A member of the Bradley Cleveland Senior Activity Center celebrates after removing a Jenga block during a game hosted by UTC occupational therapy students. Photo by Angela Foster.
A crash echoed through the Bradley Cleveland Senior Activity Center as falling Jenga blocks scattered across the black-and-white-tiled floor.
For many seniors, that sound signified their favorite part of the week: when occupational therapy students from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga visit the community to practice their craft.
As part of the THRIVE program, which stands for train, heal, reflect, inspire, value and empower, students design and facilitate four sessions at regional senior centers over the course of a month.
Allyson Frazier is one of the students in the UTC Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) program who rotates between four centers in Meigs, Bradley, Rhea and Sequatchie counties. She led the Jenga exercise, which promotes memory skills by asking questions before each player’s turn.
Frazier hopes to work with the geriatric community after graduation.
“I love the older community,” said the Summertown, Tennessee, native. “I do see myself working with the geriatric population in my future career. They’re just so fun and bubbly and I love talking with them. They have so much advice to give and so many life stories that we can learn from.”
Department of Occupational Therapy Associate Professor Erin Melhorn, who serves as the department’s doctoral capstone coordinator, and Assistant Professor Anna Kiel developed and implemented the program this semester.
“Anna and I decided to charge the students with why don’t you take everything you’ve learned so far about community and learning how to design a group program, what it takes to educate older adults, and create our own program,” Melhorn said. “This is their first time going out independently and really leading a class that they developed.
“We gave them parameters. It needs to be evidence-based and we have to do some research. These are the topics, but then they ran with it and made it what it is.”
Each session lasts an hour and revolves around a different theme based on the program’s acronym. The train session emphasizes mobility, balance and strength. Heal aims to teach seniors about healthy routines and medication management. Reflect and inspire encourages cognitive and emotional well-being. The value and empowerment session highlights purpose, independence and social connection.
Camden Day leads seniors in tai chi to help with mobility.
The sessions are designed to highlight the “4Ms” of aging: mobility, medication, mentation and what matters. Melhorn explained that these parameters are set to create a safe teaching environment for students.
“The students are in their last semester before they go out into clinicals,” she said. “I can tell them older adults need these things, but until they’re actually doing it for the population they’re serving, it really helps connect the dots. We talk pretty technically in the classroom and use medical jargon, but when you go and take care of patients, you don’t talk to them like that.
“You talk to them at the level that they understand. Learning to take their education and translate it into a way that makes sense and everyone understands is really hard, but it’s giving them an avenue to practice that in a safe environment.”
Kiel, who teaches a course titled “Occupational Therapy Models of Practice XI-Community,” explained that the trips to senior centers are something students look forward to during the week.
“They seemed excited and not really aware of what it was going to actually be,” Kiel said. “But when they came back, they said, ‘Wow, this is so cool.’ In class on Monday, they were really excited to go back. That was cool to hear.”
OTD student Camden Day led the tai chi exercises and communicated instructions over the microphone throughout the day. The Atlanta native explained her favorite part of the program is working with community members.
“I thrive on it,” Day said. “I’ve been so ready to get out of the classroom and be hands-on and really communicate because their feedback helps us know what to do better and what we can focus on more. Occupational therapy is all about collaboration. If we can’t get to practice this part—there’s the classroom, the background, that’s all super important stuff—but this is the part that really makes a difference.”
Melhorn noted that occupational therapy is all-encompassing and that students are getting a taste of what working with patients requires.
“Treating someone holistically, you’re dealing with the whole, everyone involved in their care,” Melhorn said. “With a pediatric case, it’s the whole family unit. With older adults, you’re also dealing with caregivers who might trickle down the line.”
Kiel added that students may be learning to relate to a population they are not familiar with, in line with Melhorn’s point.
“And connection, which I could go on about this, but young people tend not be as good with connection,” Keil said. “We’re kind of losing that as a society, and it becomes totally different for them once that happens.”
The program was made possible by a UTC Walker Center for Teaching and Learning High Impact Practices Grant.
Melhorn and Kiel hope to continue using the THRIVE Program to teach students in this way.
“With the autonomy, you just feel better about something you created and have ownership over,” Melhorn said. “If we kept the framework, the same themes and the same topics, but they can figure out how best to teach it, they always amaze me with what they come up with.”
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Occupational therapy students celebrate with a group of seniors at the Bradley Cleveland Senior Activity Center.
