influence on health, well-being and quality of life. Resilience is defined as the ability of a person to recover, adjust, change or resist from... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction: Resilience received growing interest regarding its potential influence on health, well-being and quality of life. Resilience is defined as the ability of a person to recover, adjust, change or resist from stressful circumstances*. New research showed that resilience is not only inborn but it is also influenced by environmental factors and can be built up through life. OT clients often live through critical life situations and need to adjust. For our clinical practice we developed an approach to empower clients’ resilience. This approach focuses on mini-activities which can be easily integrated in daily routine aiming at energizing clients and strengthening their self-efficacy as relevant factors of resilience.
Aim: This workshop introduces mini-activities for empowering clients’ resilience and discusses possible applications for participants.
Methods: Following a brief introduction about resilience, our approach will be introduced. Participants will engage in self-experiments and interactive reflexive discussions. By presenting two clinical cases (client with persistent pain, respectively repetitive strain injury), special focus will be on possibilities of the integration into clients’ daily routine.
Results: Participants will have increased awareness of the importance of resilience in OT practice. They will get to know an easy to use approach to empower clients’ resilience.

Maximum number of participants: 25

Brief description of intended participants: suitable for all OTs with interest in an approach to empower clients’ resilience.

References
* Garcia-Dia, M.J., Di Napoli, J.M., Garcia-Ona, L., Jakubowski, R. & O’Flaherty, D. (2013). ‘Concept Analysis: Resilience’, Archives of Psychiatry Nursing, 27(6), p. 264-270.