Hello all,
Ron, I thought your conversation with the PT was interesting. I have had
similar discussions with LMSWs,RN's, and SLP in the past. I have heard
various statements such as:
"It seems like you OT's want to try and do
everything..."
" Why cant you just stick to the physical body, I feel
that my
profession is better suited for group therapy...."
" I don't understand you guys, my friends daughter n
law is an OT
and she just does subtance abuse mental health
groups, she hasnt even been on a med surg floor
except for her rotations in
school. What kind of education do you guys get
anyways?"
Needless to say I went into a explanation into what the Occupation in
Occupational Therapy means. Half the time my listener will have a new
understanding and appreciation of OT or will even be more skeptical. I
always thought that 2 of the many roadblocks that the OT profession has to
deal with are 1) the name of our field itself "Occupational Therapy" and 2)
the diverse areas that OTs do work in.
Occupational Therapy is a title of a profession that doesnt obiviously
( well at not currently..) describe the profession. For example: lawyer =
works with law, teacher = teaches, plumber = works with plumbing Physical
therapist = as my PT friend says If its physical its therapy, and so
on..... Occupational Therapist = works in Occupational health....um..Helps
people with jobs...ahem..works with people using Occuaption. We all know it
is the lack of understanding Occupation in the context of OT is our largest
hurdle in front of us.
Since Occupation is so diverse, spans the life cycle, there are OT's who
are working in very different jobs with different client populations. If you
were to ask 10 OT's what they did for work you would probaly get a more
varied response than if you were to ask 10 firemen, 10 physical therapists,
10 accountants and so on. I do feel that the diversity of OT is a weakness
that blurs or perception to the public along with profession name that can
be that does not have an obvious meaning the the general public..well at
least not yet any ways.
Sorry for the rambling, but I guess OT backbone is Occupation. This
happens to encompass a lot. ( simple meaning heh) It seems that different
OTs choose to work on different areas of people occupations and thier needsI
know what I said is nothing new to us OT's. I can relate to you conversation
Ron. You posed a very interesting question. I am also interested in what
others think.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Carson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 9:53 AM
Subject: Enough to be dangerous
> Hello:
>
> This is a long explanation followed by a couple of questions. Please give
> me feedback and opinion. Thanks!
>
> The other evening I was having a discussion about OT with a physical
> therapist. Somehow the topic of mental health came up and she asked about
> OT's role when working with dementia. So, using an OPPM (Occupational
> Performance Process Model) approach, I tried to explain about how I would
> treat the dementia symptoms as they manifested themselves with regard to
> occupational performance deficits. The PT was very unimpressed by my
> explanation and felt like I wasn't really addressing the problem but
rather
> the symptoms of the problem. Well, I agreed that I don't DIRECTLY treat
> dementia but that through occupation-based treatment, dementia's symptoms
> may be reduced.
>
> The next topic was about a disabled (secondary to depression) judge whom I
> treated in my previous private practice. I explained that I saw the judge
> because she was having occupational and vocational difficulties secondary
to
> her depression. I outlined to the PT that I facilitated the client to set
> goals, prioritize these goals and acted like a 'sounding board' for her.
The
> PT had several negative comments including:
>
> 1. And you billed for this?
>
> 2. OT's are NOT mental health counselors are they?
>
> 3. How much counseling training did you get in school?
>
> The PT made one last comment, which is the subject of this e-mail. She
said
> that it seems like OT's are generalist and that "they know just enough to
be
> dangerous".
>
> Now, I countered all the above with my own interpretations of
> our profession but I REALLY want/need other readers opinion about OT being
> generalists and knowing just enough to be dangerous. Do you guys agree?
> What might be your response to this person? What is OT's speciality?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ron
>
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