Believe it or not, OT is not my entire life...at least not yet. I still make pathetic attempts at pursuing other interests. One of those interests is dog agility, where a dog and handler run around a big obstacle course. The dog actually does the obstacles, but the handler has to direct the dog and tell him where to go, so there is also considerable human hustling involved.
At any rate, I agreed to do an agility demo last weekend at one of these typical Midwestern small-town summer festival weekends with a friend. He and I arrived with a car full of equipment and dogs, set everything up, and ran through a few practice rounds. The actual demo went off without a hitch, and people were appropriately impressed. We then offered to take other people's dogs and try them out on some of the obstacles. It was hot and we only had a few takers.
Just as we were preparing to pack things up and call it a day, a lady in a power chair with a service dog came up to us. The dog was a leggy black lab mix named Diego, very gentle and sweet, and the lady said she was looking for something to do with him to give him more exercise. She easily called him over a jump to her, and he also quickly got the hang of going through the tunnel to her. I told her that people in power chairs can and do compete successfully with their dogs in agility, and that I thought she and Diego would love it.
When I told her I was going to school for OT, she opened up quite a bit. She was a former nurse who had been put in a chair by multiple sclerosis and now struggled with energy management issues. In addition to the usual sorts of things like putting her cell phone in her hands and activating switches for her, Diego could actually do most of the work on her transfers from the chair to her bed or the chair to the tub! He actually drags the transfer board into place for her and then helps her pull herself onto and across the board. I thought that was really amazing.
She got her dog from Assistance Dogs of America, Inc., and unlike many other organizations, she was not required to raise $10,000 or more to have a dog placed with her. ADAI regularly pulls dogs from pounds and shelters to train as service animals, so they save lives in the process, too. They sound like a good group. If I ever hit the lottery, I am definitely going to send them some coin.
I randomly discovered your blog searching for a clip from the TV show Scrubs that I heard had something related to OT in it. I find your musing rather familiar having just finished up OT school myself, although I am had a more conventional route to receiving my degree. Congrats on having the courage to change your career to something you truly want.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to comment on this post because I have spent lots of time daydreaming about how service dogs can be put to use in OT. I mean, I know they already are but it would be so outstanding for it to be more wide spread. I dream of it being a commonly reimbursed mode of treatment - how cool would that be?
Your other post "An actual OT moment" is fantastic as well. I think the majority of clientele OTs serve would be very motivated by dogs (or animals in general) and kudos to you for recognizing the opportunity you had with that child and seizing it.
I would love to train my dog to be a therapy dog and volunteer in my spare time. It's on my bucket list!
Sincerely,
An OT peer