Students Abbie Matthews and Georgia Cox, Occupational Therapy students from Australian Catholic University recently completed a 9 week placement at Tweddle. During this time they developed and implemented two projects aimed at enhancing clients’ experience during their stay at Tweddle.
The first project was a creation of a community map to encourage occupational engagement in new or unfamiliar settings. The second project was modifying delivery of information on the Residential Unit communication board through the addition of staff photos, hand over times, group program cards and colour for visual appeal.
Projects were based around current evidence on information management and the impacts of cognition, memory, culture, sleeplessness, and stress. Initial evaluation methods have been undertaken with survey and interview responses yielding positive results from clients.
The projects will also support an improvement in health literacy, defined as;
‘the degree to which individuals can obtain, process and understand the health information and services they need to make appropriate health decisions. Healthcare providers and the health system can provide information and improve interaction with individuals, communities and each other to respond to and improve health literacy’.
Tweddle is grateful for Abbie and Gerogia’s insights and experience and we look forward to the project evaluation.
