Occupational Therapy Essay

The profession of occupational therapy is often mistaken for a job in which the therapist is a career counselor. This is the exactly what my dad had thought when I told him that I wanted to pursue a career in occupational therapy. I explained to him that occupational therapists are not concerned with career counseling; instead, they are focused on daily activities that give meaning to live. The goal of occupational therapy is to help patients regain or develop skills that are necessary for the activities of daily living. Occupational therapists have the option to work in a variety of settings including hospitals, outpatient rehabilitation centers, schools, and with patients in their own homes.

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.

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 assistant is my dream career. They help people live a normal life again without any assistance of other people. The help people enhance, improve, develop, and recover the skills use for working or doing daily average tasks. OTA’s usually work under the direction of occupational therapists, and they still get involved with providing therapy for patients. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, occupational therapy assistants help patients do therapeutic activities. For example, they help patients to stretch or do other exercises. OTA’s also help children who have developmental disabilities to play activities that helps stimulate coordination and learn to socialize. They teach disable people to use special equipment,

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

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational therapy assistants and aides help patients develop, recover, and improve the skills needed for daily living and working.” OT Career Path.com also states that, “occupational therapy assistants assist with the rehabilitation and care of patients with mental, developmental, physical, social, and emotional disabilities” Occupational therapist may provide many different forms of service from setting up materials, moving a patient, explaining exercises, preparing reports and implementing treatment plan as prescribed by the Occupational Therapist. An OTA’s duties vary greatly an example of their duties include helping patients acquire fine

Way back when I first started college, my priorities were not clear. I knew I wanted to do something that I can be proud of, it was only a matter of what do I really want that will fill my life and complete me as a person. I was in the manufacturing field since I was 19 years old and yet, I felt a hole in my heart. I got to a point where I stop growing as an individual and it became apparent that I wanted to do something more significant. That void became the fuel to pursue something bigger and life changing. I tried to dig deep and really tried to figure out what I want in life and at the same time I started taking classes that can go towards any degree in the medical field. Taking care of people has always been a part of me. I took care of

Their responsibility is to treat their clients by using everyday activities such as cooking to help their clients improve their skills that are needed. An occupational therapist, needs to complete a degree in occupational therapy, then needs to be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council, also known as HCPC. They undertake an assessment for their clients by going to their home to assess what they can do, and to advise them on what adaptations they may need in their home, this then helps the them go onto treatment planning where they can decide what their client needs such as a carer, or equipment to help

Occupational Therapists “ I believe that the therapist’s function should be to help people become free to be aware and to experience their possibilities” (“Rollo May Quotes”). This is a quote by rollo may, and he trying to let people know anybody is capable to experience possibilities or changes in their lives. Occupational Therapy assistants and aides help patients develop, recover, improve, as well as maintaining the skills patients need for a daily living. Occupational therapists work with directly providing all the therapy they can to the patients. Pursuing a career as an Occupational Therapist’s is a challenging and great career for those who want to work with children to build bonds and enjoy assigned tasks.

The roles of an occupational and physical therapist at the centre is to perform initial assessments for new patients. The PT assesses how good their balance, strength, and independence are. Then prepares an exercise plan to increase independence based on the three objectives. The OT assesses if they need special equipment (sock aid, shower chair) to help assist the patient when they are home alone. Also, if they are able to put on their pants and get in and out of the shower safely. Lastly, both therapists follow up with their patients to see how they progress.

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 therapists work with family, relatives, friends and colleagues in order to make the transition less painful and more helpful for the recovering patient. Physical therapist works soon after the injury in the initial recovery course after primary injury while the services of occupational therapists are generally needed in the rehabilitation course when the patient has fully recovered from the initial injury. Provision of physical therapy may improve the situation and mobility of individuals. Physical therapists perform interventive therapies like massage, acupuncture, exercises and manual therapies to improve the functioning of the body. Occupational therapy is performed when the patient has fully recovered and the sole purpose is to improve the quality of life by not letting the disability to affect the life of individuals.

Physical therapists develop specific programs for each patient's needs. They may apply therapeutic exercise, ultrasound, massage, and applications of heat and cold to alleviate pain and restore normal function to the body. The physical therapist is able to evaluate a patient's joint motion, muscle strength, endurance, functional abflity, muscle tone, reflexes, and stability of walking. The physical therapist also assesses the need and use of braces and artificial limbs, function of the heart and lungs, integrity of sensation and perception, and performance of activities required in daily living. ("A Future" 18). Another important part of the job of a physical therapist is to maintain careful documentation. The documentation is mainly used to keep a record of rehab used, to reflect back on improvement, and to provide legal records.

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 Therapy, along with many other professions, have models that guide the profession. These models, known as the Occupational-based Models of Practice, guide Occupational Therapists in the care of clients (Cole & Tufano, 2008, p. 87). Although there are many models, each model has its own distinct features and focuses. Similar in many forms, they also have unique characteristics, and each have a different emphasis. These models have the guiding principles of occupation defined as, “a basic human need, an essential component of human life, organizes behavior, gives meaning to life, enables a healthy lifestyle, and improves an individual’s quality of life” (Cole & Tufano, 2008, p. 127). So while all of the models are similar in some aspects in terms of occupation, each model is unique in some aspects as well. The Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance Model (PEOP) is one of the five models, incorporating a client-centered approach to a person’s occupations (Cole & Tufano, 2008, p. 8).