My Review of Seniors Flourish’s OT Goal-Writing for Adults Package by Mandy Chamberlain

S    C     O     R     E!!!

Introducing the Occupational Therapy Goal Writing & Goal Bank Guide and Goal Writing for Adults Workbook Package by my friend and mentor Mandy Chamberlain from Seniors Flourish. I have been a faithful fangirling follower of Mandy for several years now and am elated that after many years of admiring her work from afar, she is also now just one of my friends that I can call up and have a chat with. 🙂

This resource package will support your never-ending endeavor of improving your goal-writing skills. A resource that can be easily opened on your work tablet or your mobile phone or desktop  (or you can print it out). A resource that will make you feel like you have scored the game – winning gooooaaallll in all things needed to be successful in dreaded goal-writing! I am giving a lot of detail in this post because this resource is Valuable with a capital V.

Let’s breakdown the package (click here to view)!:

1. Goal Writing and Goal Bank Guide for Adults

2. Goal Writing Workbook for Adults

1. Goal Writing and Goal Bank Guide for Adults ebook: 

Quick Summary:  The Occupational Therapy Goal Writing & Goal Bank Guide is a 60 page ebook that focuses on helping you create measurable, client centered and attainable goals for your clients!

Not only does it give practical tips and instruction for goal setting in an easy to follow format, it provides outcome measure examples for a variety of goals plus a bank of short term goals and long term goals.

$23.99

The Goal Writing & Goal Bank Ebook is broken into the following 7 Sections:

1.OT Abbreviations: Each and every facility is different in regards to which abbreviations (aka shorthand) are allowed. This section of the ebook provides a plethora of specific examples that you might use when writing goals for your patients.

2.Goal Setting Prep + Tips: Review of what a comprehensive evaluation looks like, an introduction of Short and Long Term Goal Basics, actual examples of “building blocks” of what to do and what not to do, how to prioritize the information and discern outcome measures

3.Writing COAST Goals: This section and the one after this one are the gold mines of the book. It goes over the actual “how to” method of goal writing in a formula that goes over the client vs the occupation vs the assist level vs the specific conditions and the timeline. Mandy breaks it down by color coordinating each specific objective to make it easier to understand…You will have to see it to believe it:)

4.COAST Goal Bank & Outcome Measure Examples: This section!!!! There are goal examples including Long and Short Term written out for all functional performance areas as well as recommended outcome measures to use to help make the goal measurable. I repeat ! I repeat this section gives recommendations for what assessments to use and word for word examples of goals!!
 Goal bank topic examples  include but are not limited to:

• ADL: Bathing/ Showering, Clothing Retrieval/ Dressing, Eating/Feeding, Functional Mobility/ General/ Car/ Chair/ Toilet/ Shower Transfers, Wheelchair Use/Transfers… Oxygen Management, Sexual Activity…and more.
• IADLs… Community Mobility, Housekeeping, Financial Management, Medication Management, Meal Prep… Phone Use, Safety, Pet Care… Shopping.
• Performance Components and Motor Components...  Tactile, Olfactory, Vestibular, Stereognosis…Pain, Right-Left Discrimination, Topographical Orientation…Visual Closure…Balance, Coordination, Bilateral Integration, Orientation, Memory, Coping Skills.
• Other Goal bank topic examples for Dementia, Energy Conservation, Fall prevention, Positioning, Maintenance, Progressive Disease Categories…
• AND SO MANY MORE CATEGORIES (literally I am embarrassed in stating that I did not realize we could as occupational therapy practitioners successfully write goals for some of these categories in an occupation-based and measurable way!)

5.Special Considerations for Goal Setting: Explanation and goal setting breakdown for Progressive Diseases, Maintenance Therapy…

6.Recommended Resources: Goal Writing Workbook – This is the step by step guide to using outcome measures in goal setting that is the recommended “workbook partner” to use with this Ebook. This section also provides multiple references for where to find links to assessment tools, additional courses that are beneficial

7.Conclusion (Sources and Appendixes): Quick Reference to Resources; Appendixes

2. Goal Writing Workbook for Adults ebook:

Quick Summary: This 14 page Goal Writing Workbook is perfect for those having trouble creating client-centered and measurable goals

This workbook guides you through a step-by-step approach to goal writing by helping you select performance components, outcome measures and use the COAST method to write rock solid goals.

$7.99

The Goal Writing Workbook is broken down into 4 major objectives followed by a “Goal Organizer”.

1. Choosing Different Goals: Goes into why is goal writing difficult and what specifically to do about it.

2. Occupations/Performance Components: Helps you orchestrate what exact components need to be included in the goal.

3. Outcome Measures: Targets identifying what exactly you are trying to measure in the goal.

4. COAST Goals: Focuses on what we do best –> occupations 🙂

My Personal Experience

When I reflect back on my experience in occupational therapy school and the months leading up to graduation and job searching  and than the painful transition of being a new grad to even now 3 years into my career, one of greatest struggles as a therapist was and sometimes still is my  ability to perform documentation-specifically goal-writing.

Since I have a blog and run an Instagram (with 11K + and growing *gasp*) in addition to my self-reported love for writing, then surely I must naturally have a knack for documentation right…. Haha NOPE!!! I remember getting to the point where I felt pretty confident in my daily documentation and also in my assessments of a person’s performance, but I consistently struggled with the guilt I felt in my (self-perceived) inadequate  or “boring / monotonous” goals that I set in collaboration with the patient.  I realized that as I became more confident in my documentation skills and ability to attempt to be more “point of service”, the area in my evaluation documentation that was NEVER filled out during patient care – was in fact the “short term goals” and “long term goals”  section.

Just this week, I had an episode of feeling therapist guilt and pressure that I put on myself because I had a patient who clearly was not taking their medications properly at home leading up to an imminent hospitalization and now rehabilitation stay.

I remembered that Mandy had sent me this ebook package which I had already downloaded to my personal work iPad. Bam. It took me less than 90 seconds to find what I needed to create a person-centered medication management  goal. I am committing to adding 1 new goal (as appropriate for my patient) than the standard ADL goals

My Overall Personal Recommendations

• I strongly recommend both the Goal Writing & Goal Bank Guide and the Goal Writing Workbook to: occupational therapy students, especially those who will have a Level 2 fieldwork clinical in an adult setting of any kind; new grad practitioners through first few years of practice of any adult setting.
• I greatly recommend the Goal Writing &  Goal Bank Guide to practitioners who have been in practice for over three years, but find themselves in a rut when it comes to writing the same things over and over again.
• I recommend the Goal Writing Workbook to practitioners who have been in practice for over three years, but believe if you have experience in goal writing that you may be able to get by without the workbook.
• I strongly recommend the Goal Writing & Goal Bank Guide and recommend the Goal Writing Workbook if you are a practitioner who is making the switch from pediatrics to adult rehab of any form.
• PSA***Times are really odd right now to say the least. If you are in a pickle in purchasing both, my recommendations are to purchase the Goal Writing & Goal Bank Guide first and see if from there you need additional insight and assistance to determine if you also want to purchase the Workbook.

Finally, when you take into the consideration of the cost of that Documentation textbook you barely even used for OT school, this price is extremely fair. I know for a fact that Mandy poured multiple months to a year in developing this and the quality of the ebook package is worthy of the price.

Questions or comments???

Disclaimer: I am an affiliate, which full transparency means that if you found my information and feedback of this product valuable and you decide to purchase…PLEASE purchase through my links. Purchasing through my links embedded in this blog post directly supports my endeavors for running a blog amongst other crazy plans I have that requires a lot of time, love, and care.

Much love,

SHANNEN MARIE OT

PS Curious for more resources to learn and thrive when working with adults, specifically with older adults…You may just wanna check out the Seniors Flourish Learning Lab! You can use my code SHANOT:107 for a percentage off:)