PT looking for eligibility guidelines for ESY (extended school year)

Dina Posts:

DEAR ERI COMMUNITY: I am a NY licensed physical therapist who works in a public school setting preschool-age 21. The challenging task of annual review time, facilitating IEP goals and recommendations for the extended school year (ESY) are upon us. I am looking for input/guidelines from other facilities regarding the eligibility for children to receive ESY physical therapy in a school setting. It is often difficult to provide significant proof of substantial regression which allows a student to receive PT during the six week summer program yet it is just as difficult to discontinue services with the hopes of them not regressing. Many of the more physically involved students are automatically eligible for services. What do other PTs recommend for a child with Down syndrome who is ambulatory but fatigues easily or children with CP, orthopedic conditions, developmental delays or motor planning issues? I understand that each child’s IEP is “individualized” and there is no “right or wrong” answer but I would love to hear how other schools determine ESY eligibility or lack of. Thank you.

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The Physical Therapists Role in Preventing Rehospitalizations

New regulations and payment models depend upon successful patient discharge home without a re-admission in the immediate future. Physical therapists will play a huge role in determining whether or not a patient is “ready for discharge” home and once home, to continue their care and safety planning. 

This is an opportunity to re-write “best practices” in home care for the entire team. In the end the patient should benefit by preventing a physical decline that could occur, especially with the short acute care stays we are currently seeing and with patients coming home sicker and sicker. 

Are you ready for this paradigm shift? How will it affect the care you give? If you work in home care, do you see closer collaboration with the discharging hospital’s physical therapist as being necessary? If a home care patient refuses treatment for “not feeling well”, how do you handle that so someone is staying on top of the situation? Do you get nursing involved with a visit that they (perhaps) were not planning? What frustrations do you face in home care that will make this difficult? Is your home care agency preparing you properly for these changes? 

We look forward to hearing from you on these issues. Please share your ideas and your experiences as well as your frustrations.

 

 

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Asking Therapists for Topic and Speaker Suggestions for Therapies in the School 2014

 THERAPIES IN THE SCHOOL
2014

We are fine tuning our agenda for this years Therapies in the School conference in Massachusettsand would value your input.

Based on feedback from last years conference we are excited to announce that we will have sessions on using shared goals to drive intervention, auditory-visual-vestibular tools to embed, integrated collaborative teams, hot practice issues, visual tools to gain teacher buy-in, prioritizing gross motor needs, writing measurable goals and much more!

We are continuing to build our course schedule for 2014, and would like to bring you material that would be most applicable to your daily practice.

We do have a few speaking slots open and we want to be able to meet your needs.  

  • Are there any specific speakers who you would love to hear?
  • Are there any specific topics that you would like to see covered?

 In a session focusing on
“Integrated Collaborative Teams to Improve Learning Participation and to Decrease Stress”,
are there specific tools that you would like addressed?

  • Movement-based learning such as Brain Gym Bal-a-Vis 
  • Ocular motor/visual strategies
  • Auditory and Listening Strategies
  • Other tools                           
Would you be interested in a session on
“Your Performance Evaluation: The New Educator Evaluation and
What it Means for OT, PT and SLP”

Please e-mail Mandy:
mwashington@educationresourcesinc.com
with your replies, and any suggestions for topics or speakers

The course this year will again be in November:
November 20-21, 2014 – Framingham, MA

Thank you so much for your time

Mandy

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Strength Exercise for Aging Adults – CEU course for PTs, OT's and Assistants

Education Resources - Strength Exercise for Aging Adulta

A great CEU course from dynamic instructor: Mark Richards

Whether you work in home health, outpatient, skilled nursing, a rehab center, or acute care, this course is designed to help you enhance your strength exercise treatments in a clinically realistic and practical way. Reimbursement and regulatory challenges make the provision of therapy more challenging than ever. How does one employ evidence-based treatment principles when there seems to be less and less time to treat patients? And, on top of that, deliver expected, superior clinical outcomes? Muscular weakness in aging adults is effectively treated when using the proper exercise protocols. 

Unfortunately, many therapists use strength exercise approaches that are not research-based, resulting in sub-par patient strength gains. This heavily evidence-based seminar will provide you with the information needed to deliver safe and highly effective optimal strength exercise to aging adults. The course is designed to enable you to immediately and efficiently incorporate the learned material into your treatments to help you get great treatment results! 

Please click here for more details, a brochure and for registration information

March 14, 2014 – Manchester, NH
April 11, 2014 – Newport News, VA
May 9, 2014 – Portland, OR
June 14, 2014 – New Brunswick, NJ 

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