Hosted by the Geriatric FIN
Continuing Competency Awarded
In person:
Hospital for Special Care
2150 Corbin Avenue
New Britain, CT 06053
Tai Chi is a beautiful moving meditation and exercise usually taught in community settings but often viewed as complicated and difficult to learn. This lab-based course is designed to teach participants how to begin applying Tai Chi in patient care across settings. Using our expertise in motor learning and motor control, physical therapists are well prepared to learn and teach basic Tai Chi postures, stances and stepping sequences that can enhance patient wellbeing while improving posture, balance, and motor performance. Clinical application of Tai Chi in healthcare has the potential to reduce stress and anxiety to give patients as well as the therapist powerful tools to incorporate relaxation and mindful movement into traditional exercise, balance, and gait training. Attendees will learn applicable movement and exercise strategies that can be immediately applied to patient care.
Objectives:
1)Describe and summarize the impact of Tai Chi on physical function, mental and cognitive health
2)Experience and practice Tai Chi exercises in sitting, supported standing and standing.
3) Describe the experience of tai chi on your breathing, posture, and performance of basic motor tasks: somatosensory awareness, energy expenditure, and balance.
4) Contrast traditional exercise, gait, balance, and position changes with Tai Chi influenced movement.
5) Develop strategies to implement Tai Chi across patient populations in inpatient and outpatient settings
Presented by Dorothy Villano, PT, DPT, Board Certified Specialist in Geriatrics, CEEA
Dorothy Villano is a Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Geriatric Physical Therapy who practices physical therapy at Hospital for Special Care. She graduated from University of Connecticut in 1987 and received her post professional DPT from Des Moines College of Health Professions in 2012. She has served as an adjunct faculty instructor at the University of Hartford in their geriatric course as well as at the University of Connecticut in the neurologic curriculum. She began studying Tai Chi in her early career and has continued to work on translating it and incorporating it into therapeutic and aquatic exercise. Her areas of interest include aquatic therapy, osteoporosis prevention and management, frailty prevention, and working with persons with Parkinson Disease and mild cognitive impairment to slow the progression of these conditions. Dorothy is a member of the Geriatrics and Neurology sections of the APTA
