Meri Pekkanen: Occupational therapy, nutrition and other hot health stuff

Green is the Color of an OT

September 13, 2010 at 17:05 Leave a comment

…so it’s only natural to try going green in all our actions. How? For example like this:

The Campaign for Greener Healthcare – 10 ways to cut down CO2 in OT department

Our dog goes green working her backpack!

At my office in the Helsinki City hospital we don’t have cars and mainly use the public transportation and bicycles to get around. That’s green! …even though the home visits from the ward are made using the city’s own transportation service. But that’s inevitable due to the security regulations.

Also we recycle in our kitchen all the following, whether it’s us making the lunch or our client practising cooking:

• glass
• metal
• paper
• cardboard
• biodegradable

The metal we still have to take care of ourselves, which is a shame that the city doesn’t do that, and there’s no way to recycle energy waste.

We also try not to waste any food whether it being cooked by ourselves or the client. Sometimes the hygiene of the product may come in question but if not, we’re happy to eat, say, the remains of a fruit salad prepared in an OT group. We also purchase only as much groceries as we need.

Number 7 is a funny one in the list: sustainabili-tea. I think there’s no point in focusing on the tea drinkers in Finland, at least in my unit there are 5 coffee drinkers against one tea drinker! Of course, the rules apply for coffee drinkers as well, tho the coffee maker takes the time it takes. And I’ve tried this filter that can be used multiple times but THAT DOESN’T work. If you know a solid one, please let me know.

And like they say in the list, preventative healthcare is probably the most effective way to stay green: that way people are better able to take care of their own carbon footprint.

If you come up with some new ideas on how to save environment in OT, please share in the comments!

Thanks to Occupational Therapist Jouyin Teoh from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from the link! Check out Jouyin’s page about The Kawa Model.

Entry filed under: Occupational Therapy.