Occupational Therapy : What Puts It Above The Rest

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.

Patricia have been in the hospital since 2015, she asked to the occupational therapy to help to be discharge from the hospital to live in the community center. The OT starting to discuss about the discharge process with the therapist team. In result, the therapist orientated the client prepare for the discharge interview, and worked in researches possible places. The occupational therapist working two times a week to get Patricia independent, and giving the client information about how attain success in the interview process.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Everyone is a novice at the beginning, the process to becoming an expert involves life long learning (Harris & Duncan, 2009). In relation to occupational therapy a new graduate is considered a novice. As a novice new graduates have skills in finding information they need and have a good grounding in current occupational therapy theories (Robertson, 2012). However a novice works with a high cognitive load which may challenge then working memory, resulting in errors (Ladyshewsky, 2009). Where a novice will be relying on procedural reasoning until experience is gained, an expert uses conditional reasoning which is a multidimensional process (Fleming, 1991; Robertson, 2012) To transition from novice to expert requires the new graduate to gain

As an international student from Taiwan, chances are I already carry different perspectives in terms of what role of an Occupational Therapist is in our daily life or what specialty an Occupational Therapist should possess, let alone the cultural difference. For example, there is a phenomenon, at least in Taiwan, where many people treat medical personnel like a babysitter and lack the ability to distinguish medical personnel’s specialty. As I pursue OT degree with such background, I believe I can enrich the program, and even the entire OT field, by unveiling the issues, taking Taiwan as the reflection, that other countries might undergo likewise or confront someday; the profession can be enhanced by exploring both common and new issues.

Due to their inability to adjust to American culture and traditions, European Immigrants crowded Psychiatric facilities. Mental illness was looked at from the medical perspective and was viewed as incurable, causing individuals to be directed to asylums. Revolutionizing ideas about the causes and treatments of mental illness and deinstitutionalization revived the role of Occupational Therapist in the role of treatment of mental illness. A century later, and though the assistance of occupational therapy in mental health and in the community remain available, still the prevalence in the 18-25-year-old group continues at double the rate of the general population (AOTA). The recovery model emphasizes independence and supports a person’s journey

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

I am currently getting my bachelor’s degree in exercise science with an emphasis in physical education. Eventually, I want to go into occupational therapy (OT) as an occupational therapy assistant (OTA). OT involves helping people of all ages participate in everyday activities. The assistant is the one who works one on one with the patients instead of administrative work (“About Occupational Therapy, 2017). I felt that an exercise science major coincided with well with OT since it fulfilled a lot of the prerequisites. Kinesiology was one class that caught my eye. I did not really know what kinesiology was or what the class would entail. Throughout the course of the semester, I learned that what we learned and did in class closely relates to

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could not do all the little tasks we take for guaranteed every day. If you were physically impaired or mentally impaired, how would you go on to live a normal life? Some people will never know, but for those who have disabilities, an occupational therapist help in finding answers to these questions. According to “Occupational Therapist” in the Career Information Center it states, “Occupational therapists help people who have physical, mental, or emotional impairments improve their ability to perform routine tasks at both home and work. They help patients improve their basic motor functions and reasoning abilities or compensate for permanent loss of function.” In other words, occupational therapy can be defined as assisting people with their impairment in order to help them live a fully functional life. (“Occupational,” Careers).

Life is about moments. The moment I found the profession of occupational therapy I knew it was the profession for me. A couple months later, I started observing multiple different Occupational Therapists at McKenna Farms Therapy Services and instantly fell in love. The therapists were very open about their experiences being a therapist. They also taught me how their sessions were broken up and their most effective note taking method. Some of the therapists would even quiz me on what the purpose of specific task was, which helped me learn. Not only did McKenna Farms have occupational therapist, but they also had physical therapist, and speech therapist. This allowed me to witness how these different types of therapist could collaborate and work

What does an individual do if he injures his body or is ill and it does not get better over time? Go to rehabilitation, of course! That is, rehabilitation for the body! These rehabilitation specialists are physical therapists or, as they are sometimes called, “PTs”. A physical therapist is a person who helps the injured manage their pain and improve their movement. A physical therapist is an individual who goes through a certain amount and type of schooling to obtain a specific degree that makes him eligible to become a qualified physical therapist. The promising job outlook and good pay benefits, combined with possessing certain skills, makes this career in physical therapy a great choice.

Considering the health care field as a changeable environment, many changes have been throughout the entire health care to promote better quality of life of patient throughout the population. Those changes brought better perspectives and different ways to treat patients. Along with those changes, the occupation profession has considerable involved in the way to treat patient. One thing that drastically changed the service delivered by the occupational therapist was the used of conceptual practice models. Different conceptual practice models were identified as the most prominent in the field(Kielhofner,2005). One example of these models is the biomechanical model. The biomechanical model provides a specific way to treat patients which is describe in the review of the two articles that followed.