Occupational Therapy: Improving A Person's Quality Of Life

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.

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

Each day clients engage in meaningful and purposive occupations that can be affected by a multitude of incidents that may either support or hinder a client’s ability to function. Traumatic injuries are just one example of incidents that may hinder a client’s occupational performance. Injury can often times lead clients to experience disruptions in their capacities to achieve full occupational performance. Clients who do experience diminished occupational performance can find support through an Occupational Therapist (OT). The OT will utilize a therapeutic decision making process to determine the most appropriate theory along with the client’s knowledge of his or her own needs and wishes to guide therapy. Employing and supporting the client as an advocate for their own needs can allow an OT to determine theories of practice that are best suited for the client’s return to wellbeing. An OT should first attempt to realize the needs and wishes of a client and once an understanding has evolved of what is meaningful to the client the therapist can assess performance skills and patterns that can be addressed by theories developed specifically for OT.

An Occupational Therapist is a individual that can evaluate, develop, and help people regain and maintain daily living skills. Occupational Therapist work with people that have physical, mental and developmental conditions. The goal of the Therapist is to offer intervention that focus on teaching skills and helping the patient as well as the family on how to adapt and strengthen themselves so that they might be able to overcome physical obstacles. Occupational Therapist work with other health professionals in speech therapy, nursing, physical therapy and social work to ensure that the patients course of treatment aligns with the other areas.

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 therapists help people of all ages recovering from physical or mental illnesses participate and perform what they want or need to accomplish through works of therapeutic rehabilitation with use of everyday activities in daily life; hence, giving it the name Occupational Therapy. An occupational therapist must look at their patients holistically, not just the part that is causing them problems. Occupational therapists are important as they help people regain their independence in daily activities. This field is projected to be the fastest in growth in upcoming years.

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

Occupational therapy is an underrated profession in the world. Occupational therapists help disabled, ill, or injured people perform the objectives needed to complete their occupation by using therapeutic measures to help them recover from whatever may have happened to them. In other words, they help their patients get back to their daily lives. Occupational therapists are able to aid people in a variety of ways, and they are very important to societies as a whole. In many foreign countries, people often overlook the importance of occupational therapy.

Occupational therapists help all ages improve their daily activities. This specific therapy helps rehabilitate people who need “specialized assistance to lead independent, productive, and satisfying lives due to physical, developmental, social, or emotional problems” (Ithaca College). The therapists create different exercises for each individual patient to help them develop their skills or learn how to decrease future injury.

Without occupational therapists, millions of people would struggle to live their everyday lives. Occupational therapists give specialized assistance to people with physical, developmental, social or emotional problems. This assistance is used to live productive and independent or semi independent lives. Occupational therapists can be used, and is effective for people of all ages. Many people have not heard of occupational therapy and are not aware of the positive impact it has on members of our society. With this paper I want to spread the knowledge that I have on occupational therapy. Many people that could benefit from occupational therapy do not even know that it exists. This career is difficult for everyone involved, but the impact it has

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 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.

Children with CP may experience decreased sensation or a limited understanding of how the brain interprets what it sees. Occupational therapists may plan and implement sensory-perceptual-motor (SPM) training for children with CP who have sensory impairments so that they learn to take in, understand, plan and produce organized behavior. The SPM training improves the daily, functional abilities of people with CP. Occupational therapists may also use verbal instructions and supplementary visual input, such as visual cues, to help children with CP learn and carry out activities.

It is very significant that occupational therapist go outside of the professional literature to learn more about their clients in their everyday routine. In the readings, there are a few ways occupational therapist can make meaning in the context of everyday life. In the appraisal “the Genesis of Community”, focused on creating a sense of community from the means of a crisis. For instance, the article talked about the earthquake that caused buildings in Mexico City to crush, killing thousands of citizens. After this traumatic event, several people were working together to rescue the injured and care for the homeless. It did not matter if they were rich or poor or black or white; they all interconnected to help care for the survivors of the

The aim of my research project was to find how to improve elderly people’s quality of life through occupational therapy (OT). I had chosen this topic because my elderly grandparents were undertaking the acquisition of OT services, and I wanted to use the research project to improve their experience. I used three main primary sources to gain insight into elderly problems; two questionnaires, for the elderly, and OTs, to gain information from both parties, and I interviewed an OT to gain a better understanding of OT training, experience and the scope of work OTs provide. Secondary sources such as a documentary, books, webpages and news articles were used to give credence to the responses, with each being appropriately sourced to