Hand Therapy Week is an integrated national program established by ASHT. Throughout the week, ASHT members sponsor and organize events in their communities in an effort to raise awareness among various audiences, celebrate the benefits of hand therapy and educate the public. Hand Therapy Week is held each year during the first full week of June.
Hand Therapy Week is always an exciting time for the Technology and Communication Committee. For the last two years, our committee has helped create informational videos our members can share with the community to highlight the hand therapy specialty. Last year, we focused on the stories of three different patients and their success with working with a hand therapist. Our new series of hand safety and injury prevention videos helps to bring awareness about the importance of hand safety during everyday tasks. In honor or Hand Therapy Week, ASHT has released the first video -- focused on protecthing your hands and upper extremity during gardening.
As hand therapists, we see a large number of patients with injuries that could have been prevented with a little bit of understanding and forethought. As professionals, we are always striving to put prevention first. These videos demonstrate our commitment to the health of not only our patients, but to the larger population. As members of ASHT, we are committed to excellence in the field of hand and arm rehabilitation and part of this commitment requires us to provide education and awareness to the public about our specialty.
From all of us on the Tech and Comm Committee, we wish you a happy Hand Therapy Week and hope you will join us in sharing the first video during Hand Therapy Week to broaden our audience with the use of social media. We hope you take the opportunity to take a look at some of the other features we have in store for you, including uploading patient testimonials and all the promotional and informational handouts we and ASHT have made available to all therapists to aid in promoting the specialty now and throughout the year.