First Bite #118 – September 22, 2020

Family Mealtime Support for our Friends with Tubies with Dr. Marion Russell, OTD, MOTR/L, SCEFS

(.1 ASHA and AOTA CEUs) For more info, click here.

Course Description

In this episode, Michelle is by the oh-so-joyful Dr. Marion Russell, OTD, MOTR/L, SCEFS, from NoTube.com.  Dr. Marion is part of the world-renowned “No Tube” Interdisciplinary Therapy Center in Graz, Austria, where they work with families, (both face-to-face and remotely), to assist the pediatric patients to overcome feeding tube dependency…through functional evidence-based practice!  In this hour, Dr. Marion discusses the roles and responsibilities of the various members of the team, medical readiness of the candidate, with specific emphasis placed on restoring the heart of mealtime: the healthy relationship between the child, their family/caregiver, and the meal.  So, bust out your picnic tablecloth, get your messy feeding clothes ready, and be prepped for an hour of celebrating feeding victories!

Objective

By the end of this PodCourse, participants will be able to identify and describe:

  • The process for providing tube weaning via telehealth as part of an interdisciplinary team.
  • 2 ways other professionals, (local team), can support the tube weaning process.
  • 2 ways the reality of tube feeding within the social context can have an impact on family mealtime routine.

Co-Presenter

Dr. Marion Russell, OTD, MOTR/L, SCEFS

Marion Russell is originally from Berlin, Germany, and relocated to Omaha August 2018 where she took a position as an assistant professor in the occupational therapy department at Creighton University. Before moving back to Germany in 2015, she enjoyed the Maine coastline in Portland for 7 years after finishing her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Her clinical experience is predominantly in pediatric feeding and eating behavior disorders, but when she practiced in Germany, she was able to see clients across the life span.

She is NDT certified through the European Bobath Association and obtained the AOTA specialty certification in feeding, eating, and swallowing in 2015. Her scholarly work focuses on the impact of enteral feeding on family mealtime routine, occupational therapy’s role in hospice care, and health disparities experienced by transgender clients and type 1 diabetes. She continues to juggle different time zones since she is still working for an Interdisciplinary Therapy Center in Graz, Austria providing telemedical services to families with children on feeding tubes.