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Dear Readers,

Welcome to Issue 13 of rehabINK! As the first ever co-Editors-in-Chief we are happy to reflect on our time and think about what we have accomplished and the great collaborations we created. Although not new, we have had an incredible team of editors who have all worked very hard to make this issue happen. We are grateful for all their efforts and couldn’t have asked for a better team!

Although we’re sure everyone has their qualms with Zoom and online meetings, we are fortunate here at rehabINK to be able to expand our editorial team to students from Western University and McMaster University. From these connections, we were able to develop a collaboration between Western University and the University of Toronto to host the first ever rehabINK knowledge translation and science communication webinar. It was a huge success, and we are very grateful to everyone at rehabINK that participated in helping with the organization of the webinar, and everyone at Western University’s Bone and Joint Institute for their support as well.

Within the University of Toronto, we have established a new connection with the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute (RSI) Research Day team!  In the coming weeks, we are looking forward to our first ever special issue featuring the winners of the RSI Research Day oral presentations and infographic competition. . We have invited the winners to submit a snippet of their work to be posted on our website. We’re excited to showcase all the great research that goes on at RSI and congratulations to the winners!

Before diving into this issue, we challenge you to think a bit more on science communication and knowledge translation. This was a big theme for us this year, as it has been in previous years at rehabINK, and will continue to be in the upcoming issues as well. As a scientific magazine we aim to disseminate timely rehabilitation topics digestible to a lay audience. But of course, in the world we live in, alternative methods for disseminating knowledge are becoming the norm, including via social media. It continues to be important to be a critical consumer. Although these alternative methods offer the convenience of bite sized pieces of knowledge, it can also be used to spread misinformation and negativity. Be sure to check the referenced materials and challenge information that seems inaccurate.

We think the following quote summarizes this point well:

“Not only is it important to ask questions and find the answers, as a scientist I felt obligated to communicate with the world what we were learning.” – Stephen Hawking

With all that being said, we present Issue 13  of rehabINK! This issue continues to highlight the interesting and innovative topics around rehabilitation. The articles are all very thought provoking and help to continue to challenge rehabilitation as we currently know it. We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we have putting it together!

Warmly,

Christina Ziebart & Stephanie Cimino, co-Editors-In-Chief

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Dear Readers,

We are very excited to share Issue 13 with you! With the COVID-19 pandemic coming to a close we are beginning a new era, or so it seems.

Below is a quick glance at all the articles published in Issue 13, with topics ranging from mental health needs to issues of jurisprudence, we believe this issue truly showcases the breadth and importance of rehabilitation sciences:

#1 In “The Power of Words: How to Talk About Fall Risk”, Natasha Benn discusses how fear-inducing conversations can impact older adults’ quality of life by inducing the ‘Fear of Falling’ cycle. Reflecting on her experiences as a physiotherapy clinician, Natasha emphasizes the importance of changing our communication approaches with older adults at risk of experiencing a fall and provides recommendations on communication strategies of therapies to reduce fear of falling.

#2 – Stephanie Reischl and Rochelle Furtado look into patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in “Patient Engagement – The Forgotten Puzzle Piece to Creating Patient Reported Outcome Measures”. Written in collaboration with a patient partner, this commentary delves into the benefits and barriers of patient engagement and provides an illustrative example of engaging patient partners in the development of pain PROMs.

#3 – A growing population of individuals are experiencing ‘Long COVID’ a condition characterized by symptoms appearing after COVID-19. In their rapid review “Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy a Beneficial Rehabilitation Strategy to Address Mental and Functional Needs Among Survivors of COVID-19?”, Vanessa S.K. Fan, Riya Shah, Sharon S Kwan, Anna Kosinski advocate for use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for this group of patients. The authors provide evidence of CBT in addressing symptoms of insomnia, depression, anxiety, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder and provide a list of online CBT resources available for public use.

#4 – Summer Hart brings to light how the Canadian correctional services are inadequately supplied to address the need of individuals with mental illness within the criminal justice system. In “The Role of Occupational Therapy in Forensic Mental Health”, Summer explores the emerging role of occupational therapists within Mental Health Courts and discusses the current limitations of integrating occupational therapists into the system.

#5 – The field of socially assistive robots designed to support older adults is rapidly expanding. In “Companion-type robots: Addressing the Future of Social Rehabilitation for Older Adults”, Ilakkiah Chandran and Anuijan Chandran discuss whether current designs of companion robots are suitable for operation by older adults, effective at addressing social isolation, and accessible across cultural and socioeconomic groups. The authors provide directions for future research needed to ameliorate current models.

#6 – In “Putting the ‘Inclusive’ in Inclusive Education: Lessons Learned from an International Experience in Armenia”, join Armineh Babikian, an occupational therapist, in the recounting of her pediatric volunteer trip in rural Armenia. Armineh shares her experiences working in newly inclusive schools providing services for youth with disabilities and shares lessons learned while advocating for inclusive education.

#7 – Ilakkiah Chandran draws awareness to the increase in prevalence of mental health challenges among older adults residing in long-term care (LTC) in the commentary titled: “Reworking Mental Healthcare in Ontario Long Term Care Facilities”. Read about the pitfalls of LTC mental health services and the multifaceted approach needed to address these gaps and provide LTC residents with the care they need.

#8 – Don’t miss this commentary titled: “Are Ontario Workers Paid or Paying to be Sick at Work”, by Jessica Otoo-Appiah, Lizzie Houlding, Lauren Humphrey and Anonymous. As a group of healthcare workers in rehabilitation, the authors dive into how unsafe workplace conditions impact our communities, provide real life examples to illustrate systemic issues, and emphasize the importance of healthcare workers advocating on behalf of their patients.

With these eight uniquely positioned articles, we hope you have a deeper exploration and understanding to the diversity of rehabilitation and its impact to our world at hand. We again would like to thank our wonderful authors, illustrators, and editors who made this issue possible, and we truly hope these articles help facilitate critical discussion. We hope to hear your thoughts on our articles!

Happy reading!

Alexandra Krassikova and Meera Premnazeer, Issue 13 Co-Managing Editors

To refer to this article, it can be cited as:

Ziebart C, Cimino S, Krassikova A, & Premnazeer M. Letter from the editors. rehabINK. 2022;13. Available from: https://rehabinkmag.com