The Department of Occupational Therapy will host the 2024 Pitt OT Fall Colloquium virtually on December 10, 2024, to discuss occupational therapy best practices and implementation of evidence into real-world settings. Associate Professor and Chair Juleen Rodakowski will open the event with a welcome address. Assistant Professor Angela Caldwell will then deliver the Caroline Robinson Brayley Distinguished Lecture. The event will conclude with capstone presentations from our post-professional Doctor of Clinical Science (CScD) in Occupational Therapy students to showcase their innovative practice initiatives.
This event is open to Pitt OT students, alumni, fieldwork supervisors, educators, practitioners, community partners, and friends of Pitt OT.
OT practitioners can earn a maximum of 3.0 continuing education/professional development contact hours for attending the virtual event.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Welcome Address from the Chair
3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Caroline Robinson Brayley Distinguished Lecture
4:30 – 6:00 p.m. CScD in OT Capstone Presentations
Welcome Address from the Chair
Juleen Rodakowski, OTD, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA
Caroline Robinson Brayley Distinguished Lecture
Angela Caldwell, PhD, OTR/L, CLT
Angela Caldwell is an occupational therapist, clinician scientist, and assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh. She has over 15 years of experience collaborating with children with developmental delays and disabilities and their families to promote health and enhance participation. Dr. Caldwell’s research program focuses on activating behavior change at the family level through adopting routines that support positive health outcomes. She is particularly interested in developing and implementing interventions to reduce childhood health disparities. As such, her research has prioritized partnering with families of children at high risk for health problems and elucidating facilitators and barriers to healthy habit development within the first five years of life. Dr. Caldwell has tested interventions designed to be delivered in home, community, and virtual environments. She is also working with colleagues in Health Informatics to develop mHealth technology to advance health promotion for children across rehabilitation environments.
Activating Routines to Promote Health: Shaping Behavior One Step at a Time
Dr. Caldwell will discuss how she has applied elements of behavioral activation to her work in pediatric health promotion. She will describe how a systematic and incremental approach to family-centered behavior change guides her interventions and empowers caregivers to adopt new routines.
Session Objectives:
1. List key elements of behavioral activation that facilitate routine behavior change.
2. Describe a systematic and incremental approach to empowering caregivers to adopt new routines.
3. Identify strategies to help families overcome barriers to behavior change.
CScD in OT Capstone Presentations
As a requirement for the post-professional Doctor of Clinical Science in Occupational Therapy curriculum, students are mentored to identify and implement a quality improvement project in a clinical or educational setting. These projects demonstrate innovative ideas, methods for planning and implementing evidence-based programs and outcomes of value to clients, employers, and reimbursement sources.
CScD students will present their work as scheduled below starting at 4:30 pm. Each presentation will be followed by questions and discussion. Participants will not have permission to share video/audio but may ask questions by typing in the chat window.
Stay tuned for additional details.
For questions regarding this event, please contact the Department of Occupational Therapy at OTpitt@shrs.pitt.edu.