Lauren Koch, OTD, OTR/L, CAPS

Before Sarah starts this podcast episode, we have a special request. Hi, this is Julie, Rosio and Ashley. We are OTT students at Midwestern University and are conducting a research study exploring how OTT practitioners within acute care and inpatient rehab settings describe how they experience secondary trauma and how that relates to their professional identity. If you are listening and work in an inpatient setting, we are kindly asking you to take part in our survey as well as participate in an interview or focus group. The survey link in our email address is linked in the show notes. Welcome to the Maxi OTT podcast where we invite occupational therapy practitioners, consumers and friends of OTT to talk about evidence-based practice. Today we will be talking to Lauren Cook about educating other professionals about OTT's role in falls prevention. Advocating for OTT is an increasingly common theme here on the podcast and I'm looking forward to continuing that conversation today. Let's meet Lauren! Today on the Maxi OTT podcast we will be talking with occupational therapy student and soon to be graduate even before this recording comes out. Lauren Cook about her capstone project providing education on falls prevention for care managers and others in Indiana. Lauren is very excited and passionate about disseminating her capstone work and I look forward to seeing where her career takes her. Lauren thanks so much for joining us here today on the Maxi OTT podcast. Thank you so much for having me and I'm super excited to get to talk about this a little early but also it's going to be great preparation for my dissemination for school so thanks for having me. Yes it's so great to have you here. So Lauren, falls prevention is a hot topic but often the general population doesn't know what OTT's role is in prevention of falls or even what OTT is. Can you tell us a little bit more about your background and how you decided on this capstone project? Yeah so I think it's safe to say that prior to diving into the occupational therapy world I was one of those people that didn't know what occupational therapy was so that should make some people feel better. I understand what it was but let's just start from the beginning I guess so that daunting question about what do you want to be when you grow up haunted me for a really long time growing up and definitely at one time I wanted to be a lawyer so it's kind of this crazy not full circle moment but kind of a full circle moment. I grew up getting to take care of my great-grandparents and my great-grandma was my very-very best friend and she and I were having a conversation one day and I remember her asking me that daunting terrible question that we all dread what do you want to do after high school and I told her I said well grandma like I want to be a lawyer I want to go into law you know all of these dreams and everything like that and she kind of looked at me funny and said I don't think you want to be a lawyer. As a grandma I don't know what you're talking about but like I mentioned she's my very best friend so of course I'm taking what she's saying seriously like oh man have I had this whole plan for myself and I'm wrong and she said well I think that there's something out there for you that looks like caring for people just like you do for grandpa and I and I've old with that I thought you know what maybe she's right maybe there's something to be said about what grandma just told me and so I started doing research and I didn't want to be a nurse I didn't want to go into family practice so I'm like where where is this woman talking I don't I don't know and then I fall across occupational therapy and just the idea of being able to help people do what they need to do and be independent is I think exactly what she was talking about and so I fell on that and with that kind of led me into my undergraduate job of being a home healthy and working really closely with the older adult population often hearing about falls that are being experienced and I lost a lot of clients just because of a fall and that was something with me to grad school knowing that falls are being experienced but also just how serious they can be and just how quickly they can change somebody's life and so I went with that but it was quite the roller coaster to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with false prevention within the older adult population and really condense it in such a way into a 14 week project that was going to work and so something that I hold dear to me is working inter professionally and really finding that collaboration piece with other professionals and I didn't understand the role of a care manager I've heard of them I know that they play a very integral role in the older adult population but for me I wanted to learn more about them but I also wanted to take it as an opportunity to advocate for occupational therapy and its role in fall prevention because our population is getting much older even as we speak every second and so it's going to continue to be pertinent and I wanted to ensure that care managers and others in Indiana like you mentioned really understand where we come into play within false prevention so it's a quite the long-winded way of the full circle moment for myself as to how I came across false prevention, occupational therapy and overall my entire capstone. Well thank you so much for sharing all of that you know I think it's so interesting there is this interesting overlap between OT and law between our role in advocacy and many lawyers going into law because they want to help people and I've seen you know kind of both directions I've seen OT switch careers and go into law I've seen lawyers switch careers and go into OT and so I do think we have an interesting relationship and I just want to reflect but I also had a major relationship with my great-grandmother growing up and I don't think I was aware of her influence as much as the time when I became an OT but as I reflect on it now that obviously had a huge impact on me so yeah shared experience. Yeah no that's awesome and I think it's funny I'll just share this little tidbit has nothing to do with my capstone but and I almost I almost had a full circle moment towards the end of capstone so my grandma actually passed away on April Fool's Day and many years ago but on April Fool's Day and it didn't click for me until this year that obviously April was occupational therapy month and I was like okay I don't know if this is a sign from the universe but I think it just solidified the past three years for me a lot and just knowing that I had had her the last three years but clearly some things clicking like the universe is talking I don't know what but some things coming to be. Oh that's so great um yeah you can remember your mom and cell grandma and cell right being an OT so that's yeah so you're also a certified aging and place specialist can you tell us a little bit more about why you chose to complete that certification and how that's been helpful to you? Yeah so I think something that helped me really dive into Falls Prevention is understanding that in order to prevent falls you really have to start at the central of things and for a lot of people that is their home or their place where they function day in and day out and I carried it with me and this is going to sound kind of silly but the idea of proximal stability equaling distal mobility I think we've all heard that phrase time or two I've carried it the last three years and for me that proximal stability is working from the home and then that distal mobility is really that focus of preventing falls ensuring safety really increasing that quality of life so when I first started doing research about what certifications were out there and what could I do again within 14 weeks it sounds like a lot of time but it's really not and you're kind of at the fate of scheduling and initially I fell across the certified Falls Prevention Specialist I did reach out unfortunately as a student you can't take that certification but hopefully that comes to be later so as I continued to research I found certified aging and place and I thought what better way to understand this role of home modification this role of what it can do for not only older adults but really across the age span because it's this idea of well if we make these modifications now if we start with a functional home hopefully you can continue to age in place and again it was something that clicked for me as this is something my grandparents wanted again I will talk about them a lot but I think they always said to us was that if they wanted anything in life it was to be able to stay at their home it was far so many years and there was nothing that was going to stop them from living there and I've seen some crazy stuff that they did just to make it work like my grandfather we built a commode for him out of wood and a bucket you get from Home Depot I'm I would reflect on that and right now it gives me a lot of anxiety but back then It's just what worked. And so for me, it was more about understanding what can we do so people don't have to just make it work. People don't have to just make these random accommodations within their home. Instead, there's products, there's modifications, there's all of these things that we can suggest. And again, back to that interprofessional piece, I really think it paves the way for me to be able to communicate with contractors directly and really connect with them. Understanding what they're doing and just having that extra level of knowledge a little bit, and understanding where they're coming from, as well as I want them to understand where I'm coming from. See, I thought it was just, it's one of those things where you start diving into it and it just makes sense and you just roll with it. Yeah, that's certainly how I have felt about, even I felt that way about when I discovered OT and I just sort of dipped my toes in and then realized that's really where I was meant to be and my whole career has just been that way. So you have a lot of that to look forward to. Yeah, yes, I've heard. And honestly, it was kind of a nerve-wracking experience too because I kind of went into it not really knowing what to expect because there's a lot of marketing in it. There's a lot of business pieces and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I am way in over my head and I'm just gonna go in and it's gonna be a bunch of architects and I'm not gonna, I'm gonna literally be the odd ball out. But thankfully that wasn't a case, I will bring that up later, but I definitely, I was like, I do not know what I'm getting into but I'm, again, I'm so glad I went ahead and did it and I really think it's gonna help pave the way for me as I enter the profession at least hopefully fingers crossed but I do think it leads to great opportunities. That's so great. So that kind of leads to my next question, which is, you know, that a common theme that comes up on our podcast over and over again is the need to advocate for more OT services and when we're advocating for OT it can be helpful to think about why populations like older adults benefit from OT services. So can you share with us a few of the reasons why it's important for those other professions to understand OT's role? - Yeah, so I think as much as us as individual OT's want to advocate for other professions, I think we want other professions to advocate for us because I think often we see this overlap with other professionals and us as occupational therapists and that's something I actually learned a lot about through my research, a lot of clients that I, that responded to my study and my surveys definitely tied us back to physical therapy and that's really related to me that potentially there obviously isn't misunderstanding between what we can do for them versus what another professional can do. And I definitely think it's important for other professions to understand what we do because then we are getting those, you know, referrals, we're getting more client load, we're getting that opportunity to dive in where we're needed and again, the same as I want to understand what other professionals do so that I can, you know, almost be that hype man for them and they can be the hype man for us. And something also too that I learned is that it's so important to maintain your own, you know, side of practice a little bit if that makes sense. So trying out to overstep those boundaries that other professions have because obviously we have our roles and other professions have their roles. And so to understand those basically ensues, ensures that you're not going to overstep any of those boundaries and especially for me as a student, that was something for me to understand, especially working with a company that I needed to understand their role so that they can understand my role. So I definitely think that it's important for us as OT's to advocate for us, but I think it's also important for us to really pave the way for others to advocate for not only themselves, but for other professionals that may play such a pertinent role in false prevention. - Right, thank you. And so Lauren, on your capstone, you collaborated with both care managers and a home modifications assessment provider there in Indiana. Can you tell us more about how you collaborated with those folks? - Yeah, so I think something that I should note is that it may not make sense as to why I would location assessment provider for a false prevention project, but the C, or the executive director of that company that I worked with is actually serving as the president on the Indiana Falls Prevention Coalition. And so it kind of just fell in my lap that way and it almost, it just opened up this other opportunity for me. So to kind of look again at the base of maybe what could lead to false prevention are those home modifications. And so care managers came into play because the home modification assessment provider acts as a communicator between themselves and those care managers. And then our care managers are acting as that liaison between the assessment provider and the contractors who are completing the modifications. So working with the home modification assessment provider really opened that door for me to be able to collaborate with care managers. And I did that through a survey as well as various interviews in order to understand their role. And with the home modification assessment provider, I was given the opportunity to go out and observe the jobs that they were completing. And so kind of how that process looked was the referral would come from the care manager. And that would come to the home assessment provider. And then we would go out and perform what's known as a spec or the initial exam for the job that needed to be completed. So I was able to observe many of those. And then what ended up happening was once the drawings were created, they were sent back to the care manager to then communicate with contractors. And then we basically wait until the contractors bid on the job. And then we come back in after the job's been completed to do the final exam. And I was actually able to go out on a few of those by myself as a solo examiner. So-- Yes, very cool to see the home modification after it's done. It's different to see it from basically like a blueprint to in person in the nitty-gritty. And going in for the final exam just to be able to say, are we good? What's going on? Take some final pictures and make sure that everything followed that initial blueprint. And then if there were things that needed to be redone or we completed, then that communication enhanced more with care managers. That way the contractor could come back out. So my collaboration looked a little different for my project sake through survey and interviews, like I said. But I did have some of that indirect communication while observing spec and exams. So yeah. Nice. You got some really cool experiences that I'm sure will be useful to you as you go out and start your career. So that's awesome. Definitely. Definitely. And one of your goals was to create resources to increase these care managers' knowledge about fall prevention. Can you tell us about those resources? Yeah. So something that I knew coming into my project, I know that fall prevention can sound extremely redundant. And it's a very talked about topic. And like you said earlier, it's a very hot topic. And so I really wanted to create something that was a little different than what's already out there. And so again, focusing my sense on, OK, what do OT's do in fall prevention? What makes us a little different? And what can pull that mindset from more than just throw rugs? And I say that in a broad picture, because a lot of the conversations I had throughout my project with other professionals, also just clients and caregivers, rugs came up so often. And I just sat there thinking, our role is so much more than a throw rug. And it sounds silly, but it came up so much. And so something that I wanted to do was bring that aging and place background that I had acquired throughout this process. And I wanted to talk a little more in that sense. And so some of the resources that I created included handouts that managers could review and utilize for their clients and caregivers as needed. One of them being a room by room's safety guide, basically. And just looking at big picture items as to, OK, what can easily be changed to increase safety? And it went, I can say, a room by room, bathroom, living room, kitchen, bedroom, entryways. And again, that kind of brings in that aging and place background. But I also just made the general statistic false prevention handouts too, because I really wanted to reiterate that those are changing every single day. And just putting them all in one conducive place, I thought was more helpful than trying to do upteam Google searches and see what you could come across. And I also just up to date. So that was something that I kept in mind as well. It was just, to find the most up-to-date, the most consistent information and putting it in one place, and then they can pick and prod what they need for their clients specifically at what moment they are in their lives. So really just meeting them where they're at, but also to allow them to meet their clients where they're at and kind of help with their needs a little bit. >> Nice. And I like that you're, you know, I think that's what OT brings really is that aging and the place piece that we have that healthcare background where we understand, you know, how this person's body and mind is likely to change moving forward and how can we support this person not just today, but in five or ten years from now. So I think that's really helpful. >> Yeah, definitely. And I think that's definitely where I think the home modification piece continues to come into play because I, again, even at the beginning of capstone, I didn't really know what working with a home assessment or home modification assessment provider was going to bring for me, but looking back now and reflecting, it's so, it's so integral in its own way and just knowing that if those modifications can be complete, we're hopefully setting the ground for those five to ten years from now. But at the same time, it's important to know that needs change at the staff of the finger. Oh, understanding that there's other things that can be done outside of those modifications, like minor changes within each room that can increase that safety. So yeah, definitely. >> That's great. Thanks. And so, you know, we've said several times now that OT's are really getting excited about this topic and trying to provide more false prevention services. So for our listeners, are there any assessments that you'd recommend that they could use to evaluate clients' environments or their occupational performance at home? >> Yeah. So I have a few and I'll just share briefly about them. So I think it's important to understand that there's so many assessments out there. There are some that are large and cover a lot of items. There are some that are very conducive and cover a few items. So I have kind of a spectrum. So I'll be sharing about the home falls and accident screening tool that's also known as the home fast. And it's a 25 item assessment tool that's utilized in order to assess an older adult's fall risk within their home. And so what will end up happening is once that screening tool is completed, the higher the score equals a higher risk for falls. And so that one's pretty straightforward. Exactly what you're shooting for. If you're only looking at someone's fall risk, I think this one's a great one to just dive into because it's quick, it's easy and it's conducive. And then we get into the one. This one has quite the long name. It's the safety assessment of function and the environment for rehabilitation, health outcome measurement and evaluation, also known as the safer home. This one's much larger. It's 97 items, but it's an assessment utilized to assess an individual's ability to maintain functional activities within their home. They're really honing in on the occupational performance piece rather than fall risk. But you're also looking at potentially what's causing them to not be able to perform those functional activities, which could just give some insight into what fall risk there could be. So then one that goes back to specifically the fall risk within a client's home is the Sakoa in home fall prevention checklist. This one's a 44 question assessment. It's a quick one to get through. And this one assesses fall risk within a client's home. And these can all be found, again, simple Google search. They can be found. But these ones I felt like were the most ones that I found most frequently. But also ones that I found a lot within falls prevention resources. They were mentioned a lot. So I felt like that they were pretty conducive to everyone's needs. And like I mentioned, the items are across the spectrum, the number of items. And so I think that that leads professionals to be able to decide, okay, what do I need for my client? What am I looking at? Am I really focusing on the occupational performance? Or do I want to understand their fall risk first or vice versa? So definitely a lot of options out there. These are just three of them. And I also think it's possible for someone to develop their own kind of quick checklist. I've seen a lot of those. And so if professionals like, wow, these are all, these are a lot. I just need something that's 10 questions. I highly encourage individuals to develop what they think works best for them. But again, there are plenty out there that are already made and done. Yeah, I think I thought of these that there's, you have a variety here. You have some that look at fall specifically and some that are looking at occupational performance. It's so helpful. And there are times where we really want those standardized tools because we need to report numbers to insurance or sometimes even a family. They want something kind of with some specific numbers and so that can be helpful. But you're right. I think that as OT's, we know that one of our greatest strengths is our task analysis skills. And so absolutely everyone has that skill to go into the home and really assess the situation. So thank you. Yeah. So what are some of the challenges that you faced on this project? So as I mentioned, it was a roller coaster. And in the beginning, I had some expectations set with my mentor about really what my observations would look like. And they were supposed to start pretty early on and they just didn't for a number of reasons, no fault of anybody's. But I definitely had to kind of shift my focus a little bit and I ended up front loading a lot of my project because I needed to fill the time where I was supposed to be out on observations. And the whole idea of me doing observations early was so that I could actually go out and complete those initial examinations like I was talking about as well as those final exams. Just unfortunately that didn't pan out, but I don't think that it impacted my capstone in such a way because we made it work. And but that was really challenging just to understand that being flexible. You have to roll with the punches and that's something that I keep reiterating to my colleagues who are now just entering capstone. It's not going to go the way you plan 100% of the time. And that's okay because the end of 14 weeks will still come. And that's something that I can say easily now. It did not for myself. It wasn't advice that I could easily take for myself into it because I was really frustrated and stressed that I had this whole plan in my head. It wasn't panning out. I'm not typically a type 8 person, but I feel like for capstone I definitely honed in on that personality because I had this whole plan for myself. And it just didn't pan out the way I wanted. But again, I think it led me to seek out opportunities that I wouldn't have had otherwise if everything went exactly how I thought it would go. So I was able just to dive into other areas and really focus on research and bring forth this other integral piece of my project that I wouldn't have had if these changes didn't happen. So challenging, yes, beneficial, even more so. Right. Yeah. I think that's the thing with capstone, especially since we're out in the community. Right? There's so many other factors that we have to deal with. And capstone projects often change maybe even what the actual product is at the end. So kudos to you for rolling with it. And I hope that there's a few students listening that can take a little salus in hearing that. Yeah. I hope so. I will say in capstone, you can be your own worst enemy. And that's okay because at the end of the day, the challenges will lead you to the end product. And regardless how that end product looks, and I say this to my patients. So I have to go through it to get through it. And I just think that that is such a topic to keep in the front of your head. Like, okay, if I just, if I just go through it, I'm going to get to the end product. I'm going to get to the end. And the 14 weeks won't even have mattered because you made it to the end. You have this amazing project that you took so long to plan. I mean, a whole year to plan it and then produce it. I mean, that ended up itself is a success. So just knowing at the beginning, it's going to be hard, but it'll happen. But why did the tunnel does come? Right. And you know, right, we have to be challenged to learn and grow. And that's, you know, why we entered OT school. And so yeah, we've all gone through it, I guess, is the end of the story there. Yes. Yeah. So, but what is the success story from your capstone that you'd like to tell us about? Yeah. So besides completing it, no, I'm just kidding. Yeah, right. Yay. That's enough. I will fall back onto my cap's courses, actually. So like I said, I didn't really know what I was getting into. I was actually kind of terrified because I'm like, wow, I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb. I'm not gonna know what any of these people are talking about. And weirdly enough, when I got there the first day, I got there way too early, probably like 30 minutes early, but again, stress, you get there, you wanna get set up. And this other lady had actually gotten there around the same time I did, and she's like, oh, what floor are you going to? And I don't remember what floor we were on, but we were going to the same floor, ironically. She's like, wait a second, are you here for caps? And I said, yeah. And she's like, oh, what do you do? And I said, well, I'm an occupational therapy student. And she said, thank goodness, because I'm an occupational therapist and thought I was gonna be all by myself in this room. And I thought, okay, we can breathe. Someone knows where I'm coming from. So this was already a success, but then we get into class, and we play the fun, break the ice game. Hi, everyone, introduce yourself, your name, where you're from, what do you do? And I'm not kidding you when I say five of the eight people in that room were from the therapy world. Awesome. So thankful. So there was four OTs and one PTA. And it was so great to just feel that, like, wait, lift off a little bit. And then just hearing at the end of the entire experience our educator, he actually looked at all of us, and he said, I think having such a diverse group while having a very therapy heavy side, he said, this is some of the best conversation we've had in a cap's course, and he's taught many, many of these weeks. And he said, he's like, no, this is some of the best conversation. And he even said, he's like, I may have to go and it makes some changes on this presentation because you guys brought up such good points. And so I think that's probably the most successful thing because I was more than prepared to fall on my face. I know that sounds awful, but I was so worried that, well, one I wouldn't pass, but also just really the grand scheme of things. I was worried that I was just going to drive that entire week. But it ended up being one of the best weeks of the entire cap's turn experience for me. Oh, that's so awesome. It's so great to hear. And I know that feeling of just when I meet someone that actually knows what OT is, and I don't have to do my elevator speech. Oh my gosh. It's like, it just makes me shine. And then-- but then to actually get to share that experience with other OT's and rehab professionals. And I'm just glad to hear that more folks are doing cap's training and really representing OT in the home mods world. So that's awesome. Yeah, no. It's definitely eye opening. And to see, I know what I kind of want to do with my cap's credential. But to hear what other people have planned for themselves, it was enlightening because a lot of it I didn't know about prior. So it just opened the idea of various avenues that are out there with one credential. One week of your life can lead to an abundance of opportunity. And I think that really helped reiterate that for me a little bit. And we never talked about that. What does it that you want to do with your cap's credential? Yeah. So I, again, I have loved the older doll population through and through, honestly, my entire life. But more so, since I've been in school, and since I've worked in a skilled nursing for my level two field work, it just really blossomed for me even more. And with the company that I worked for, they also do vocational rehab. And so I'm actually moving to the southern part of the state because my fiance got a new job. And so my mentor was just like, hey, let me plug this for you. But voc rehab would love to have somebody in the southern part of Indiana. And at the time it was scary, but I started looking more into it. And it's really all of the interest things that I had in my head where I'm like, no, this makes sense. I can work with aging in place. I can work with home modifications. I can look at assistive technology, which is another integral piece of false prevention. And everything just kind of came full circle. So I'm hoping that it leads me down that path a little bit. But something too, one of the other individuals in my classroom are talking about cap's realty, interesting area, too, where you know what individuals are looking for in a home in order to age in place. And you bring that level of knowledge. And so now, I don't know if I want to sell houses, but to be able to communicate with contractors and help older adults or even individuals in their early adulthood start planning for building a home and building it conducively for not just themselves, but for people coming to visit. That's something I thought about, too. So my brain's 100 places as to what I want to do with my credential. But I do know that it gives me a little extra boost in the knowledge to be able to work exclusively with the older adult population, where there is such an enhancement on quality of life. There's such a focus because they're aging rapidly. And there's just this overall increased need for our OT services. And so I think it just helps make the opportunity even bigger. E, and for anybody who pursues caps or just really wants to work in the older adult population. So my mind's a million different ways, but hopefully I follow on one when I am in there. But I think I've considered a couple and I've narrowed it down. So I'm hoping one of those avenues. Yeah, well, that's so exciting. And you know what, it might be a few avenues there. It might be one avenue right now and another one down the road and the beauty of OT is that we have so many different opportunities. So-- Absolutely. Absolutely. Please stay in touch with us and let us know what you get up to. Definitely. Well, Lauren, at the Moxio T Podcast, we always want to make sure we provide an opportunity for our listeners to increase their Moxie. So if a clinician wanted to learn more about Falls Prevention, what resources would you recommend they check out? Yeah, so for occupational therapy, professionals, and students, exclusively, I think it's important to dive into what AOTA has to offer. And some of the things that I dove into were the digital badges that are offered through AOTA. And I pursued specifically the home modifications as well as the Falls Prevention badges. But they have a numerous amount that really hits different niche levels. And with those, potential micro credentials too, such as something to consider. And really, they act as CEUs, but at the same time, you have that next level of knowledge that someone else may not have. And they're out there. They're extremely easy to attain and acquire, as long as you take the time to obviously take the courses and complete the final exams. But again, they're not as scary as it sounds. But I think they're an awesome opportunity. And they give you that opportunity to continue your education and really build your knowledge. And so the other one that I wanted to talk about is through the CDC. It's stopping elderly accidents, deaths, and injuries. It's also known as the study. And they offer training and various clinical resources that professionals can utilize within their practice and better address Falls prevention. I took the provider training. And I think it really helped just increase that base for myself. But also really helped me understand how to develop my own resources and what makes them so conducive. And I think just knowing that they're out there, it's from a trusted source. And I think that helps increase your rapport with your patients if you're giving them resources that come from a trusted source. And so take the training, build that knowledge. I think it's a great resource. I really enjoyed the courses and coming from a student who was about burnout on a little bit. I thought it was great. It was really engaging. And so yeah, I encourage people to check out the AOT digital badges, the study. And again, matter of balance is another great one that I've heard about. I didn't get to dive into that. But again, there's a ton of resources out there to build knowledge and to really just like you said, increase their moxie. I think that's awesome. And I just, sorry, I was looking away for a minute because I recently actually dove into the study website, too. And you have a lot of free resources that you can order and then assessments for working with your patients and educational tools. So I highly recommend folks check out all of those resources that you mentioned. So thank you so much for all of those Lauren. And thanks for talking with us today. This has been really great. Yeah, thank you so much for having me again. I'm looking forward to hearing about others' experiences later down the road. And yeah, it's been great talking today. Thanks for joining us for this great conversation with Lauren Cook about how to educate other professionals on OT's role in fall prevention. Lauren shared her capstone project with me, including her thorough lit review. One of the articles she discussed was a systematic review of the effects of home modification interventions on the participation of community dwelling adults with health conditions. The authors found that more holistic interventions that included assessing participants' ability assess the home environment and occupational goals, implementation of a plan to reduce barriers, and client and caregiver training were the most effective. To put in my two cents, this is why OTs are so effective in helping individuals remain in and participate in the community, where the only profession trained to examine and impact all of these areas. We'll have links to this article and all of the resources discussed on our website. If you want more tools to employ evidence-based practice, check out our website. Our four professionals page has resources to support your use of evidence-based practice. Is there a topic you'd like us to discuss? Let us know in the podcast reviews. The Maxi-OT podcast was reported in our home in the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago. This episode was produced with Brian Zira. Our intro music is courtesy of 13 Tacos Studio. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.