Saima's khatta Meetha OT Talk-Dr Diksha Kamble

Introducing the seventeenth guest of my column is a young professional who has an interesting outlook towards her passion and work. Her dedicated efforts to establish her practice in a challenging field is worth appreciation.

Dr Diksha (OT)

Dr.Diksha Kamble is an occupational therapist(mental health)hypnotherapist,life coach ,reiki and shamanic healer.She  uses a unique approach of integrating occupational therapy with spiritual healing as well as hypnosis.She believes creativity and integration keeps therapy truly customized and caters to the unique needs of the client.

She currently practices in Andheri and also conducts workshops on a variety of emotional,psychological and mental health issues.

Lets read her views further:

1) What are your primary areas of work interest?

My primary areas of work interest are mental health and pediatric mental health.


2) Can you tell us more about Whitespace and its journey?

So 'The White Space' is my own company that I always wanted to create.It provides holistic mental health services as well as spiritual therapies,workshops to individuals.

So after finishing my graduation I knew I wanted to do something different but I didn't know how.After battling suicidal thoughts and this never ending feeling of emptiness, I realized that I probably need to create something different that I needed the most during my own journey while battling with depression and that's how 'The white space' was born,providing a range of services customized to the needs of the client.


3) What are the challenges you are facing in establishing your practice of Mental Health and how do you deal with it?

One of the greatest challenge is the stigmatization around mental health.My clients often start with something like, "Not that I m mad,but I m going through so and so."or "how do I come for therapy ,people would know". So people often feel that if its mental illness ,its weakness,its something to be ashamed of and sometimes they don't follow up because of this reason.

 So for this reason I conduct  or be a part of certain free workshops and seminars for mental health so that people know that mental health is important and that its nothing to be ashamed of.


4) You have pursed specialized  learning like NLP, reiki, hynopsis etc how do you use them with occupational therapy practice?

 So occupational therapy has always been about following a holistic approach and if we look at the Canadian model of occupational therapy the core of it is spirituality.Spiritual need is quite an important need that is often overlooked in a lot of conventional therapies.By integrating these practices with occupational therapy I believe it ensures quicker,effective and faster results with this need for spiritual answers satiated.

5)As a fresh graduate a lot of professionals have dilemma over their future pursuits,what is your advise to them? My advice would be that be your own different,unique self.Meditate,it really helps resolve dilemmas,helped me!

Also don't compare your journey to someone else's.All your classmates might be moving abroad to pursue masters,taking on new jobs and responsibilities but if that doesn't feel right,makes you jump with 'yay,I want to do this' don't do it. Take your time, rat race is pointless.

Your highlights:


My professional strength: Empathy,awareness,emotional quotient


My inspirational moment: The moment white space was born.


My favorite Occupations: Writing,teaching,healing


I am known for: Being offbeat and different.

P.S: I extend my gratitude to her for her valuable time.See you all next Saturday with another guest

-SSW

Saima's Khatta Meetha OT Talk-Dr Bessy Oommen(OT)

Introducing the sixteenth guest of my column is a dedicated pediatric occupational therapist practicing in Dubai.She has been instrumental in establishing and developing the occupational

therapy services of her hospital.

Dr Bessy (OT)

Dr.Bessy Oommen works as a Senior Occupational therapist in Latifa Women & Children Hospital,
Dubai, a government hospital under the Dubai Health Authority. She has completed her Master’s in OT in Developmental Disabilities, Fellowship in Advanced Occupational Therapy- NDD from AIOTA and SIPT Certification from University of Southern California.

She is also the Principal Investigator for an ongoing OT research project approved by the Dubai Scientific Research & Ethical Committee.  

Let's read her views further:

1) Can you share your journey of being an Occupational therapist and what are the challenges you came across in establishing your practice?

On completion of my Bachelor’s degree in OT from LTMMC, Mumbai, I moved to UAE and started working in a special needs center in Sharjah. It was here that I developed a keen interest in Pediatric OT which led me to join Latifa Women & Children Hospital, a tertiary-care referral hospital under Dubai Health Authority where I have been working for the last 20 yrs.

During this time, I have seen a variety of pediatric cases like Neurodevelopmental conditions involving CP, Developmental Delays, Spina Bifida, Autism, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Ex-preterm, various syndromes to brachial plexus injuries, burns, trauma cases, etc and have been working through a functional goal directed eclectic approach with respect to frames of references, working mainly in the areas of fine motor, self-care and gross motor skills and co-ordination along with achieving an appropriate arousal.

It has been a wonderful learning experience of treating children with such varied diagnosis, updating myself, being able to apply my knowledge and seeing the satisfaction and happiness on the parents faces on their child’s improvement

The challenges faced initially were lack of awareness about the role of occupational therapy in pediatrics among medical doctors which has improved drastically through various awareness programs and multi-disciplinary meetings with Pediatric Neurology, Surgical and Orthopedic departments.

2) How has been the growth of Occupational therapy in pediatric and adult rehabilitation across U.A.E?

Over a period of time, as awareness of OT has increased among the people and the medical fraternity, we now have full-fledged OT departments in almost every major public and private hospital across the UAE and also a number of smaller centers operating independently catering to a vast cross section of people from different countries and cultures.

At my hospital, we have all the branches of rehabilitation including orthotics and we use an inter-disciplinary approach offering varied services like developmental therapy using different frames of references, administering standardized evaluations as per goals set, prescription and fabrication of hand splints, seating evaluation and prescription of positioning, active and power wheelchairs and prescription of adaptive aids as required.

3) What are the newer ways in which OT practices can be enhanced further?

OT therapists in pediatrics should be able to differentiate between sensory, emotional and cognitive aspects of behavior and should understand the integration between visual, vestibular and auditory contributions to learning and engagement in functional activities. A deeper understanding of neurobiology will also help to evolve this field of practice.

4) What is your opinion on lack of OT professional's recognition compared to other professionals globally?

As with all other professions, OT also had its teething issues with acceptance, but with evidence-based practices and research helping to prove its effectiveness from the pediatric to geriatric age group, it is now a widely accepted and followed profession worldwide with great job opportunities in the healthcare field as well as in occupational health and ergonomics.

5) What is your advice to the young professionals exploring entrepreneurship revenues?

Being employed in a government hospital all these years, I would not be the right person to give advice on entrepreneurship, but with my experience I would suggest that one should consider offering an inter-disciplinary, goal-directed approach to address various needs of the client at viable rates as the treatment is long-term. The other challenge is to include OT services in the scope of coverage of medical insurances.

Your highlights:

My professional strength: 

Setting functional goals for clients, educating and training parents to implement home programs for continuation of therapy.

My inspirational moment:

My in-service training with Ms.Deb Humpel of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and my mentor for Fellowship, Ms.Ashwini Vaishnampayan who both influenced me in setting goal-directed treatment approach for my clients.

I dislike the most :

Clients being referred late for OT in-spite of receiving other rehabilitation therapies and disrespect for my profession.

I am known for:.

An honest, hardworking and innovative professional with an empathetic approach to my clients.

 

P.S: I extend my gratitude to her for her valuable time.See you all next Saturday with another guest.

-SSW