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Occupational Therapy Barriers

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Occupation based interventions benefits the clients but there are various barriers that many occupational therapists face when working in medically-oriented facilities. According to Colaianni and Provident (2010), one of the barriers of (OBI) is the dominance of the biomedical model in health care practice. The mechanistic paradigm that was derived from biomedical model has diverted the professional role of concentrating on health restoring measure to remediation of body functions and impairments. According to Gray (1998), biomedical model cure disease by eliminating symptoms, reducing impairment but occupational therapy results in impairment-based treatment where the impairment and body functions become the intervention outcome. It is difficult within the medical paradigm of care to incorporate health and wellness and to fit occupations such as cooking, playing, and other pleasurable activities, which resulted in the occupational therapist struggling with professional identity. …show more content…

Research studies indicate that occupational therapists translate OBI in practice but are limited by environmental factors. Lack of equipment and supplies and limited space are the major barriers of many occupational therapists. The available equipment are used for remediating impairments and body functions (Chisholm, Dolhi, & Schreiber, 2004). Equipping an organization with the required OBI setting requires funding but most organizations lack adequate funds for the supplies of the equipment for the occupational therapy practice setting. Time is another barrier that influences occupational therapists to effective use OBI. Research studies indicate that OBI consumes a lot of time and it is too complicated to implement. Occupational therapists can do more for the clients but addressing the problems of each client require more time, which deprives another client quality time to receive an intervention in a timely

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