Hello Ann: I am getting confused in our discussion. It seems like their are two different scenarios. If the client tells me that he wants to return home and his wife is telling me that he MUST be able to dress himself in order to return home, then I would tell the client that "according to your wife, you must be able to dress yourself in order to return home". I would not just ask the client the question about dressing and then give up. I would spend a great deal of time trying to understand WHY the client doesn't want to dress himself. I would attempt to talk to the client about overcoming any perceived barriers and explain that as an OT, my expertise is helping clients achieve those occupations which at times seem impossible. I often tell students that one of the best questions that they can ask clients is "Why". In other words, to understand clients, I need to understand the why behind the occupation. It is simple but, in my experience, a very powerful question.
Now, if the client still doesn't want to dress himself AND he is competent to make that decision then I believe it would be unprofessional, irresponsible and unethical to force the client to participate in therapy. The concept of autonomy says that I must respect clients decisions (if they are competent to make decisions) whether or not I agree with the decision. Finally, while I and you may think it best for the client to return home, our values are not the values of the client. I certainly want to explain to the client my opinion about nursing homes but my job is not to impose personal values on clients. More than anything, my job is to understand clients values and work within their value system to achieve their desired goals. Hope this helps, Ron ====================================================== On 10/10/02, [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: Dac> So, just to get this straight, you would feel that it is better to let this Dac> men go to a nursing home, than attempt to work with him and his wife, using Dac> therapeutic use of self, to seek a compromise that would achieve his (stated) Dac> goal of returning home, because he hasn't articulated to your satisfaction Dac> that he derives occupational meaning from dressing? Dac> Ann Dac> *********��*********** Dac> Unsubscribe? Send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dac> In the message's *body*, put the following text: unsubscribe OTlist Dac> ** List messages are archived at: Dac> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Dac> *********��*********** *********��*********** Unsubscribe? Send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message's *body*, put the following text: unsubscribe OTlist ** List messages are archived at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] *********��***********
