Sharing knowledge

AMPS is an assessment tool that is used to measure the quality of a person's activities—everyday things like folding laundry or vacuuming— by rating the effort, efficiency, safety and independence.  (Photos supplied)

The School of Occupational Therapy, Dalhousie University and AMPS Project International are pleased to announce that Halifax will host the 2008 International AMPS Symposium, July 29 to Aug. 1. This symposium attracts an international contingency of invited speakers, presenters, and delegates and is being held in Canada for the first time.

The symposium is open to occupational therapists, but will also be of interest to other health-care providers, health administrators, and/or researchers who are interested in learning more about outcome measures related to participation in daily life. Presentations will be made by local experts as well as others from as far away as Sweden, Japan, and Slovenia.

“We’re really excited to have the opportunity to host this event and show off not only this city and province, but the excellent work being done in Nova Scotia with the AMPS,” says Norma Lewis, chair of the organizing committee. “But we’re also thrilled to have experts from around the world coming to share the latest knowledge and research to help us better meet the needs of our clients.”

The Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) is an innovative observational assessment tool used to measure the quality of a person’s Activities of Daily Living (ADL) by rating the effort, efficiency, safety, and independence in a number of areas.

The 2008 International AMPS Symposium will offer delegates the opportunity to critically explore areas of practice related to implementing and documenting occupation-based programs, client-centered practice, occupational therapy within the school system and occupational justice.

Additionally, there will be presentations related to new evidence that supports the validity, reliability and utility of the AMPS and the School AMPS, as well of the development of other assessments that can be used by occupational therapists. This includes the "Evaluation of Social Interaction Skills," a new assessment tool that offers a naturalistic, client-centred, objective measure of a person’s ability to engage in needed and desired social tasks.

Preconference workshops include an interprofessional workshop on knowledge translation and a workshop for occupational therapists on the assessment of awareness of disability.

AMPS is standardized observational evaluation tool that is used to evaluate the quality of a person’s performance of activities of daily living (ADL), including such things as meal preparation and grocery shopping. AMPS has been developed on RASCH measurement theory from a database of more than 100,000 people.

For more information about the symposium, please go to:
www.occupationaltherapy.dal.ca
http://www.occupationaltherapy.dal.ca