����Ӱ��

Throughout the fall semester, students of occupational therapy from the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences have been dedicating their Thursday afternoons to helping community members at the Staunton-Augusta YMCA.

On Thursday afternoons, from about 1 to 2 p.m., students of occupational therapy (OT) from the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences and Staunton-Augusta clients fill a room of the Staunton-Augusta YMCA with a whirlwind of activity. 

To one side of the room, with the help of some students and to the tune of The Eagles’ “Hotel California,” a man drums on a large exercise ball; on another end, students troubleshoot an adapted version of bowling for a client to try; and the activity even spills out to another room, where students and another patient puzzle out how he might put on and take off a sweater more independently. 

The scene is busy, but it’s far from chaos — it’s the YMCA’s neuro-wellness program, a collaboration between the social services organization and Murphy Deming . 

When the program first began, it was only physical therapy (PT) students who worked with clients. Now, ����Ӱ��’s occupational therapy students get to join the fun and learn first-hand about working with patients with a wide range of neuro-wellness needs.

“For our students, this is a huge opportunity,” explains Dr. Sarah McCadden, assistant professor of occupational therapy. “I didn’t touch a patient until I was out on fieldwork. In most educational settings, students get access to a simulated patient for practice or participate in role-play exercises in class. We do all of that, but we also get this real-world experience embedded throughout the curriculum for both our PT and OT students.”

What does real-world experience look like? The answer is unique for each group of OT students and each patient.

For Dianne Louvet, students help with mobility in the neck and hands as well as practice everyday tasks like scooping cereal or drinking from a glass. Teagan McKay OTD ‘26, has been working with Louvet for four weeks, and has already learned a lot.

“I think the lesson is that every day is going to be variable,” McKay said. “If Dianne is tired one day, we might not do an intense intervention or exercise. We have to be flexible and meet our patients where they’re at. At the end of the day, we have a treatment plan in place, but it’s the comfort of the patient that matters most.”

Elsewhere, students work with Larry Hales, who has Parkinson’s disease and is joined by his wife, Julia Kanagy. Occupational therapy, in practice, often focuses on developing adaptations for patients to pursue the activities and lifestyle that they desire.

For Hales, the goal is more fishing.

When students first developed a treatment plan to get Hales angling again, they figured he would need help with the motion of using a rod to cast line out into the water. After a session of exercises focused on that casting motion, students were able to better understand Hales’ situation. 

“I’m learning that it isn’t always step-by-step,” says Acaylia Jensen OTD ‘26. “In the classroom, we plan our interventions and develop a plan, but it’s really eye-opening and exciting to have a real client and not just an in-class case study. After getting to know him, we worked with Larry on casting, but at the end of that session, he mentioned that it was actually tying the knots and the fine motor skills there that he wanted to work on.”

Now, the table is covered in fishing materials — Hales’ own from home and a variety of other tools that the OT students developed themselves. The stand-out objects are a piece of rope (very much thicker than a fishing line) and an aluminum foil craft in the undeniable shape of a fishing hook.

“We talk a lot about grading up and down in therapy,” McCadden outlines. “So we start with a ‘just right’ challenge,” she holds up the rope and foil hook, “and then we build our way up, or in this case, down, to the scale that they want to work at.” 

The room’s attention is eventually pulled to the students supporting Eric Milnes, who has been coming to the neuro-wellness sessions at the YMCA since the program began in 2014. Milnes is a large figure, standing on prosthetic legs and bearing the scars of his battle with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He’s had bad medical luck, but his spirits are high and even further buoyed by the presence of the students, who he calls his “newest crop of fledglings.”

Milnes and students Morgan Overaitis OTD ‘26, Amanda Kavaja OTD ‘26, and Alyssa Antolin OTD ‘26 are working on the muscles in his hands, which have deteriorated over time due to intrinsic atrophy. After working with weighted putty and a contraption that attaches bands to each finger on his hand, the students begin setting up for a modified bowling game — per Milnes’ request. 

“Working on leisure activities is important, because it’s what the patients are passionate about,” Overaitis details. 

Whether by helping their patients access leisure activities, move more independently around their homes, or anything outside and in-between, occupational therapists make it their mission to observe their patients and their environments to find individualized solutions for participation in daily life activities.

“It’s motivation,” Milnes said of the weekly meetings with Murphy Deming students. “It’s my motivation for leaving my property every week. Interacting with these young people and getting to live better with their help.”

---

Click here for more information about ����Ӱ��’s occupational therapy program.