Occupational Therapy Vs Occupational Science

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

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.

Bruce, M. A. & Borg, B. (1993). Psychosocial occupational therapy: Frames of reference for intervention. Thorofare, NJ: Slack.

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

Occupational Therapy, as defined by WFOT is “a client-centered health profession concerned with promoting health and well-being through occupation. The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. Occupational therapists achieve this outcome by working with people and communities to enhance their ability to engage in the occupations they want to, need to, or are expected to do, or by modifying the occupation or the environment to better support their occupational engagement”. Knowing the definition of Occupational Therapy is vital to understanding the history of it, and how far this field has evolved over the years.

There are several grey areas between physical therapy and occupational therapy. While both occupations focus on physical functions of the anatomy, their intentions vary. An occupational therapist’s mission is to improve physical functions so a person can work or participate in daily life. A physical therapist is tasked with diagnosing and treating physical ailments or injuries. The relationship between physical therapists and occupational therapists shows common characteristics, however; they are different in many ways. Some differences and similarities are the amount of required education, salary, licensing, and job duties.

Occupational therapy has been in the process of continued development since the 1900’s. With several contributors helping to build the groundwork for creating the awareness needed to bring occupational therapy into the field of health care. Continued research is contributing to the ongoing significance of how occupational therapy is a vital aspect in promoting increased independences in all aspects of healthcare. (Willard, Schell, 2014) With the incorporation of “Occupational Therapy Practice Framework Domain and Process (3rd ed.)” helps creates the foundation for occupational therapy clinicians as well as other health care providers in facilitating the core believe of occupational and the relationship of health and occupation. (AOTA 2014) Therefore, providing a uniform outline of the various aspects of each individual and how they are interconnected to create the foundation of each individual. With a greater understanding of the foundations of that induvial, the clinician can then facilitate the best therapeutic treatment plan for that individual to achieve their personal goals with unified foundations of care.

Occupational therapy was founded on the principle that participation in meaningful activity is important to the health of individuals. Mental health is very important to the well-being of an individual and those around them. 450 million people experience mental and neurological disorders around the world. These disorders are the leading 5-10 causes of disability worldwide. As services for individuals with mental illness have shifted from the hospital to the community, there has also been a shift in the philosophy of service delivery. In the past, there was an adherence to the medical model; now the focus is on incorporating the recovery model. (2) Occupational therapy’s focus that taking part in engaging and meaningful activities benefits the mental well-being of the individual.

“What if there was a job that allowed someone to have endless flexibility and creativity; a profession that is respected and is in overwhelming demand... Most importantly, wouldn’t it be nice to find a job in which you could make an impact, big or small, on the lives of each individual person you worked with? I found this job and that is why I decided to pursue a degree in occupational therapy" (Springer, J., 2015). This testimonial comes from a practicing occupational therapist who has found value in his life's work. Occupational therapy is not a job where "one size fits all"; there are many different demographics of people who need occupational therapy in different environments. Although, all occupational therapists have the same skills

This link between occupation, health and well-being (i.e. the fact that people are occupational by nature and that engagement in meaningful occupation is essential to health) forms part of the core beliefs and values – the philosophy – of the occupational therapy (OT) profession (Kramer et al, 2003). OT has its foundations in both philosophy and science, but unlike other medical professions, it was the philosophy that came first

There are many different conceptual models available to occupational therapists today. These include the Canadian model of occupational performance and engagement (CMOP-E), the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO), Person-enviornment-occupation model (PEO), the Kawa model. These are very important to the profession and in guiding the occupational therapy process. The focus of this essay will mainly be on the MOHO.

Occupational therapy is a field that involves the characteristics of patience, compassion, and sensitivity; all of which I deeply value and have attained from my past

Ongoing research of the understanding and therapeutic effectiveness of human occupation best supports the profession of Occupational Therapy. Research intentions should be to derive an efficient and effective outcome pertinent to our client. The choice of research design is determined by what outcome we as researchers, hope to achieve from the use of a particular intervention (Therapyideas's channel, 2011).

Occupational therapy (OT) is a theory based therapy that supports people who have mental or

Many people look at occupational as physical therapy’s little brother and many people are unaware of what an occupational