Hello All: Recently Biraj pointed out that I:
> always championed and advocated, very strongly I might add, > occupation-based practice but now it seems [I am] extremely > disappointed of anything the term has to do with in the OT profession. Biraj is correct about my past vocalizations but today I don't feel that I am disappointed about occupation. I still feel the same about occupation but I think that I am becoming a bit jaded at trying to integrate occupation into my private practice. You see, occupation is important, it's important to ALL of us, but what I am discovering is that treating occupational deficits does not fit well with my clients because clients don't consider occupational deficits to be the problem. Here's a non-OT story to make my point. Recently, someone I know was diagnosed with cataracts. The cataracts affected his vision to the point that modifications were needed to read, work and play. Now, what do you think this person saw as the problem; cataracts or occupations. Obviously, the impact on his occupation is what brought the cataracts to the forefront and motivated him to seek a lens replacement, but cataracts are the problem, not the loss of occupation. So, the person received a lens replacement and everything is getting better. Well, how does this 'story' apply to OT. Simple, our clients are seeking answers to problems. They want these problems fixed. But the problems are not occupation, the problems are things like weakness, loss of balance, developmental delay, depression, etc. Clients see these 'components' as the problem and this is what they expect their therapist to address. This is the way the entire world of medicine works and for OT to be any different just doesn't work. What I think needs to be done is for our patients to recognize loss of occupation as the primary problem. Then, they recognize the need for an occupational therapist. And as far as I can tell, the ONLY way that this is going to happen on a large scale is for AOTA to put together a NATIONAL ad campaign directed at educating people about occupation and thus occupational therapy. Finally, there are settings were occupation is the concern but about the only one that I know of is long-term mental health. And given that therapeutic occupation is rooted in mental health, this makes perfect sense. But for the majority of OT's working in the US, I think that trying to integrate occupation as our main form and outcome is a lost battle, unless patients are EDUCATED, INTEGRATE and EXPERIENCE occupation-based therapy. Ron -- Unsubscribe? [EMAIL PROTECTED] Change options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Help? [EMAIL PROTECTED]
