Ben Mortenson |
 ADIS: Assistive Devices Intervention Study Please click on image to access recruitment letter for Dr. Mortenson's study |
Ready To Roll? For most individuals living in residential care, wheelchairs are their primary means of mobility. Despite their intuitive benefits, however, little research has been done on how wheelchairs are used in these settings. This video illustrates the findings of research done to learn about the lives of these residents and identify ways to improve their mobility and participation in activity by sharing the stories of three residents. This video emphasizes the pivotal role that wheelchairs play for these residents, reveals institutional procedures that may curtail their mobility and activity, and suggests potential policy and practice changes that may improve the quality of their lives. |
Ben Mortenson is a post-doctoral fellow funded by a fellowship in mobility and aging from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (2009-2012) working with Dr. Andrew Sixsmith (SFU Gerontology Research Centre) and Dr. Louise Demers (University of Montreal). Ben graduated with a bachelor of science in occupational therapy from the University of Alberta in 1991 and commenced graduate studies at the University of British Columbia in 1998, where he received an MSC in 2002 and a PhD in 2009. He has a wide range of research interests including, client-centred practice, outcome measurement, social participation, assistive technology, spinal cord injury and residential care and the combined use of quantitative and qualitative methods. His doctoral research was an ambitious two-phase, mixed-methods project that received over $93,000 in competitive funding from CIHR, the Canadian Occupational Therapy Foundation and the British Columbia Network for Aging Research. The first phase was an ethnographic study with 16 residents from 2 residential care facilities. Based on this research Dr. Mortenson conducted a subsequent cross-sectional, quantitative study to identify predictors of mobility, participation and life satisfaction among over 285 residents from 11 facilities in British Columbia. His current work is a multi-site intervention study which explores the impact of a standardized approach to assistive technology provision and training for users and their caregivers.
Selected Recent Publications
Mortenson, W.B., Oliffe, J.L., Miller, W.C., & Backman, C.L. (2012). Grey spaces: The wheeled fields of residential care. Sociology of Health and Illness, 34(3). Early-on-line publication
Giesbrecht, E.M., Mortenson, W.B., & Miller, W.C. (2011). Prevalence and facility level correlates of need for wheelchair seating assessment among long term care residents. Gerontology. Online publication available at http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?doi=10.1159/000334819
Miller, W.C., Garden, J., & Mortenson, W.B. (2011). Measurement properties of the wheelchair outcome measure in individuals with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord, 49, 995–1000.
Mortenson, W.B., & Demers, L. (2011). End-user involvement in the development and evaluation of the caregiver assistive technology outcome measure. In G.K. Gelderblom, M. Soede, L. Adriaens & K. Meisenberger (Eds.), Everyday technology for independence and care (pp. 1043-1050). Fairfax, VA: IOS Press.
Mortenson, W.B., Miller, W.C., Backman, C.L. & Oliffe, J.L. (2011) Predictors of mobility among wheelchair using residents in long term care. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 92(10), 1587-1593.
Mortenson, W.B., Noreau, L., & Miller, W.C. (2010). Predictors of quality of life after spinal cord injury at 3- and 15- months post discharge. Spinal Cord, 48, 73–79.
Rushton, P., Miller, W.C., Mortenson, W.B., & Garden, J. (2010). Satisfaction with participation using a manual wheelchair among individuals with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord. (advanced on-line publication).
Mortenson, W.B., Miller, W.C., & Backman, C.L. & Oliffe, J.L. (2009). Predictors of wheeled mobility in individuals in residential care. Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging, 13, Suppl. 1, S469.
Mortenson, W.B., Miller, W.C., & Hardy, T. (2009). Ready to roll? Wheelchair use in residential care. [video]. Disability Health Research network: UBC Okanagan. http://www.dhrn.ca/page.php?pageID=181
Mortenson, W.B., & Oliffe, J.L. (2009). Mixed methods research in occupational therapy: A survey and critique. Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, 29 (1), 14-23.
Regan, M.A., Teasell, R., Keast, D., Wolfe, D.L., Mortenson, W.B., & Aubut, J. (2009). A systematic review of therapeutic interventions for pressure ulcers following spinal cord injury. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 90, 213-231.
Mortenson, W.B., & Miller, W.C. (2008). A review of scales for assessing the risk of developing a pressure ulcer in individuals with SCI. Spinal Cord, 46(3), 168-175
Mortenson, W.B., & Miller, W.C. (2008). The wheelchair procurement process: perspectives of clients and prescribers. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 75 (3), 177-185.
Mortenson, W.B., Miller, W.C., & Auger, C. (2008). Issues for the Selection of Wheelchair-Specific Activity and Participation Outcome Measures: A Review. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 89 (6), 1177-1186.
Mortenson W.B., Miller W.C., & Miller-Polgar J. (2007). Measuring wheelchair intervention outcomes: Development of the wheelchair outcome measure. Disability and Rehabilitation. Assistive Technology, 2 (5), 275 - 285.
Bourbonniere M.C., Fawcett L.M., Miller, W.C., Garden J., & Mortenson W.B. (2007). Prevalence and predictors of need for seating intervention and mobility for persons in long-term care. Canadian Journal on Aging, 26 (3), 195-204.
POSTER: 9th International French-Speaking Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics