Mental health, functional cognition and return to work: The critical role of occupational therapists
Thursday, May 30, 2024 & Friday, May 31, 2024 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)
This two half-day online workshop will employ lecture, case study, group discussion, video and Q&A to review the following key topics: Comprehensive Functional Capacity Evaluation methodology (C-FCE). Evaluation of physical and cognitive effort and reliability of client self-report of pain and disability. Cognitive and psychological demands of work. Work-specific attention, executive functioning, activity tolerance, and psycho-emotional factors. Return-to-work planning. Discussion and collaboration. Intermediate or advanced occupational therapist clinicians who wish to develop their skills in assessment of client’s cognitive and psycho-emotional functioning and assist with determination of suitability for return to work and/or assist with return-to-work planning and monitoring. A foundational knowledge of cognition, psycho-emotional assessment and rehabilitation is recommended.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to: Be familiar with methods to determine and measure cognitive and psychosocial/psycho-emotional demands of a job. Understand the importance of evaluation of physical and cognitive effort and reliability of self-report and methods to evaluate these areas. Be aware of some assessment tools to address cognitive deficits, mental health issues, and other standardized and non-standardized tests that maximize ecological validity and suitability for work-specific activity. Be familiar with patient-related outcome measures that are indicated for clients with functional cognitive deficits and mental health factors. Be able to define types of attention and executive function and consider operational definitions within the C-FCE. Be able to target and evaluate activity tolerance and work endurance for clients with cognitive and mental health issues. Be familiar with critical factors to consider when creating, monitoring and adapting a RTW plan for clients with a constellation of physical, cognitive and/or psycho-emotional factors. Be able to apply a consistent methodology to a case study with consideration for measures of effort and reliability, cognitive and psycho-emotional job demands, test selection, and clinical reasoning and analysis to establish recommendations for accommodations and form an opinion on capacity to return to work.