A scene from the educational video that faculty and students at Belmont University School of Occupational Therapy helped produce.

Faculty and students from the School of Occupational Therapy recently joined with Resolve TV to produce an educational video for the Council on Aging (COA) of Greater Nashville to demonstrate how family and friends can help safely transport older adults.

The Council on Aging aims to address the needs of older adults and caregivers through information, advocacy and education, acting as a catalyst for comprehensive solutions.  COA identified the need to assist individuals in the Nashville community who help older adults get to and from appointments with doctors, attend church services, run errands and visit family and friends.  While willing to help, these individuals were often unsure of how to safely assist seniors with transfers and mobility with devices such as walkers and wheelchairs.  The Council connected with Belmont University School of Occupational Therapy to create a solution for the problem.

Dr. Debra Gibbs and Dr. Teresa Plummer, faculty members in the School, lent expertise to the project and worked together with a group of five OT doctoral students – LaRae Murray, Danielle Paulsen, Brittni Thompson, Carrie Beth Henson, and Shelly Singh – to determine the subject matter, write a script, and produce the video.   Resolve TV, a local non-profit that assists organizations with marketing, provided technical and video support.  The Belmont students demonstrated the techniques filmed in the video.

The video is now part of the “Transportation Toolkit” offered online by the Council on Aging of Greater Nashville.   The video can also be watched on YouTube.