Reader: What is occupational therapy?
Dear Reader,
The short answer: Occupational therapy (OT) is the profession devoted to improving a person's quality of life by improving their engagement in their most valued and meaningful activities using evidence-based practice, holistic approaches, and person-centered self-efficacy.
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| Photo Credit: Know Your Meme |
The long answer is not as simple. OT is a medical profession that is often overlooked, underestimated, and underappreciated even within the medical community. When I was first became an OT student, I heard students, physicians, and even teachers say, "Occupational therapy, so you help people find jobs?", "So you can give a good massage", and "Isn't that the same thing as physical therapy (PT)?". Even the profession itself has trouble agreeing on a single definition and one of the first lessons you learn as an OT student is how to explain what you do.
One reason for the confusion is that OT has one of the broadest scopes of practice. Their scope of practice includes treating physical dysfunction, mental health conditions, sensory processing dysfunction, vision deficits, home or work modifications, wheelchair or other durable medical equipment fitting and modifications . . . The list can go on. Our practice overlaps with other types of therapies, such as PT and speech language pathologists (SLP). This makes it difficult in practice to figure out the role for the OT. In a way, it seems like it is the jack-of-all-trades of therapies.
OTs also have a broad range of practice settings. They can be found traditionally in hospitals, skilled rehab centers, nursing homes, mental health institutions, schools, and will even visit your home to provide home health therapy. More recently, emerging practice settings include adult day centers, primary care offices, emergency departments in hospitals, and even prison institutions.
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| Photo credit: Occupational therapy: "Skills for the Living" |
However, their is one simple keyword that is most important to the OT practice: occupation. Occupation, defined as "an activity in which one engages" (Merriam-Webster, 2021). Occupation can be anything, from basic activities of daily living such as bathing or eating to leisure hobbies such as being able to play video games, attending classes, or reading books. OTs skill sets are grounded in task analysis, understanding what it takes to do particular activities and what prevents a specific person from completing them successfully. Achieving the ability to do what is most important in their client's life is the bottom-line goal for all occupational therapists and what drives the profession.
So, there you have it. A humble take on what occupational therapy is. I hope this explanation is informative enough, but if not, please feel free to reach out to me if you would like to learn more. The door is always open.
Sincerely,
Your Humble OT
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