What is Occupational Therapy?
The primary goal of occupational therapy (OT) is to improve health and function in day-to-day life through participation in meaningful occupations. An “occupation” goes well beyond paid employment – it is anything that occupies your time. Hobbies, activities with family, and the basic skills of independent living are all within the scope of OT. Whether you are referred due to an injury or a disability, occupational therapists will build treatment based on what matters to you. What gives your life meaning? What will enhance your confidence and sense of well-being? Do you want to independently dress yourself? Drive yourself to the grocery store? Chop celery to make your favorite chicken salad? At your occupational
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Whether your difficulty is of recent origin or part of a long-term condition, occupational therapists can help you manage pain and find solutions. Is arthritis pain making it difficult for you to dress in the morning? Occupational therapists can help you learn techniques and provide assistive devices to improve your morning routine. Are you worried about the physical independence of an older relative living alone? An evaluation with OTs can address your safety concerns and advise you on the best steps moving forward. Sometimes occupational therapists will recommend adjustments to an environment to improve health and function, other times a change in how a patient interacts with that environment is sufficient to promote a more independent lifestyle. Activity modifications like splint fabrication can provide a temporary solution while the body heals. No matter your age or circumstances, occupational therapy can benefit your daily life.
Where can I get Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapists work in hospitals, schools, clinics, nursing homes, and health care centers. In certain situations, OTs even provide in-home care.
UAB’s Outpatient Occupational Therapy Department is located on the first floor of Spain Rehabilitation Center. A referral from a physician is required to make an appointment. All our OTs and OTAs have advanced degrees in therapy, will use their knowledge of
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If you find yourself unable to participate in activities you value, a visit with an occupational therapist can help educate you on options. With consistent hard work and adaptive methods, you can learn or recover functional abilities. OTs work to improve quality of life for patients by helping them regain as much independence as possible. In occupational therapy, the question is not only “What is the matter with you?”, but “What matters to you?” A creative and caring occupational therapist can treat injuries and provide ideas to facilitate high-quality independent
Occupational therapy is a profession that is currently growing faster than anyone would have expected. Because of the increase in demands for occupational therapy services, therapists are having larger caseloads, needing the help of more occupational therapists. Occupational therapy in the mental health setting is one environment that has grown in popularity over the last decade. Knowing the benefits of occupational therapy in this setting, and the expansion of clients needing occupational therapy services, more funding needs to be established in this setting.
As occupational therapy services diversified, serving a variety of clients in many different settings and with societal influences, the field began to evolve. During the 1990s occupational therapists began to shift away from reductionist medical model toward a more holistic client-centered approach. Services focused on enhancing individuals’ quality of life across the lifespan meaning before, during, and after therapeutic intervention. The profession began to better acknowledge the value of client education, injury and illness prevention, health screening, and health maintenance (Cole & Tufano, 2008). The field created more preventative initiatives, and focused services on improving quality of life and optimizing the independence of
The outcome of occupational therapy intervention is “supporting health and participation in life through engagement in occupation.’’ The types of occupational therapy interventions include occupation based intervention, purposeful activity and preparatory methods, consultation, education, and advocacy. Intervention approaches are the strategies that direct the process of intervention and these include create/promote, establish/restore, maintain, modify, and prevent disability.
To be able to participate in one 's own life, to do the things we want to do, and to competently perform the activities that form part of our daily, weekly or monthly routines, is a common goal for most people. This not only includes taking part in the basic activities of self-care, such as grooming and dressing, but also extends to our work and leisure activities. It is through doing things that we learn and develop as human beings. The occupational therapy profession believes that being prevented or hindered in some way from participating in the activities that are important to us could adversely affect our health and wellbeing.
As an Occupational Therapy Assistant, I will work alongside an Occupational Therapist and work directly with patients. The difference between an OT and an OTA is that OT’s set up treatment plans and perform medical assessments while OTA’s carry out the treatment plans with the patients. In volunteering at rehab clinics, I’ve learned that Occupational Therapists often spend much of their time dealing with paperwork while OTA’s are performing more hands on work with people. Their day includes helping patients in performing rehabilitative exercises within a treatment plan. Occupational Therapy Assistants help people to regain their ability to perform activities of daily living, or ADL’s. These are the core aspects which
The occupational therapy profession shares many objectives across the communities, clients, and families they serve. Some of these aims include: “Developing the field of occupational therapy and enhance the professions capabilities to meet the needs of the entire population, providing evidence on the efficacy of occupational therapy. This includes working with organizations and local communities, incorporating education, research, and practices as a complete whole. In addition, developing a team of professionals that innovates and adapts to the developing health needs of the population” (AOTA, 2013). This includes advocacy efforts with policymakers to ensure continued funding to provide care to individuals (AOTA, 2013). Occupational therapy is a distinctive profession that helps
Occupational therapy has been in the process of continued development since the 1900’s. With several contributors helping to build the groundwork for creating the awareness needed to bring occupational therapy into the field of health care. Continued research is contributing to the ongoing significance of how occupational therapy is a vital aspect in promoting increased independences in all aspects of healthcare. (Willard, Schell, 2014) With the incorporation of “Occupational Therapy Practice Framework Domain and Process (3rd ed.)” helps creates the foundation for occupational therapy clinicians as well as other health care providers in facilitating the core believe of occupational and the relationship of health and occupation. (AOTA 2014) Therefore, providing a uniform outline of the various aspects of each individual and how they are interconnected to create the foundation of each individual. With a greater understanding of the foundations of that induvial, the clinician can then facilitate the best therapeutic treatment plan for that individual to achieve their personal goals with unified foundations of care.
Children with many different disabilities need the intervention of an occupational therapist; therefore, occupational therapists work in the school systems. Elderly people often begin to lose their physical ability to do certain tasks, so there are occupational therapists working in nursing homes or providing in home care. Many athletes suffer sports injuries that cause them to lose their ability to do daily activities, and occupational therapists are available to them in rehabilitation centers and hospitals. These are just a few of the many scenarios where occupational therapists are available; they can also work in orthopedic centers, colleges, mental health settings, and drug and alcohol settings (Hoffman & Harris, 2000, p. 405). Due to the fact that occupational therapists can often specialize to a certain type of patient, it may be helpful to hold a job in college where one could learn how to work with that group of people. For instance, if a prospective occupational therapy student wants to work in a preschool for students with special needs after they graduate then it may be beneficial to hold a job as an assistant preschool teacher. Similarly, if the goal of an occupational therapy student is to provide their service to elderly people then training and working as a CNA would provide both useful experience and medial
A young man with a spinal cord injury who must learn how to walk again. An elderly individual who can’t remember anything from the past day and needs help running errands. Both are activities that an occupational therapist would help with. An occupational therapist’s help citizens who have physical, mental, or developmental set-backs. Occupational therapists work hard at fulfilling people’s lives that have been altered due to injury or a disability.
Occupational Therapy focuses on occupational performance, how individuals function in their work, leisure, domestic life and personal self-care. To an occupational therapist, a healthy person is one who can perform his or her daily occupation to a satisfying and effective level. Fisher (2013) suggests occupational therapy should have focus on the person’s role competences and participation in occupations, this is referred to as a top down method and is occupation-centered or occupation-based. Creek argues that what occupational therapists core skills should share is that they are occupationally focused (Creek,
The contrast between physical therapy and occupational therapy are enormous, first of all, the physical therapy assistant handles patients that actual impairment, whereas the occupational therapy assistant treats patients that injury in action. However, physical therapy tries to correct the patient's impediment itself by developing mobility for bones that damage, and joints to diminish the pain. The occupational therapy encourages the patients to complete a certain task every day because it is their responsibility to help the patients with the disability and make sure they apply new tools and techniques. Occupational therapists sometimes treat injuries patients, in fact, its role is to focus more on improving life skills and combining adaptive
In accordance with Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF), “the efforts directed toward promoting occupational justice and empowering clients to seek and obtain resources to fully participate in their daily life occupations.” (Occupational Therapy Practice Framework, 3rd Ed., p. S41). I consider occupational therapy to be a compassionate career, practitioners try to grant their clients’ wants and needs to better suit the
An occupational therapist is a trained and licensed health care professional who can make a complete evaluation of the impact of disease on the activities of the patient at home and in work situations. Hobbies and recreational activities are considered when an assessment is made. The most generally accepted definition of occupational therapy is that it is an activity, physical or mental, that aids in a patient’s recovery from disease or injury.
Occupational therapy is a client centered activity concerned with promoting health through performing certain tasks. The primary goal is to equip people in recovery with life skills in their everyday life.
Occupational therapists work with clients to restore independence that has been lost or disrupted due to illness, injury, or disease. Occupational therapy practice involves assessing and determining an appropriate treatment approach based on the client’s disability and individual needs. There are various occupation-based models, each client-centered and grounded in theory, that guide the clinical treatment process. In addition, the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (3rd ed.; AOTA, 2014) denotes various frames of reference to guide therapists when choosing specific intervention strategies based on the client’s needs (Cole & Tufano, 2018). This paper focuses on the application of the Occupation Adaption model,