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Page Title: What is OT?
What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy (OT) is a health profession which works to help people and communities gain or regain skills which are essential for that person's happy, safe and meaningful existence.
OTs are skilled in functional assessment and rehabilitation, promoting independence in tasks at home, work, school and leisure. OTs work with people to help them achieve goals and outcomes that are important to them and their lifestyle.
Occupational therapists can be found working in:
- public and private hospitals
- private practice
- community health centres
- nursing homes
- schools and special education units
- government departments and industry
Who Occupational Therapists work with:
Occupational Therapists work in conjunction with the client, other health workers and family/friends.
They work with people of all ages with a variety of conditions, including those who have:
- a traumatic injury (eg head, spinal, hand and burn)
-
developed an illness (eg. cancer, heart disease and HIV)
-
low self esteem or reduced social skills
-
developmental delays or learning difficulties
-
neurological conditions (eg. stroke, multiple sclerosis)
- symptoms associated with ageing (eg arthritis, dementia)
- a mental health condition (eg depression, schizophrenia)
Services that occupational therapists provide:
Occupational therapists provide a wide range of services, including:
- rehabilitation - physical, neurological, psychosocial and developmental
- activities of daily living - assessment and retraining (self care, personal hygiene, dressing and feeding)
- prescription and retraining in the use of adaptive equipment for all age groups
- environmental assessments - including home, work, school, community
- home and community living skills - assessment and retraining
- counselling and psycho-education
Reflections on occupation
Occupation is simple and intuitive to the experience of all humans. . .
- the things we do in our life roles
- the things we do to be who we are
- the things we do to create life and world into all it can become
. . . however the finer details reveal there is more to occupation than meets the eye!
Occupation is. . .
Subjectively experienced
- to one person the occupation of "shopping" feels like "a real chore", to another it's "fun", to yet another it's "a chance to relax". Activity can be classified into cultural catagories such as "work", but each occupation is experienced as blend of productivity, pleasure and restoration
Situated in time
- the meaning and function of occupation vary according to it's location in the stream of time. Consider the meanings of a "shopping" occupation for an individual over time - shopping for lollies as a kid, shopping after a first paycheck and shopping with a wheel chair for the first time
Universal
- Time and culture influence which occupations are meaningful and adaptive, however that humans have used occupation to survive, thrive, healing and health promotion is evident since the dawn of time