In the Beginning

Hi everyone. My name is Beth Weiss and I have been practicing Occupational Therapy with the specialty of treating Hand Injuries since 1978. My first job right out of school, Colorado State University, was at Northridge Hospital, in Northridge, California, from June 15 1978 to April 30, 1979. I started out working in in-patient rehab, working primarily with stroke, spinal cord and other neurological disorders. But during the second year, I was moved to outpatient therapy and this is where I began my love of working with hand/arm injury and other hand conditions like arthritis. The specialty of a Hand Therapist was just becoming a "thing" within the professions of Occupational Therapy and in some cases Physical Therapy. Several of my other fellow therapist also because interested and we started the Northridge Hospital Hand Therapy area of Out Patient. I started working with one of the doctors, Dr. Xavier J. Caro, to start the Arthritis specialty area. I see that he is still practicing and want to thank him for inspiring me to pursue this area of OT.

Being a native Northern California girl, Los Angeles was primarily a way to get my initial 2 years of experience, so that I could return to my home, Menlo Park, to start working at a Rehabilitation Center close to my home. At the time, the current hospital I am working for now, was Mills Memorial Hospital, in San Mateo. I started on July 29, 1980. Over the years this hospital merged with another (Peninsula) and then became an affiliate with Sutter. I have lived through LOTS of changes over the years with this organization. I did start off working in-patient again, with the newly developed Acute Rehabilitation Center but did make it known that my passion was in developing a Hand Therapy specialty area. This did happen about 1 1/2 years after starting, where I began taking more classes on splinting and how to treat different hand injuries, connecting with local doctors, and connecting with other therapists in the area working with Hand Injuries, including starting up the Hand Therapy Study Group, which is now called Hand Therapy Association of California, (a group I am still a member ) I worked part time for about 5 years with a couple who owned Hand Rehabilitation Associates to build up my skills in the treatment of hand injuries. I want to thank Louis Klein and his wife Beth (who has since passed away), for a valuable education and experience working with them and getting their "jewels of wisdom" that made me the therapist I am today.

I started the Hand Therapy department as the only therapist treating in this area, and this area of specialty at Mills-Peninsula grew over the years to up to 6-7 full or part-time therapists. Many of the therapists that work with me today were student's of mine 15-20 years ago. I became a Certified Hand Therapist in 1991, when they started the first certification exam. I renew this every 5 years, with courses that have to be taken to maintain our skills and education. Our clinic has been very well respected over the years. Unfortunately, I am writing today because the Covid-19 pandemic as halted the treatment of patients right now, until we can slowly bring back surgeries and doctor visits for the clientele we normally see. So most of our staff is "on hold" for now.

However, I have been using this time off to start some projects I have always wanted to start, including this Blog. Many of my clients would tell me... "Beth, you have such wonderful suggestions, you should start a Blog" So here I am starting the Blog. I also starting working on a project with my daughter Paula, where we are doing some videos of things I teach my patients ALL THE TIME. I am finally getting these "jewels of wisdom" documented. so here is my first video on Youtube, labor of love from my daughter and me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m_vtPvHwFY&feature=youtu.be

More to come......

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