Nearly one third of people experience sleep disturbances.  And, about 23% of adults experience mental health illness.  These high percentages mean that both sleep and mental health are global, public health challenges in their own right.  However, emerging research suggests we should not think of these challenges separately. They are more intertwined than we realize. Sleep difficulties aren’t just a sign of mental health challenges, sleep problems can contribute to mental health problems. But, then the inverse is also true: when we improve a person's sleep, we can improve their ..read more

Starting a side hustle private practice is one of the best ways to safeguard your career, pursue a niche interest, and meet some of the many unmet needs in your community.  But, let’s be honest: the process of getting going can be daunting.  In this Ask Me Anything (AMA), we are welcoming Carline Reaume, OTD, OTR/L, DipACLM, PMH-C, PCES back to the podcast. Carlin has steadily grown her private practice over the course of several years, and has experienced the ups and downs of private practice management. Also on our panel is Sarah Lyon, a business owner in her own right, Sarah has c ..read more

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome affects quality of life in 1-5% of people.  The first step in treatment of carpal tunnel should be non-surgical treatment, which includes education, often a steroid injection, and therapy.  But what should that therapy look like?  In this live webinar, we will discuss carpal tunnel education, assessment and treatment with Rachel Egan, OTR/L, MS, CHT, COMT-UE.  Rachel is a Certified Hand Therapist, a Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, and currently manages operations for 13 NovaCare clinics across Minnesota. Participants in this course will have ac ..read more

Childhood feeding problems are one of the most common complaints raised during primary care visits. Which is not surprising, given that the prevalence of pediatric feeding disorder is around 1 in 37 children under age 5. Feeding disorders overall  are common in the pediatric population, with a prevalence of 25% of children in the general population and of up to 80% of children with developmental disabilities.  Unfortunately, many feeding problems are too often normalized, and parents are told to “wait and see” when in reality, feeding problems may be associated with poor sleep quali ..read more

However you think about group strength it probably is not broadly enough.  Grip strength is NOT just about hand strength.  It is NOT just an indicator of upper body strength.  It is NOT just about overall strength.  Grip strength is associated with:  mortality psychological health functional disabilities hospitalization morbidity The article we are reviewing today, is seeking to convince you that grip strength should be considered as a vital sign, as it is an overall indicator of well-being. And, I believe it is a metric that each therapist should be paying attention ..read more

We’ve all known for a while that the current fee-for-service models that most occupational therapists operate under are bad for patients and bad for healthcare.  Why?  Because it incentives volume of services over quality of services.  If you’re like me, you may feel like you’ve been waiting for years for value based care to really take hold in the United States. But, this new future has felt like a distant reality.  Our guest today, Dana Strauss, PT, DPT, sees things from a different vantage point. As she’ll share in this episode, the future is actually here, it is just no ..read more

Through OT Potential, we’ve released over 94 episodes all exploring new influential OT research. As we enter 2025, it’s time to reflect on the research and ask:  What trends are we seeing in OT? How is new research enriching how we think about our practice?  In this 1 hour-episode, we’ll talk about new trends, with a particular focus on what commonalities we see leaders in our field doing in their occupational therapy process. We’ll culminate our discussion by exploring how people describe OT. This will be informed by our OT practice framework, but with a special focus on how we comm ..read more

Artificial intelligence is ushering a new era of healthcare tools. These range from ambient listening to streamlined practice management. But, the AI-supported that I believe will truly transform occupational therapy is:  Clinical Decision Support.  To be honest, it often feels like we have more clinical decision barriers than we have support. Our EMRs currently give us a set number of checkboxes, which massively pigeonhole our services, and often DO NOT reflect the kinds of best practice we teach here at OT Potential.  But, on the near horizon is dynamic point-of-service suppor ..read more

In a rapidly changing world,  we as OT professionals need collective mobilization like never before.  But, it feels like our systems of advocacy are all underfunded and difficult to navigate.  Against this backdrop, which can feel discouraging, I think it is critical to shine the light on what I consider one of the greatest OT triumphs of the past decade:  The breakthrough of OTs into pelvic health. This is a story of grassroots organization, individual thought-leadership, Facebook groups, podcasts, phone calls, and ultimately collaboration on the individual, state and nati ..read more

Both participation-focused OT and knowledge translation are hot topics in OT right now.  And, in this one-hour course we will explore a research article that puts forth a knowledge translation roadmap to accelerate the uptake of participation-focused OT assessments and intervention.  These are both big topics in their own right, and when you mesh them together it feels like more than one therapist can handle.  Honestly, that’s the point: Both knowledge translation and participation-focused OT are a team sport.  It’s going to take all of us to be both thinking differently as ..read more