DCOTA News

Alcorehab.org is proud to award $6,000 in scholarships each year to three students, who share their vision on the dangers of alcohol abuse and addiction. 
If you are concerned with the effects of alcohol abuse and addiction and want to help raise awareness of its dangers, we encourage you to share your vision and have a chance to win money to cover your educational expenses.
You will find all the necessary information here: https://alcorehab.org/scholarship/

MigVapor Essay Contest - Are you passionate about making this world tobacco-free? If yes, here’s the good news for you: MigVapor awards $3,000 in scholarships every year to the students who are committed to playing their part in preventing the deaths caused by smoking tobacco. MigVapor offers scholarship awards for the students who present their well-researched and evidence-based essay to encourage smokers to kick their addiction. Remember, smoking not only impacts the smoker, but also other people around them.

For more information, as well as eligibility information, can be found here: https://www.migvapor.com/scholarship

Become a mentor or mentee through the DCOTA mentorship program! You may apply to be a mentee as a student or a new practitioner. Deadline has been extended to Sunday, November 6. 
Mentors and mentees will be paired by related practice area and/or career goals. (For example, a mentee who's goal is to learn how to start their own clinic will be paired with a mentor who is a business owner). 
Mentors earn PDU credits through NBCOT.

Program Goals:

• To develop professional relationships between future, new and experienced occupational therapists in the DC area

• To provide a platform for career and educational development

Application Requirements:

• Mentors must have at least 5 years of experience

• Mentors and mentees must be DCOTA members 

Please click below for more information on the program and for applications:
Mentorship program overview.doc
Mentoring-Guidelines-Log.pdf
Mentor Application.doc
New Practitioner Application.docx
Student Application.docx

DCOTA is looking for volunteers to help with pre-conference planning and advertising, as well as for volunteers for the day of conference. Conference will be on April 29, 2017. Volunteers will be meeting Saturday, October 15 11am-12pm at Providence Hospital Rehab. Refreshments will be provided! Please email info@dcota.org if you would like to volunteer.

AOTA is accepting nominations for eligible candidates to run for the RA Representative position for the District of Columbia. Eligible candidates must have at least 2 years of practice experience, be members of AOTA and their respective state association, and have lived in the state for one full year. The term is for 3 years beginning on July 1, 2017 and ending on June 30, 2020. Please click here for more information: http://www.aota.org/AboutAOTA/Get-Involved/nominate-election.aspx Nominations close on October 13th, 2016. 

A Brief Survey for Special Education Teachers, BCBAs, SLPs, OTs, School Psychologists, and Other Autism Professionals 
We are studying the ways in which autism professionals use video modeling for skills instruction. We invite you to take a brief survey to share your thoughts about using video modeling to teach skills to individuals with autism. As a thank-you for your time, you can choose to be entered to win one of four $25 Amazon.com gift cards when you finish the survey. To take the survey, please go to the following link:http://autismsurvey.weebly.com/ . If you have questions, please contact: Nicole Caldwell, Doctoral Candidate, University of North Texas at NicoleCaldwell@my.unt.edu.    

Please click here for more information -> AutismSurveyFlyer_Final.pdf

"Workplace violence has become an alarming phenomenon worldwide. Health sector personnel are particularly at risk of violence in their workplace. Current figures represent only the tip of the iceberg… (World Health Organization 2008)

The Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Alberta, with an Occupational Health and Safety Innovation and Engagement grant from Alberta Labour, is building a workplace violence educational resource website.  

The website is specifically about and for occupational therapists (OTs) and OT students.  An important part of this work is gathering information about OTs’ and OT students experiences of workplace violence.  To do this we are using the World Health Organization’s survey tool – Workplace Violence in the Health Sector. 

Your opinion and experiences matter- please participate in the OT Violence in the workplace survey .  

The survey is completely anonymous and neither the researchers (Cary Brown, Professor, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta and Annette Rivard, OT, PhD, project co-ordinator), nor anyone else, will be able to identify individual participants.  There are no risks to you by participating in the survey.  You can skip questions if you prefer to not answer all of them and you can exit the survey at any time prior to clicking the submit button at the end.  Because the survey is anonymous we cannot remove your data after you submit your survey responses. 

Your completing the survey is interpreted as consent to participate.  You can quit the survey at any point by closing your browser.  The survey responses will be used to help us build the most useful educational resource website for occupational therapists and students.  The findings will be shared with OTs through a short report and a formal report may also be published or presented in a forum relevant to therapists.

If you have any questions you can contact Cary Brown (cary.brown@ualberta.ca or phone 780-492-9545). 

Please click here to access the survey (http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/cary-R/workplace-violence/) or use this QR code

Please click here for the flyer and more information -> Neuro Open House and Symposium Flyer_final-3.pdf

DCOTA is excited to announce the following new board members:

Advocacy Chair: Kristen Maisano, OTD, OTR/L, CPAM

Advocacy Committee: Margaret Bell-Walker OTR/L

Nominations Chair: Robin Baker MS, OTR/L

Instructions for Biography Submission

Submit a one page biography with a detailed description of yourself. It should include basic facts like education, work, community service and highlights of various aspects of your life. We want to get to know you and why you are interested in DCOTA and serving in a prospective board position. Please also include a statement on how you will use this position to carry-out AOTA’s Centennial Vision.