Occupational therapy saved my family. Growing up with a sister with severe spastic cerebral palsy to include both cognitive and functional deficits, life existed on a day to day, hour by hour basis, as we were unsure of challenges each moment would bring. This all changed the moment occupational therapy brought quality of life back to me and my family. My very personal experience defined my purpose to become an occupational therapist, to pay the gift given my family forward.
1.Describe, in your own words, how occupational therapy helps people. 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.
Senator Carper, 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.
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.
Howat, personal communication, March 22, 2018). Occupational therapist’s main roles include encouraging clients to develop new skills, helping them find improved ways of completing activities, manipulating the individual’s residence or workspace to meet their needs, or through providing therapy devices and equipment (About Occupational Therapy, 2018). When prescribing therapy devices, the occupational therapist must ensure the client knows how to best use it to ensure the client gets a full solution, not just a product (About Occupational Therapy, 2018). A further responsibility of occupation therapists is to consider the individual values of the client, an example of this is making a physically harmful activity less so because of the emotional benefits of the activity (K. Howat, personal communication, March 22,
Occupational Therapists work with people struggling with disabling emotional, mental, physical, or developmental issues and work to enhance the daily living skills of a patient’s life. Occupational Therapists must also be patient, compassionate, and people-oriented (BLS, 2015). As mentioned above, my workplace has drastically enhanced my communication skills, that will certainly help me be a better OT. While I shadowed an OT about a week ago, she was
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
The Authors of this study research the methods used during evaluation and intervention to see if these are consistent with “best practices” of the profession. Faculty members of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) developed a questionnaire utilizing the language and concepts of the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF) 2008. Terms used include, occupation-based, client-centered, and evidence-based practice. The results indicated OT 's value occupation based, client-centered, evidence based practice (EBP) but focus more on performance skills and most often practice in unnatural environments. The study could be made stronger by using a larger sample size or using open-ended questions versus a Likert Scale. Further clarification would
Men did not pursue the profession viewing as a lack of power as it was still heavily tied to view of women and as submissive, and for young single women.
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.
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.
Occupational Therapy began to emerge in the 1700s, during the “Age of Enlightment”. It was during this period that revolutionary ideas were evolving regarding the “infirmed” and mentally ill. At that time in history, the mentally ill were treated like prisoners; locked up and considered to be a danger to society.
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.
The theoretical format Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO), focuses on the individual, the environment, and the occupation. With the PEO format, we see the physical, social and cultural elements of where occupational therapy takes place (Scaffa, 2010, p.35). The PEO ties in person-environment interaction, person-occupation interaction, and the person-environment-occupation interaction (Scaffa, 2010, p. 36). The PEO is similar to that of the OT framework because the OT framework as well describes environment as having physical and social components. It mentions the social aspect of the environment that includes relationships and expectations with other individuals.
I love moments when I am able to extend a helping hand and I know Occupational Therapy will fulfill that need, substantially. I believe my past qualifications, determination, and life experiences proves my academic capabilities and thereby makes me an ideal candidate for any Occupational Therapy