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Myself and another student OT brought the Five Ways to Wellbeing to pupils at a deaf school, via a variety of weekly classes.
For a fuller account of this intervention, check out my article 'School OT: Using the Kawa Model and Five Ways to Wellbeing' in OT Interventions [Plus+ Member access]
The Kawa Model
We decided to use the Kawa Model of occupational therapy practice, to engage students in a creative activity. We wanted each person to consider the personal challenges they currently face and the skills and supportive structures to help overcome them.
We designed a basic river template (left) and laminated a copy for each child - to write on with wipeable ink. We felt that the visual element could be supportive to learning. Objects to place in the river and write on were then cut out and laminated. This formed a blank canvas for each pupil to map out their life flow! This would be a changing picture...
KEY Rocks = circumstances that block life flow and cause dysfunction or disability
Driftwood = skills and resources that support and enhance daily living
Fish = personal qualities that help to overcome challenges faced
River bed = the social, physical, cultural and institutional environment (a hinderance or help)
Each student could experiment by placing objects in different places within their river, to assess how one could support or hinder another aspect of their life. Check out my example river at the top of this post.
Why not utilise the Kawa Model in your work with clients/patients? It's a tool that works across ages and cultures.
Jamie Grant
Occupational Therapist
Director, The Occupational Therapy Hub
Hi I'm a speech and language therapist, currently working with secondary school aged clients, with social emotional and mental health needs. I've recently been introduced to this model, by a student training to be an occupational therapist, and found this very interesting and was wondering if there was a way I could use this with my own clients, during the assessment process, when attempting to create therapy goals and aims - this may be useful to take on the student perspective?
We had a presentation (Kent County Council) of the Kawa River model a few months ago. I think that most of the OT's struggled to see how it could be applied in a social services setting. I felt that it could certainly be usefully applied for assessments, at least to facilitate OT's to be person centred.
Beth and I used Kawa for 1:1 very successfully in sessions with homeless / mental health / substance abuse clients to create greater insight. Love Kawa's for it's flexibility and versatility! And I'm loving the fish idea! :-)
I've used KAWA on myself in the past to think about the things going well in my life and barriers. I love such a visual tool it works realy well for me.
I like it as it's quite flexible and non-prescriptive. The client can be creative in adjusting the layout offering an insight into their perspective, through what they focus on and consider important.
Thanks @Laura! Yes, whilst it's strength is the visual element, I did question whether it might be a little abstract for the age of the students I engaged in it. It may be hard to grasp for some, but it worked well in my sessions :) I added fish to the river (not a Kawa standard!) to differentiate personal qualities from skills...
This is great! I have thought about using the KAWA model at work as it is so visual, but I have always wondered if it might be a little abstract for some of the people I work with. I am sure I could adapt the way I go about it though.