A peak into my internship at The Care Center

1. Health 4200 Internship:
The Care Center
Occupational Therapy
Rachel Crossland
Spring 2016

2. The Care Center
 Pediatric Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy
 Located on Anderson Highway in Greenville, SC

3. Site Description
 Large, open therapy gym
 Sensory room
 Private treatment rooms
 Indoor aquatic therapy pool
 Outdoor therapeutic playground

4. The Gym
 All three of the types
of therapies work
together in this space
according to their
patients’ needs

5. Sensory Room
 The sensory room is a quiet space
where kids who have trouble being in
a room with others can go
 It also is useful for sensory
supportive, therapeutic processes
that patients with sensory issues
may find beneficial

6. OT Treatment Room
 One of the three treatment rooms for
occupational therapy with a desk for
the patients to work and a drawer full
of seemingly unlimited crafts
supplies!

7. Occupational Therapy
Department
 The OT department works to improve performance,
independence with activities of daily living, and sensory
processing skills and to help with the development of
fine motor and visual motor skills
 The Care Center has a multi-sensory environment that
can be tailored to the patient’s needs and encourage
relaxation, choice making, improve attention span, and
promote interaction with others

8. OT Goals at TCC
 Improve focus, attention and behavior
 Increasing fine motor and upper body strength
 Improving skills for school and self-care
 Encouraging development of social skills
 Increasing self-esteem and independence
 Normalizing sensory integration/process

9. The Occupational Therapists
 The OT department at The Care Center consists of
three therapists that each work with the majority of the
patients
 Connie, the OT, does all of the new patient evaluations
and re-evaluations
 Tricia and Becci, the COTAs, have some patients that
only one of them sees and some patients that they
switch off seeing throughout the week

10. The Occupational Therapists
Continued
 Connie O’Niell, OCC who graduated with a degree in
Occupational therapy from St. Ambrose University
Image taken from http://www.thecarecenter4kids.com/our-therapists.html

11. The Occupational Therapists
Continued
 Tricia Woodward, COTA/L who graduated from Brown
Mackie College
Image taken from http://www.thecarecenter4kids.com/our-therapists.html

12. The Occupational Therapists
Continued
 Becci Johnson, COTA who received her AAS from OTA from
Cape Fear Community College
Image taken from http://www.thecarecenter4kids.com/our-therapists.html

13. My Role at The Care Center
 Most days consisted of the following:
 Observing the OT’s new patient evaluations
 Playing games with patients to help them learn their
letters, numbers, capitals vs. lower case, etc.
 Working with patients on sensory issues by letting them
play in sensory boxes and working with different mediums
such as paint, shampoo, play-doh, and shaving cream
 Watching different video lessons with patients to work on
certain behavioral skills
 Helping with crafts and games that improved fine motor
skills

14. My Role Continued
 In addition to working with the patients I also:
 Helped clean the equipment that was used
 Helped put away all the toys or tools that were pulled out
 Organized drawers and cabinets
 Shredded old paperwork and patient information
 Helped get things ready for patients before they came in
for their session

15. The Care Center’s Mission
Statement
 We seek to educate the family on the child’s diagnosis
and assist in guiding medical professionals who will
enhance their child’s road to success. The staff is
committed to going the extra mile to ensure everything
possible is being done to secure the success of the
child.
Taken from http://www.thecarecenter4kids.com/about.html

16. The Care Center’s Approach
 TCC uses a team approach to successfully enhance
every part of the child’s development
 They focus on the entire needs of the child and their
family
 They work alongside the physicians, orthotists, and
DME providers that are involved in the child’s care
 TCC helps educate the family of the patients on the
child’s diagnosis and helps guide them to medical
professionals who may best help the child

17. Projects
 My main project was getting ready for the
Celebration Service
 I created a 15 minute slideshow with over
400 pictures of patients in therapy and at
different Care Center events over the
years
 I helped create the tickets for the raffle
 I made and decorated the box for the
tickets to go in
 I attended the service and helped seat
guests and helped ensure the slideshow
worked and everything ran smoothly

18. Other Projects
 I did research on different books for parents of strong-willed
children, reading all the reviews and seeing which ones were
the most beneficial to parents and discussed with Connie
which ones seemed the best to recommend
 I created a board game for a patient with ASD who only likes
to participate in games that have to do with his favorite
singers

19. Conclusion
 My experience at The Care Center was not only the most
fun internship I could have imagined, but it taught me so
much about occupational therapy and pediatrics
 The entire staff team is very caring and eager to teach
students
 They are always willing to answer questions and talk about
their experiences
 I will be starting OT school this summer feeling so much
more confident that this is the field I want to be in, and I
have The Care Center to thank for that