Sleep & Circadian Science through an OT Lens
Creating an informed community of practice for our clients' best sleep.
SleepLinks - Knowledge Sharing
SleepLinks' 8-session sleep course for occupational therapists and other allied health clinicians - commences May 9!
This course is offered once each year, with a series of 8 x 3-hour online sessions. For OTs and other allied health clinicians, the focus is on sharing knowledge about sleep and circadian science, with application to all age groups, conditions and clinical settings. We draw from latest science and apply this to clinical practice with case studies and opportunities for questions and reflections. This course commences on May 9. The live and interactive sessions are on Friday mornings (9.30 - 12.30 AWST). Each session is recorded. Course participants are encouraged to contact Sue with comments and questions during and following the course. The recordings are available to participants for 6 months after the final session.
Customised sleep information sharing for clinical practice groups
SleepLinks provides customised sleep information for clinical practice groups - with the dates, timing, and information focus adapted according to each group's needs. The target audience varies - it might be occupational therapists, varied allied health clinicians or a broader medical and allied health team. The information sessions could be for clients of the practice - parents or caregivers, or individuals with sleep difficulties. There are lots of choices...
Clinician support
Clinicians can arrange their own customised sleep information support, with the timing, duration and frequency that suits them. Their focus might be on options for assessment and support for a particular client or group of clients, for information about assessment and support strategies in the home setting, or for information about assistive technology to support the varied aspects of function that affect sleep (such as thermal comfort, sensory comfort, positioning and mobility, or sleep setting modifications).
Assistive Technology - equipment loan and information support
SleepLinks occupational therapy has a range of equipment items which clinicians can lend to their clients to trial in their own home setting. These items include equipment for thermal comfort, sensory comfort, body positioning & mobility, or for the optimal sleep setting. This service includes individualised clinical reasoning and provision of safety guidelines for equipment trials.
About Sue and SleepLinks OT
SleepLinks is me - Sue McCabe (BSc, MSc, PhD). I've been an occupational therapist for nearly 45 years, graduating in Western Australia in 1980. I've worked in neuro and spinal rehab, community paediatrics and assistive technology (home modifications, and customised seating & lying position support), with clients of all ages, all conditions.
It was during my 20+years in assistive technology that I noted the devastating impact of sleep problems on my clients and their caregivers. In the clinic setting it was missed appointments (sorry, we've been awake all night), or ill-informed assessments (yeah, whatever, we're too tired to think about this) and the visible effects of poor sleep on pain, attention, memory and engagement. I was dismayed to realise the gaps in our knowledge and services around this. This led to my MSc and PhD studies into the factors affecting sleep of children with complex neuro-motor conditions, with a focus on sleep & thermoregulation. With a Churchill Fellowship, I travelled to the UK & Canada to learn from experts in the field. I've stayed connected and continue to collaborate in training & research.
I have recently ceased clinical practice. Now I focus on knowledge sharing with OT and other allied health and sleep research colleagues. I love translating sleep & circadian science through the scope of our person-centred OT lens. I love the idea of developing a strong, collaborative multi-disciplinary community of sleep knowledge and practice.
Right from the beginning of my OT learning (way back in 1977) I've been taught to view human health & well-being, function and participation in everyday life through the OT lens of person-environment-occupation (activity and participation). This PEO lens is especially relevant and important to sleep. When we learn about sleep, we learn that it is 'all about everything'. There's a lot to know, a lot we can do.
Translating sleep and circadian science to client-centred clinical practice....
Ways of learning, understanding and thinking about sleep..
SleepLinks' Sleep Comfort Map guides our thoughts and discussion about all the different things that affect sleep - it's my favorite way of joining the dots and minding the gaps.
I love the ICF
The World Health Organisation's International Classification for Functioning (ICF) provides a framework which is understood across the world and across all different professions, linking knowledge and understanding about the interactions of the person's body (structures and functions), their activity and participation, their environment and their personal factors. This is a really important way to understand sleep - because sleep is affected by, and affects, all these domains of function.
Good sleep is a 24 hour concern
When we think about sleep, and the ways to get out best sleep, we need to know about body clocks and circadian science. It's about the relationship between our activities and environments and the important synchrony of rhythms of these relationships, for the best functions of sleep and wake.
Thermoregulation and Sleep
Thermoregulation is one of the many aspects of function which affect our sleep. It illustrates the important rhythms of interactions of our body structures & functions, activities and environments. There is a link below which will take you to our paper about this.
There's lots to share...
Get in touch if you would like more information about
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SleepLinks' (and various other) sleep training options around Australia and internationally
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SleepLinks' publications
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SleepLinks' fact sheets about assistive technology (equipment) that clinicians can borrow, to show to their clients or lend for trial (Perth metro, unless by special arrangement)
or if you would like to be on the mailing list for community of practice & knowledge sharing events.