To carry on from Dots ponderings.........she was wondering if she had strayed too far from the medical model.
For me coming up with a series of questions around a topic helps clarify my thinking. Possibly we could all come up with a question to help clarify our thoughts and ponderings around this. These could then be developed at a forum day.
My questions is how can we do it all?, hold all the information that the medical model contains ( and stay up to date with it) and as well as all the other information we need to stay current. I also need to ask is that our job? When is it our job? In some settings yes? In others no. Or would it be better to empower people to ask the source directly what medical information means?
Or another way to think about it is, if you follow a issue from an occupational performance problem down to performance component level then you would move from an occupational frame of reasoning into a medical model frame of reasoning.
So possibly Dot you haven't strayed, you just are able to problem solve it before needing to get to a performance deficit ( medical model) level?
Rita
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Hello holidayers!
I think that medical information is certainly useful in terms of background information, and at times, I put on my 'medical professional hat' to consider a diagnosis when considering barriers to performance or participation. For example, recently I have been assessing a couple of children who I started to suspect may have undiagnosed epilepsy. What an impact on attention and learning that would have!
I think it is healthy to maintain an interest in conditions and the body/brain systems involved. As an assessor it is important that we consider the 'injury related condition' to highlight any needs that are not injury related and therefore perhaps not the responsibility of ACC. This issue may not be so relevant in other settings, but we can be a useful guide to families who are seeking diagnosis if we think we are seeing something they may not be aware of.
Of course diagnosis is a tricky area; one that I like to avoid, but I am always interested to hear how many (but not all) families are releived when their children receive a diagnosis. I suppose that it can provide an explanation for 'different' that doesnt blame them.
I suppose that it comes back to the top down versus bottom up approach. The top down approach which I tend to use starts at participation and performance, and then works down through environmental, task and then person related elements. Sometimes the 'bottom' that I eventually reach may consider diagnosis, medication, body and mind.
I'm not sure what there is to love about the medical model. I know that I dislike the balance of power, I dislike the limited application it has to consideration of quality of life, I dislike how little sense occupation makes within that model.
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