Occupational Therapists And Occupational Therapy

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

This link between occupation, health and well-being (i.e. the fact that people are occupational by nature and that engagement in meaningful occupation is essential to health) forms part of the core beliefs and values – the philosophy – of the occupational therapy (OT) profession (Kramer et al, 2003). OT has its foundations in both philosophy and science, but unlike other medical professions, it was the philosophy that came first

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,

Occupational Therapist enables people to engage and participate in everyday activities trough occupation. The latter role is not only applicable for individuals but also groups or populations. Eventually, with the increase of the aging population, expensive health care services, occupational therapists will have to incorporate health promotion practices into their actual roles.To cope with this phenomenon and to better meet older adult’s needs, the occupational therapist 's role would benefit from being enlarged.Expanding their knowledge and their practices in promoting health will facilitate their work in other domains.This will help them to shift from an individual to a population approach. To achieve that transition, therapists should be more involved in decisions taken by politicians regarding health and to develop services and programs that promote well-being, health, and quality of life. Also, collaboration with other fields such as schools, workplaces, industries, deputies and organizations will help them spread strategies that promote awareness and enable the population to control and maintain an independent healthy lifestyle. Also, therapists understand that the environment can be a crucial factor on health population. Therefore ,they can put pressure on the government to make public places more accessible to disabled people such as providing the subway of a wheelchair ramp and adapt crosswalks to the blind by adding pedestrian signals that include speakers at

“What if there was a job that allowed someone to have endless flexibility and creativity; a profession that is respected and is in overwhelming demand... Most importantly, wouldn’t it be nice to find a job in which you could make an impact, big or small, on the lives of each individual person you worked with? I found this job and that is why I decided to pursue a degree in occupational therapy" (Springer, J., 2015). This testimonial comes from a practicing occupational therapist who has found value in his life's work. Occupational therapy is not a job where "one size fits all"; there are many different demographics of people who need occupational therapy in different environments. Although, all occupational therapists have the same skills

The name of the society changed in 1923, due to hospitals wanting a national directory of qualified occupational therapists. There now was a minimal standard of training that had to be met before an individual was put in the directory (AOTA, 2009). The name was changed to the American Occupational Therapy Association. The American Medical Association worked with the American Occupational Therapy Association starting in 1933 on getting improved education programs for occupational therapists (AOTA, 2009).

Through the almost 100 years of occupational therapy as a profession, occupational therapy have gone from a profession focused only on the mentally ill patient to a profession that is targeting a broad range of population ranging from the special needs population, to veterans, and people with different diseases and physical disabilities or injuries. It is inspirational to know that this profession started based on the ideology that “even the most challenged are entitled to consideration and human compassion” (O'Brien, 2012). Likewise, it is fascinating that occupational therapy played such an important role in both of the world war as reconstruction aides focusing on rehabbing the soldiers and helping veterans recover during post-war period

The Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) is a theoretical framework used by occupational therapists to help guide practice (Cotton, 2012). Moreover, the MOHO’s framework helps form a picture of the client by utilizing 4 concepts’ that include the clients’ motivation for occupation, the routine patterning of their occupations, the nature of their skilled performance, and the influence of the environment on their occupation (Forsyth et al., 2009). These 4 concepts’ influence the formation of an occupational Identity which is a key construct within the MOHO (Forsyth et al., 2009). Furthermore, an occupational identity is the cumulative sense of the clients’ identity based on the occupations they engage in, their personal experiences and who they want to become as an occupational being (Forsyth et al., 2009). The formation of clients’ occupational identity is based on a sustained pattern of occupational engagement, which is called occupational competence (Forsyth et al., 2009; Walder & Molineux, 2017a).

What intrigues me most in the field of Occupational Therapy is that I could make a positive impact in the lives of others. An occupational therapist can help a patient revitalize their physical, cognitive, or emotional disabilities, and develop or restore its functionality through continuous practice and effort. There is nothing more fulfilling for me than to see an individual achieving the greatest possible independence. This train of thought arose when I observed an occupational therapist working with my mother to return her arm to feeling normal again after her accident.

Many times when a people think of an occupational therapist, they might think of a career counselor and personality tests. They might think of a therapist telling that this job would be “the perfect fit with their personality”. But that is far from what occupational therapy is. Occupational Therapist work with people recover and learn skills that are valuable to be part of society. Occupational therapists work with all age groups of people. They work with people who need assistance due to serious health problems (stroke heart attack amputation), delay in growth (mainly in children), or pyschological problems (Alzhemier’s, PTSD) (“Modern occupational thereapy”). They teach patients the

Occupational therapists are said to be very adaptive professionals and understand how how important it is to be adaptive, not only as a professional, but in everyday life. The Occupational Adaptation Frame of Reference by Schkade and Schultz aims to describe the link between the two fundamental constructs of occupational therapy, namely; occupation and adaptation (Schultz & Schkade, 1992). This theory primarily focuses on the interplay between the external and the internal factors that are interacting continuously during completion of occupations. The constant factor is press for mastery which yields the occupational challenge and one’s ability of an adaptive response. An adaptive response is made up of three subprocesses that are internal to the person; the three subprocesses are: the generation subprocess, the evaluation subprocess and the integration subprocess and these explain the adaptive response activated by the person in response to an occupational challenge (Schultz & Schkade, 1992). Through the subprocesses, the person plans the adaptive response, evaluates the outcome and integrates the evaluation as adaptation. I am find this frame of reference quite interesting because it focuses on the interplay of internal and external factors and how an individual responds to the interplay of

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

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.

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.

Throughout this assignment various models will be looked at and one of those models will be applied to a case study detailing the occupational circumstances of an individual. The models described will be person-environment-occupational performance models, focusing on those three subject areas, to detail what the client does in their daily life, the environments in which the activities are done, their personal goals and attributes, and how all these factors affect the individual’s occupational performance. (Christiansen & Baum, 1997) Models are significant theory which helps to guide and inform occupational therapy practice, the