hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr4442.txt

Episode: 4442
Title: HPR4442: Orthopedagogiek - what it is.
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4442/hpr4442.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-26 00:44:25

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This is Hacker Public Radio episode 4442, produced at the 12th of August 2025.
Today's show is entitled, Ortha Ptagojiq, What It Is.
It is part of the series Mental Health.
It is the first show by new host Manon, and is about 8 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is Manon explains what this field of care is and why we need it.
Hi everybody, my name is Manon, I'll be your host for today.
Today I will be talking to you about my job.
In most countries outside of the Netherlands, Belgium and to certain extent Germany and
Scandinavia, my study and title don't exist.
I find it hard to explain to people what I do when I'm abroad.
I promise Dave that I will do a show on it, but it's been hard to find the right words.
Since starting a postmaster degree earlier this year, I have been thinking about it a
lot.
For the record, a postmaster degree is a degree that you can do after finishing a university
master degree.
For this postmaster degree, I got an assignment to write an opinion piece and I thought,
why not an informative one, where I tell people what I do, and why I think it should
have global recognition.
Based on the notes for this show, I wrote an opinion piece for a professional article.
So here goes.
I work with clients with an intellectual disability and often other challenges.
They live in group homes.
I am involved with several of these homes to oversee the quality of care.
Let's call it case management.
My job title, when translated, is behavioral expert.
Just like myself, most colleagues have studied orthopedic ochic.
You studied what?
I hear you ask.
Orthopedic ochic, a tricky word and not very catchy for English speakers.
Ortho means to make it right, like in orthodontics, where you wear braces to set your teeth straight,
to make them right, how they should be.
Pedagogic translates to pedagog.
When you look up the meaning of the word pedagog, it means educator.
Orthopedic ochic would translate to remedial educator or special education generalist.
This is not a very good translation, it makes you think of schools.
We can operate in schools, but our job isn't like a remedial teacher.
Pedagogic means knowing all about development.
Ah, developmental psychology, you say.
Not exactly.
Developmental psychology is focused on an understanding how humans mature.
An orthopedic ochic goes beyond that.
I will try to explain by telling you a bit about my job.
My job, behavioral expert, can be done by psychologists and orthopedic oches alike.
In my work, we have two departments where psychologists and orthopedic oches do the
same job.
One department is for diagnosing and treating clients.
The other department is for case managing our client's lives.
The difference is that the department for diagnosing and treating uses the medical model.
And the department for case management uses the ecological or bio-psychosocial model.
The medical model is used in health care by medical staff and in mental health care by
psychiatrists and psychologists.
It is focused on internal states and diagnostic criteria with interventions like therapy or
medicine.
By thus, I mean that they look at the person and where it goes wrong in the body or in
the head.
And the treatment will therefore be medicine or therapy to fix the person.
The bio-psychosocial model is used in all kinds of care facilities by orthopedic oches.
It is focused not just on the person themselves, but especially on the person in relation to
their environment.
Because we are not isolated beings.
We are social beings reacting to one another and the environment we live in.
The interventions usually incorporate changes in the environment or system as we call it.
A bit like a system therapist who looks at a family like a system and gives the family
as a whole therapy.
But orthopedic oches look even more broad than that.
They look at someone's whole environment as a system.
For example, a 10-year-old boy with ADHD starts acting out at school.
Instead of increasing his medication, an orthopedic oche visits his classroom and talks with teachers
and parents.
It turns out that the classroom is overstimulating, the boy finds the instructions hard to follow,
the family dog has passed away, and the parents spend a lot of time taking care of an elderly
relative.
The intervention is to make changes to the classroom setting, make sure the teacher gives instructions
that will suit the boy's needs, and that the family gets support.
The child's settles is calmer and more focused.
His medication doesn't need to change.
Why?
Because the environment or system around him has changed to better fit his needs.
So orthopedic oches are specialised in looking at development in a broader perspective.
And we have done this for nearly a century.
In 2021, the World Health Organization called for Integrated Developmentally Informed Community
Based Care.
They deem this necessary because of the growing complexity of the modern world.
The complexity means more strain on both individuals and communities.
As more individuals feel the strain, communities face greater difficulties providing cohesion
and support for everyone.
And this is why the world should be aware that orthopedic oches exist.
We already provide integrated developmentally informed and community based care.
That's what we specialise in.
Now, we don't mean to replace the psychiatrists or psychologists, not at all.
With psychiatrists, psychologists and orthopedic oches, all look from slightly different perspectives
we should collaborate.
Together these perspectives lead to deeper insight and more effective care.
And that's just what the mental health field needs on a global scale.
The knowledge, training and proven success of orthopedic ochic is available in the Netherlands
and Belgium.
It provides a ready-made framework for mental health systems worldwide.
The world urgently needs the broader perspective that we can provide.
Well, if that is not an opinion piece, I don't know what is.
So that was my contribution.
I hope you've been able to follow along and to understand what orthopedic ochic means
and what it is that we specialise in.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Thank you for listening.
And I hope you'll have a very good day wherever you are.
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