An Overview of Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy is the utilization of evaluation and treatment to maintain, develop or recover daily work and life skills of persons with cognitive, mental or physical disorder. In simple words, Occupational Therapy helps people to do activities that matter to them, overcoming any health problems.

An Occupational Therapist (OT) can judge difficulties and challenges you face in daily life. This may be cognitive disorders like autism, mental health problems like Schizophrenia or Physical problems like loss of a limb.

The main work of an OT is to identify rehabilitation goals as per the needs of every individual patient. OT works with persons of all ages and deal with all issues of daily life-from home to school to workplace.

OT Techniques:

After evaluating goals and conditions of all patients, and the problems they face in daily life, the OT can help by:

·         Help practice activity in manageable step by step.

·         Educating patient on a new way to perform the activity.

·        Advising changes so that activity becomes easier

·         Providing devises that make the activity simpler.

An example of occupational therapy instruments is the case of a patient who has just undergone a hip replacement, who finds it tough to take bath. In this case, grab rails may be fitted in the bathroom to promote ease of movement. The aim is to help patent do daily tasks of the nature of work or leisure.

The various occupational activities identified by therapists include:

·          Activities of daily living (ADL):bathing, toilet hygiene, dressing, feeding, mobility, grooming, etc

·     Instrumental Activities of Daily living (IADL): child rearing, pet care, managing communication, driving, management of finances, management of health, preparing meals and clean-up, spiritual and   religious activity, shopping, etc.

·          Rest and sleep

·      Work: Pursuits and interests in employment, efforts for seeking employment, performance at jobs,  preparation for retirement, participation in volunteering.

·         Education

·         Play: exploring play, participating in play

·         Leisure: Exploring leisure, participating in leisure

·         Social participation: Role as friend/ peer, Role in family/ community.

These are some aspects about occupational therapy. The main focus is to help patients achieve goals of everyday tasks.