Occupational Therapy is a profession primarily centred around client-therapist interactions. The main objective of an occupational therapist (OT) is to empower and assist their clients in their return to everyday life and activities. Occupational therapists work with their clients for extended periods of time in order to ensure that they are able to participate in their normal daily routines with some degree of ease. OT's achieve this goal through building trust and rapport with their clients by representing themselves with the highest degree of professional identity and following the codes of conduct, to which ensures safety to all involved in the achievement of this goal. As occupational therapists work closely with a number of different
Ralph Emerson once said, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful … to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” I chose the profession of occupational therapy to embrace this rationale of life; to encourage others to help themselves and discover the resilience and strength they have to successfully re-integrate with their community. At Hunter College I majored in psychology and I wanted to continue to apply this knowledge through a health care career. Occupational Therapy effectively concentrates on the psychological, emotional, and physical well-being of the patient, while facilitating those individuals with illnesses or injuries to re-learn everyday tasks.
As we all knew that occupational therapy provide a practical and relevant interventions that let people improve their quality of the daily life.
The Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) and the Person-Environment-Occupation Model (PEOP model) are two of the most used models in occupational therapy. MOHO is an occupation-focused model which was developed in the 1980s. The model shows the motivation of occupation; the patterning of occupational performance; the essence of skilled performance and how environment affects occupation. The PEOP model is a client-centred model that was published in the 1990s, it focuses on how the performances of the individuals, groups and populations are affected by the intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Although both two models are common in the practice of occupational therapy, they are different in many ways. In this essay, I will compare the differences between two models.
I want to be a physician because I want people to grow old. At the age of 6, one of my closest friends was diagnosed with leukemia. By age 8, the disease claimed his life, robbing him of the opportunity to experience the privilege of growing old. Unfortunately, we live in a society of vanity. We see the process of aging and choose not to embrace it. As a physician, I would work with my patients so that they do not fear age, but rather welcome it. I want to effectively educate my patients so they may willingly choose to lead healthy lives and ultimately extend their days left in this world with their loved ones. I hope that as a caregiver, I am able to help my patients realize that a long, healthy life is far more fulfilling than a short, glamorous one.
Occupational therapy is a health profession dedicated to supporting people in living their lives with meaning
I have always had the intense desire to care and look after people from a very young age. I firmly believe that everyone deserves the best quality of life possible and this is what had drawn me to occupational therapy as a career path in the first place. It is so easy to take for granted all the everyday tasks we can do and we seldom consider the effect of not being able to complete them. As an occupational therapist I would be able to make a positive impact on someone’s life and make it possible for them to enjoy their life. I want the opportunity to provide support to people, help them gain independence and watch them grow more confident in their own ability. I want to be part of such a rewarding career.
The degree of this meaningfulness is from the view of the person carrying out the occupation. The perception of this meaningfulness depends on the person’s developmental structure. Developmental structure includes feelings, senses, movements, thoughts, how the person perceives things and how they interact with other people. As occupations are performed these developmental structures can change. Occupations also have purpose which means while someone is performing an occupation they are trying to achieve goals. Purposefulness is also from the view of the person performing the occupation and will be different for every individual. The goals that are set by the person are affected by the meaning that the person ascribes to the occupation and the developmental structure of the person. These things together effect the context that the occupational performance takes place in. Based on this model for occupational therapy we can assess how we carry out our occupations in the context we are in and the meaning that we place on this context (Nelson, 1988:
Occupational therapy provides assistance for those who are in need of assistance with daily living and work skills. These specialists work with people of various demographics to handle normal life challenges in a safe and healthy manner.
and intrigued by the mind-body connection as well as the importance of human activity and occupation in maintaining mental and physical well-being. At the same time, my desire to work directly with people and be able to make a positive and lasting change to their lives by empowering them and helping discover their strengths and confidence in themselves to achieve their goals, led me to a realization that a career in occupational therapy would be a perfect fit for me.
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I am the student liaison to the American Occupational Therapy Association, (AOTA), for the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. I also am an active voter and representative of your Delaware constituency as I have lived in Delaware my entire life. In fact, I was on the Brandywine YMCA swim team with your son, Christopher. My time spent at the YMCA of Delaware peaked my interests to work with special need’s populations, leading me to the track of becoming an occupational therapist. Occupational therapy is an arcane profession to the general populous. Occupational therapists help all individuals live life to their fullest by maximizing one’s level of independence through engaging
For the practice of Occupational Therapy it teaches meaningful, functional, and adaptive life skills; it is a profession that enhances activities of daily living (ADL), and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). IADL’s including community mobility, is a critical area for the United States citizens. Driving is an instrumental activity that needs addressed with each client for safety and testing motor movements. Between 2002 and 2012, more than 1.5 million U.S. soldiers returned to the United States after an active duty Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraq Freedom (OIF; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs [VA], 2012a). Soldiers are trained specifically to what branch of service they’re going into. Going through strict training their units,
Through the 1920s and 1930s until the Great Depression, this organization flourished. It was during this time that Occupational Therapy became more closely related to and aligned with organized medicine, thus creating a more “scientific approach” to this field study. It is also this organization that would be later known as the American Occupational Therapy of today.
What I admire most in the field of Occupational Therapy is that I get to make a profound difference in people 's lives. It is one of few careers where individuals get an opportunity to assist patients interpersonally, and help them achieve their goals with activities of daily living. What brings me a feeling of accomplishment and inner enlightenment is the opportunity to give people the chance to grow or start over. This train of thought arose when my grandfather had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, perhaps one of the most lethal carcinomas in existence. This period of time was rather challenging for myself, taking on the responsibility of assisting my virtually immobile grandfather. Given the fact that my grandfather exhibited severe
Occupational therapy allows a patient to work towards the goal of being able to perform basic everyday functional tasks. Therapy will differ for each patient, providing purposeful tasks that will allow the most growth for the specific individual needs. Being able to be an independent individual that can perform functional tasks is something that most people strive for, and if something happened that altered this way of life, it can be very stressful and even feel dehumanizing to the patient. Striving for independence and working with the therapists is something that will positively affect the patient's quality of life.