In the cycle of commentary that follows mass shootings in the United States, calls for increased mental health services nearly always surface. It's hard to refute the need for supporting those with mental illness, and it's certainly easier than navigating the politics of gun control. Still, as the New York Times editorialized , less than five percent of gun homicides can be linked to people with diagnosed mental illness. That prominent voices in contemporary debates can associate mass violence with mental illness demonstrates how much stigma people with mental illness must endure. Unlike...

Several years ago, I developed a blog about life at the IHP, musings about education and healthcare, and reactions to issues that I thought were important to the Institute. The blog had a good following and it did provide one more way for me to communicate with the IHP community-faculty, students, colleagues. Occasionally , the blog even developed some reaction and discussion. Time passed and my energies and attention shifted to other activities. I am recommitting to getting a post out occasionally. I will use the IHP site and will hopefully stimulate some interesting discussion and provide...

It has now been a month since I left my finals behind and traveled to Europe to begin the International Innovation Project (IIP). We, my fellow IHP OT students and I, have spent times in Iceland, Estonia, and Sweden together, as well as two of us spending a long weekend in Russia. We have one more weekend of travel to Denmark coming up. I have included a photo of our traveling with this post. While the traveling has been amazing and something I will take with me long after the program ends, the main focus of our trip is the IIP, so I'll focus on that! The innovation process requires an open...

October is Physical Therapy Month across the nation, and could not come at a better time for the Institute. The PT Club is a student organization dedicated to the development of students into professionals who will soon enter the workforce. In addition to regional educational seminars, several national conferences for the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) are held throughout the year. These events are meant to further the physical therapy field by exposing professionals to various research studies being conducted. This ensures that physical therapists are able to give their...

Joy Behar of the TV show The View recently generated controversy when she mocked Kelly Johnson, a nurse who was Colorado’s entrant in the 2015 Miss America pageant, for giving a monologue about working with an Alzheimer’s patient. Suellen Breakey, PhD, RN, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing and the interim director of the Master of Science in Nursing generalist program, addressed Behar’s comments to the MGH Institute’s 93 first-year nurse practitioner students during the School’s annual White Coat ceremony on September 18. Her commentary is below. I would be remiss if I didn’t...

My name is Nicole Anulewicz and I have just completed a five-week program in Helsinki, Finland. When I first heard about the program I was unsure if it would be suitable for me and hesitated on applying to the program. However, after some thought and consideration I had decided that I would apply to what turned out to be an amazing learning experience. The program consisted of some theory of innovation but mostly involved time working with an international team to solve a challenge posed by a community partner. The community partner in my group asked that we create a program to enhance...

Hello, I am Adriana Escarpita an occupational therapy student at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. I recently traveled abroad to Europe; I visited Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Holland, Iceland, Estonia, and Denmark. During this time I also completed the Innovation Program (IIP). The IIP was a 5-week program in Helsinki, Finland. The purpose of the program was to develop a concept that can be implemented at a particular senior living home in Finland. The site that I was assigned to requested our group’s help in unifying the different diverse groups existing at the center. Although...

Optimizing your online job applications By: Russell Abbatiello We refer to this common experience as “the resume black hole.” We apply apply and apply online and never hear back. While there are many reasons (some out of your control) why we may not be hearing anything from the employer, how we fill out the online application could be a factor. Once we fill out an online application, our information uploads to a large database (called an Applicant Tracking System) where it sits …surrounded by 50, 100, 300 other hopeful competitors. How an employer decides whose application to look at first...

I’m Katie, an occupational therapy student from MGH IHP. I participated in the International Innovation Project 2015 in Helsinki, Finland within an interprofessional multicultural health care team. We were American, Danish, and Finnish OT, PT, and health nutrition students who had lived in various parts of the world; each of us brought our different cultural experiences to the table. Our five-week project, through the Miina Silanpää Foundation, was to develop an innovation to improve home rehabilitation services for the elderly in Helsinki. Given the task of promoting motivation in seniors to...

Once again, summer is drawing to a close as we prepare for the 2015–2016 academic year and the first day of classes on September 14. More than 200 new students will arrive next week for orientation as they begin their respective programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (Speech-Language Pathology), Direct-Entry Nursing (Nurse Practitioner), post-professional Nursing (MS and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs), MS in Physical Therapy for international physical therapists, MS in Health Professions Education for licensed health professionals, and the PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences...