A Virtual Program Continuation for a Community Senior Program

Abstract

A community facility within the Indianapolis area presented with a need to have the capability to continue their senior program through a pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic presented many challenges with social distancing restrictions causing closures throughout the community to include the senior program. The OT (occupational therapy) student formed collaboration groups with an IUPUI informatics team and the IUPUI 2023 OT cohort to complete the project of building a virtual program for the senior program and creating educational videos. A literature review was completed to support the need of the senior program, the use of technology and older adults, support of health literature and the need for OT in this program. The OT student worked closely with the senior program staff, the informatics group and the 2023 cohort, gaining and improving clinical skills such as leadership, advocacy, and communication. The OT student used the Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO) model throughout the project to ensure fit of the design of the webpage and its features and to increase accessibility to occupations to maintain occupational load for the older adult population. The end result of the project is assessed by the informatics students and their education gained by completion of the project. The interprofessional collaboration allowed the informatics students to gain knowledge on the scope of occupational therapy and the effectiveness of interprofessional collaboration. The evaluation of the virtual webspace was unable to be obtained during the timeframe of this project and will be assessed at a later date.