Some of the Resources I Have Found Helpful

I recently received an email asking for ideas on places to find resources for teaching daily living skills. I have basically used items pulled together from many different places, but thought it might be helpful to list some of these places. Here are some of my thoughts (with links):

• BC Schizophrenia Society has some good info, and I especially like their Toolkit for families. 
• Anxiety BC has really great resources, related to anxiety. They have worksheets and handouts with a CBT approach. 
• Get self help also has great CBT worksheets.
• A workbook I have found useful (not just for mood disorders) for examining thought patterns is "Mind Over Mood" by Greenberger and Padesky. It also has a Clinician's Guide.
• A great book for addressing hoarding as well as just plain clutter is "Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding" by Tolin, Frost and Steketee. "Compulsive Hoarding and Acquiring: Workbook" by Steketee and Frost has a lot of the worksheets that accompany the Buried in Treasures book.
• Many of the US universities have "extension" programs that have a lot of great life skills stuff online. The ones I can think of include Kentucky, Florida, Alabama, Wisconsin and Kansas.
• I often have used the Fight Bac info for teaching food handling safety.
• I love the Canadian Diabetes Association portion guide and plate method.  It makes the portions very visual.
• Some UCLA people produced some expensive life skills materials to be taught in a group format. I have never used it, but I know of someone else who was very happy with it. The benefit of their program is that they actually have some research to support it. However, I really do not like the way they bash what they believe is "OT" in some of their studies. I wish I could set them straight on what OT really is!
• There's a series of books called "Life Management Skills" by Korb-Khalsa, Azok, and Leutenberg. They were great for their time but are now outdated. They also have cute pictures that my clients have found demeaning. I no longer use their worksheets as is, but they can be a great source of ideas.

Finally, I have been really unhappy with the resources available, and have often created my own. There are some good resources, but they are all over the place, and not necessarily designed for an adult population. Many are written at a level that my clients cannot understand.

I have been writing a book of my own worksheets, that I hope to release in the next month or two. You can contact me if you would like to receive an email when it is available.