Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy is a profession that is currently growing faster than anyone would have expected. Because of the increase in demands for occupational therapy services, therapists are having larger caseloads, needing the help of more occupational therapists. Occupational therapy in the mental health setting is one environment that has grown in popularity over the last decade. Knowing the benefits of occupational therapy in this setting, and the expansion of clients needing occupational therapy services, more funding needs to be established in this setting.

Jacob is an active is an active 2.10-year-old boy who was evaluated at Anna L. Klein School for occupational therapy services as a part of the comprehensive evaluation to determine his eligibility for Special Education services. He was referred for occupational therapy evaluation due to concerns with his attention, fine motor, and gross motor skills.

Purpose: Each biennium and upon initial licensure clinicians are required to take a course related to the Laws and Rules of Practice for Occupational therapy. Through this course clinicians will increase awareness and understanding of the laws and rules that direct licensure as a provider of occupational therapy services.

As occupational therapy services diversified, serving a variety of clients in many different settings and with societal influences, the field began to evolve. During the 1990s occupational therapists began to shift away from reductionist medical model toward a more holistic client-centered approach. Services focused on enhancing individuals’ quality of life across the lifespan meaning before, during, and after therapeutic intervention. The profession began to better acknowledge the value of client education, injury and illness prevention, health screening, and health maintenance (Cole & Tufano, 2008). The field created more preventative initiatives, and focused services on improving quality of life and optimizing the independence of

In my professional career, I hope to become the best occupational therapist that I can be. I want to remain up to date with current literature and the best practice available, and make sure that occupation is a focal point of my treatment sessions. However, after gaining clinical experience, I see my end goal as being an occupational therapy researcher. I love academia and feel as though my specific skill set would be most effectively utilized in the research field. I have a strong passion for occupational therapy and want to contribute to the strength and solidarity of our field, especially with the changing health care trends.

Within four weeks of fieldwork, occupational therapy students got to know most of the residents at Ruth’s House (dementia unit). The residents have various medical conditions that limit their physical and mental capabilities. Anita, one of the residents in the facility exhibited a range of physical, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms. Based on direct observation, Anita demonstrated fluctuating alertness periods. With no evident trigger, Anita had multiple acute episodes of confusion, irritability, and agitation. In a several group sessions, she was restless and was very difficult to redirect. She kept standing up despite being told to take a seat so she does not fall. She was verbally disorganized. In addition, during the 2-week fieldwork,

Occupational Therapy has played a role in helping those with Mental and physical disabilities in the United States since 1917. Before that time, Occupational Therapy was used solely in mental institutions to help people that were "more normal" and able to function in a social status. These patients enjoyed things like arts and crafts. It seemed that those who engaged in such activities where perceived as "more healthy". These findings lead Drs. to encourage patients to engage is such activity to improve there overall health. (http://quoccupationaltherapy.weebly.com/history-of-occupational-therapy.htmlhistory-of-occupational-therapy.html)

Vi would benefit from skilled occupational therapy services for post op rehabilitation of flexor tendon laceration of the wrist to improve overall independence with functional activities of daily living as well as identifying areas of interest in leisure activities to address Vi's underlying depression. Therefore the performance areas that will be addressed in occupational therapy sessions are as follows:

The occupational therapy profession shares many objectives across the communities, clients, and families they serve. Some of these aims include: “Developing the field of occupational therapy and enhance the professions capabilities to meet the needs of the entire population, providing evidence on the efficacy of occupational therapy. This includes working with organizations and local communities, incorporating education, research, and practices as a complete whole. In addition, developing a team of professionals that innovates and adapts to the developing health needs of the population” (AOTA, 2013). This includes advocacy efforts with policymakers to ensure continued funding to provide care to individuals (AOTA, 2013). Occupational therapy is a distinctive profession that helps

While shadowing occupational therapy professionals at Montgomery General Hospital, I gained much insight into the profession and the day-to-day duties and responsibilities of a COTA. The entire facility caseload consisted of geriatric patients, and many of the diagnoses were due to cognitive deficits or recent falls due to weak lower extremities. Diagnoses observed were dementia, CVA, a hip fracture, a total knee replacement, osteoarthritis of the shoulder, bilateral upper extremity/lower extremity weakness, and total blindness.

As an occupational therapy practitioner, it is important to understand how to modify homes to fit an individual with a disability. In this paper, I will share what I believe are the best modifications to my own 2-story home for an individual in a wheelchair including the entrance and half-bath, kitchen, stairs,

In order to drive the change, it is necessary to create a sense of urgency among the stakeholders, such as occupational therapists, educators, OT students, and parents. The sense of urgency can be established by pointing out possible consequences of not specifying OTs as school mental health providers under the NCLB. It is necessary to convey to stakeholders that the current trends will continue to restrict the role of OTs to the special education population. In the long run, this trend will further limit OT services to address sensorimotor skills as schools are increasingly hiring different disciplines to support students’ compliance and behavioral issues. Similarly, in the case of budget constraints, schools are likely to eliminate or reduce the scope of OT services to redirect funds to address the needs of the larger population. At the proximal level, the leading school therapists can use team meetings and newsletters to create the sense of urgency. At the societal level, the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) can use various platforms, such as OT Pulse and OT connection, newsletters, online blogs, conferences, and Linked in or Facebook forums to create the sense of urgency.

Due to the evolving nature of occupational therapy, much of the work in this field is grounded in evidence-based practice. It is imperative, for those seeking a career in Occupational Therapy and those currently in the profession, to have a clear understanding of research methodology in order to work ethically and effectively when carrying out their research. This will lead to the better quality approach of care for the clients.

The name of the society changed in 1923, due to hospitals wanting a national directory of qualified occupational therapists. There now was a minimal standard of training that had to be met before an individual was put in the directory (AOTA, 2009). The name was changed to the American Occupational Therapy Association. The American Medical Association worked with the American Occupational Therapy Association starting in 1933 on getting improved education programs for occupational therapists (AOTA, 2009).

Occupational Therapist enables people to engage and participate in everyday activities trough occupation. The latter role is not only applicable for individuals but also groups or populations. Eventually, with the increase of the aging population, expensive health care services, occupational therapists will have to incorporate health promotion practices into their actual roles.To cope with this phenomenon and to better meet older adult’s needs, the occupational therapist 's role would benefit from being enlarged.Expanding their knowledge and their practices in promoting health will facilitate their work in other domains.This will help them to shift from an individual to a population approach. To achieve that transition, therapists should be more involved in decisions taken by politicians regarding health and to develop services and programs that promote well-being, health, and quality of life. Also, collaboration with other fields such as schools, workplaces, industries, deputies and organizations will help them spread strategies that promote awareness and enable the population to control and maintain an independent healthy lifestyle. Also, therapists understand that the environment can be a crucial factor on health population. Therefore ,they can put pressure on the government to make public places more accessible to disabled people such as providing the subway of a wheelchair ramp and adapt crosswalks to the blind by adding pedestrian signals that include speakers at