The Impact Participating in Occupations has on the Health and Well Being of the Terminally Ill Individuals that are terminally ill are still capable of engaging in life, resulting in the ability to live their lives to the greatest potential. Engaging in life requires engaging in occupation. Law, Steinwender, and Leclair (1998) define occupations as sets of activities that individuals employ in their daily lives that have value and meaning. Occupations range from activities of daily life (eating, bathing, toileting); other daily life activities such as pet, spousal, and child care; to spiritual activities such as attending church, praying, and volunteering. When an individual participates in occupations a resulting effect can be observed in the individual’s health and well being. …show more content…
Occupations of Terminally Ill Individuals Occupations that an individual chooses to engage in are often of high significance. Although occupations such as feeding oneself, bathing, walking a dog, and attending social events or church, are easy to delegate to someone else to complete for an individual; he or she has meaning in those occupations and when the occupation is lost, he/she loses part of him/herself. It is important for someone with a terminal diagnosis to continue to engage in as many of their usual occupations as possible. Engagement in occupations is engagement in life and engagement in life much better than disengagement from everything which can result in major depression. Participation in Occupations Occupations cannot benefit
This article can be used as a way to further support my argument about how most patients don’t utilize all of the benefits that hospice has to offer. There are some cases where people choose not to receive spiritual support due to
Living is a gift. Many people in the world are simply alive, but living is rare. There are people that are too sick to enjoy life, the disease that has manifested in the body slowly takes over the mind and rids the mind of joy and radiance. The glow of life slowly diminishes before our eyes and it is truly heart breaking. This person is not just a disease that happens to be hosted in a human. This is a human that happens to have a disease. This person is someone’s parent, someone’s child, someone’s sibling, and someone’s grandparent. This person has memories, hobbies, and loved ones. This person is your patient. Making a difference in just one person’s life is an incredible feat. Being a physician assistant would be making a difference in many
Terminal illness is a huge threat to the continued existence of anybody that values their lives. Coping or
An example of not being able to have that close relationship is thoroughly talked about in “Personal-Professional Connections in Palliative Care Occupational Therapy”. In this study, it is important that the Occupational Therapists keep in mind that they are terminally ill patients and that may need to be taken into consideration when thinking about the closeness of the relationship between the Occupational Therapist and the patient, and the treatment plan of the patient. Working with a terminally ill patient and coming up with a treatment plan to prolong the everyday activities the patient will be able to do can be a challenge to any Occupational Therapist and it mentions specifically that, “an occupational therapist can also help a client address embarrassment associated with physical changes, social isolation, boredom, and emotional pain that can accompany terminal illness” (Palliative
As many patient´s illness beings to progress, many are left feeling “useless” as their health begins to deteriorate and they are unable to function as they used to. And from scheduled check-ups to surgeries, the hospital bill begins to rack up which may cause patients to feel like burdens to the family. According to a case study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a 56-year-old man with leukemia and his wife/caregiver were unemployed due to his condition and her efforts to care for him. She had many caregiving responsibilities such as “cleaning, driving, preparing meals, and coordinating medication, oxygen and other treatment-related activities”. From having no source of income, her finances were limited leading to her close watch on expenses. Meanwhile, as she focused on her husband’s health, she had failed to address her own health conditions. Lacking a support system, the intense and unpredictable future associated with shouldering the burden of her husband's outpatient care created a stressful atmosphere as she alternated her daily life schedule in order to meet his needs. In many instances of cancer, a patient's’ chances of becoming mentally and physically disabled increases. Resulting from such disabling illnesses often leaves the patient's feeling helpless as they begin to lose parts of their minds and bodies.
Dying due to an incurable illness can be devastating With responsibility of caretaking falling chiefly on the patient’s family. While dealing with the normal every day activities that families encounter, becoming a primary caregiver to the terminally ill is an emotional as well as financial burden. The ill person usually lives in the house of a family member, which forces the family to witness the person dying every day. Having to watch a person suffer in your own home is depressing to even the strongest of people and knowing there is nothing that can be done to stop their pain makes things that much worse. Studies have shown that people who receive a terminal illness diagnosis become depressed and develop anxiety. Because of the mood disorders that can
As a health practitioner, it is vital to learn how to help individuals to live in their homes comfortably after a life-altering circumstance when they enter, cook, sleep, bathe and all of their other vital occupations. Seeing the impact on the independence of the client does not just impact the individual, but the whole family. The newfound freedom in the “occupations of habit” will help the individual to feel like themselves
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.
illnesses, and their loved ones are often reduced to helpless observers. Terminally ill patients are
Occupational Therapy is a health, wellness, and rehabilitation profession devoted to the development of performance and function across their lifetime so that individuals can live their life to the fullest. The holistic approach taken by occupational therapy practitioners is particularly effective in the areas of wellness, health promotion, and prevention. The practice of occupational therapy can take place in health care and education settings, and in community based agencies and organizations. The timing is excellent for occupational therapy in the area of wellness and prevention. Occupational Therapy practitioners administer habilitation and rehabilitation services, which are among the fundamentals health benefits of the
Hospice psychologist work is to conduct some research to understand the psychological aspects of caring terminally ill patients and their families.
Resilience reflects the ability of someone to maintain a stable equilibrium(1), that is to retain a sense of identity or self(2), when dealing with adversity or misfortune. Highly resilient individuals are capable of coping with unexpected challenges, and may have a number of mechanisms or strategies to help them do so. Resilience is an aspect of health that is becoming increasingly recognised in medicine(3), as having resilience enables self-care and self-healing, which is beneficial in multiple ways. By being actively involved in his or her own wellbeing, a patient is likely to have better outcomes(3). In addition, healthcare resources are conserved, allowing them to be used to help a patient with less resilience. Although the importance of resilience in carers of the ill cannot be understated, in this essay I will primarily focus on resilience in patients approaching end of life, as there is a great deal for them to go through, all the way from diagnosis to death. The concept of resilience itself is something we are all familiar with in one way or another. I experienced seeing resilience being tested firsthand from watching my parents deal with my father’s cancer diagnosis, treatment and eventual passing all in the span of just over a year. On one of my GP home visits I was quite affected by talking to Mr A, an elderly man with COPD who was living with his wife, who had dementia. I will look at the
Please explain how psychosocial factors have influenced your clients' ability to engage in occupations during treatment.
Many terminally-ill patients give up hope when treatments are no longer available to help them and hospice care is given to them as an option. However, hospice care has proven itself to provide the best quality care for the last six months of the dying. The purpose of hospice is to provide the best care for terminally-ill patients at the end stage of their lives. Hospice offer services to support too many aspects a patient’s life such as medical, legal, spiritual care. Hospice includes art therapists, music therapists, and certified chaplains on the palliative team.
The Kuder Occupational Interest Survey uses a system that ask you to rate your preference to do something. You are rating items most preferred and least preferred. It matches your answers to the different occupational group that your answers match.