Occupational Therapy, Health and Wellbeing

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

Occupational therapy is the ability to provide help to others fairly and respectfully by doing everyday activities that can actually benefit the patients by improving the quality of his or her life. By doing so, this patient will be able to return to their loved ones and their daily activities. As a future occupational therapy, I will try my best to help these patients reach their goals of becoming dependent again. The passion that I have to help those that are in needs of treatments. There are several reasons that I choose to become an occupational therapist, among those reasons are the desire I have to help those that are in need of medical treatments. To continue, I wanted a career that would not take too long to complete and not have a long waiting list.

Studies indicated that occupational therapists have a remarkable opportunity to be involved in health promotion (Gronski et al., 2013, Metzler, Hartmann & Lowenthal, 2012; Frenchman, 2014). They can make a distinct contribution by recognising and addressing the impact of habits and routines on managing chronic conditions and developing healthy lifestyles (Roberts, Farmer, Lamb, Muir & Siebert, 2014). The aim and scope of this essay are to define health promotion and explore its implication on occupational therapy practice.

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

Participation is an important piece in the field of occupational therapy. Given that different factors influence participation and when people have a choice in the activity, it increases participation, then the more someone actively participates in occupational therapy, the better their outcome of therapy will be. In her piece, Participation in the Occupations of Everyday Life, Mary Law focuses on this idea that participation in meaningful activity is key to effective occupational therapy. I may not be old and experienced but, I am old enough to be able to relate the information in this article to my life.

Occupational therapy was founded on the principle that participation in meaningful activity is important to the health of individuals. Mental health is very important to the well-being of an individual and those around them. 450 million people experience mental and neurological disorders around the world. These disorders are the leading 5-10 causes of disability worldwide. As services for individuals with mental illness have shifted from the hospital to the community, there has also been a shift in the philosophy of service delivery. In the past, there was an adherence to the medical model; now the focus is on incorporating the recovery model. (2) Occupational therapy’s focus that taking part in engaging and meaningful activities benefits the mental well-being of the individual.

Occupational Therapy is a vital segment of the health care field. Individuals in this profession make a difference in the lives of others by helping their patients function effectively despite their disability, illness, or injury. They help by teaching patients many activities of daily living tasks which can include, grooming, toileting, dressing, eating, mobility, and much more! Along with the daily living tasks, Occupational Therapy helps individuals to be productive and successful in ways they want to be, like going school, taking care of others, managing their homes, preparing meals. Most importantly, they help their patients adapt to their environments and increase their independent function by helping them perform tasks with as little help from others as possible. Without Occupational Therapy, some patients with temporary disabilities could have a permanent disability. If individuals receive the Occupational treatments, they can prevent the loss of function.

The future of occupational therapy is consistently changing and requires new legislation to oversee the needs of the professional and their clients. The idea of a government, eliminating funding sources to OTs in hope of decreasing federal spending is not an unspoken idea. As more and more individuals in our society are crossed-trained and expected to do-more and produce-more, the efforts of Willimarth is critical.

Occupational therapist help patients to develop, recover, or improve their skills needed for daily life (What They Do). This shows that occupational therapy is important to a person’s health because some patients need help in order to learn

The assumptions underlying the occupational performance model fall into assumptions about the human occupation, human performance, and as a self -organizing systems. Assumptions are derived from core philosophical tenets of occupational therapy which have been described by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy, the clients are viewed by a wholistic perspective as being comprised of interacting elements of mind, body, and sprits. The values, beliefs, and principles of the clients are developed in treatments

The American Occupational Therapy Association has used several themes and/or mottos in their promotional efforts. One of them which has a major impact in the field of Occupation Therapy is “building skills for a better life”. Seeing as simple as it is, this motto has helped and nourished the development of building new strategies and ideas in people’s lives.

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.

Occupational therapists use multiple frames of reference, theories, and models to guide their practice. The Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO) Model was developed to be used as a framework for guiding clinical reasoning in the analysis and understanding of the interaction between a client and their environment (Law et al., 1996). Occupational therapists are interested in the transactional relationship between the person, environment, and occupation, and pay particular attention to the interplay between these elements (Law et al., 1996). The person assumes dynamic roles in everyday life, which can vary across the lifespan as the person ages, acquires disability, or moves in and out of different contexts (Law et al., 1996). The skills or attributes of a person can influence the type of occupations that individual may participate in. For example, a blind person may choose to listen to an audiobook about nature instead of going for a walk in the woods. The environment also influences the way in

Due to the addition of engagement this promotes the understanding that the client can find satisfaction in engaging with occupations without performing them. It falls within the Person-Environment-Occupation Framework this is due to the focus on the influences and connections of the person and environment on meaningful occupations. The CMOP-E places the client at the centre of the model, assigning the focus on the client’s needs and wants, this creates the understanding that the client is the person who knows their life best and understands their occupational performance concerns, therefore denoting the role of the occupational therapist is not to carry out treatment or intervention on a client but with a client (Ikiugu, 2007) The CMOP-E places spirituality at the centre of the person, this is because it is believed that a person’s spirituality is where their motivation and self-concept flow from, through occupations spirituality can be found and expressed.