Part of the 2019 'Collaboration for Care: Combining Treatment Disciplines for Greater Effectiveness' LiveTalk Series:

Advocating for Sensory Friendly Community Partners

 
Featuring: Sarah Sawyer, MA, OTR/L

Monday, October 21, 2019
7:00pm - 8:00pm EST

With changes in healthcare, interdisciplinary collaborations are more important and often a regular part of Occupational Therapy practice in recent years. Occupational therapists working in the area of Sensory Integration frequently coordinate care or interface with a wide range of professionals in the course of providing services to their clients. Our 2019 Live Talk Series: Collaboration for Care: Combining Treatment Disciplines for Greater Effectiveness will explore the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of navigating these partnerships with a wide range of professionals. 

This year’s LiveTalk series will present multiple occupational therapy professional partnerships to address various clients whose treatment needs cross disciplines. Our guests will include occupational therapists and their professional partners who will discuss strategies for making their partnerships work. Guests will use case studies to illustrate their partnerships’ successes and challenges.

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Have you ever wanted to reach out to places in your community to establish sensory friendly environments for their participants? These partnerships create opportunities to educate community programs on sensory integration, promote the value of setting up sensory friendly environments for their participants and create opportunities to encourage more inclusive environments for those individuals who need sensory accommodations to participate in these settings. These community partnerships can generate service referrals for your facility and increase awareness of occupational therapy services. This talk will discuss ways to create these partnerships within communities outside the clinical setting to facilitate the expansion of sensory informed practices.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this LiveTalk the participant will be able to:

1. Identify 2 key steps to establishing a relationship between occupational therapist and community partners.
2. Identify 2 key strategies to use to advocate for sensory friendly environments in the community.
3. State 2 challenges or barriers to effective collaboration between community partners and occupational therapists.

About the Speakers: Ms. Sawyer is the Clinical Director at OTA The Koomar Center and is responsible for overseeing all therapeutic activities. She has extensive clinical experience working with children and families. Sarah began her career in the United Kingdom working with children, adolescents and adults with Sensory Processing Dysfunction (SPD) across home, school and clinic-based settings. In 2003 Sarah was awarded the Elizabeth Casson Trust Scholarship from Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK, to attend Tufts University to complete her post-professional masters. Her thesis focused on therapists’ clinical reasoning. Sarah has broad experience evaluating and treating individuals with SPD and has specialized training in Listening Therapies, Trauma and Visual Vestibular difficulties. She has a particular interest in working with individuals on the Autism Spectrum and has specialized training in DIR® Floortime Approach. As well as overseeing the day-to-day running of the clinic, Sarah regularly trains and presents to educational facilities and other professionals broadening understanding of Sensory Processing Dysfunction and Sensory Integration Therapy.

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