Occupational Therapy

What is occupational therapy?

Occupational therapy, often called OT, is the use of treatments to develop, recover, or maintain the daily living and work skills of people with a physical, mental or developmental condition. Occupational therapy is a client-centered practice that places a premium on the progress towards the client’s goals. Occupational therapy interventions focus on adapting the environment, modifying the task, teaching the skill, and educating the client/family in order to increase participation in and performance of daily activities, particularly those that are meaningful to the client.

An occupational therapist works systematically through a sequence of actions known as the occupational therapy process. There are several versions of this process as described by numerous writers, although all include the basic components of evaluation, intervention, and outcomes. Creek has sought to provide a comprehensive version based on extensive research which has 11 stages.

The Canadian Practice Process Framework (CPPF), has eight action points and three contextual elements.

Fearing, Law, and Clark suggested a 7 stage process. A central element of this process model is the focus on identifying both client and therapists strengths and resources prior to beginning to develop the outcomes and action plan.

The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process presents a 3 stage process, and includes interrelated constructs that define and guide practice.

Areas of practice in occupational therapy

The role of occupational therapy allows occupational therapists to work in many different settings, work with many different populations and acquire many different specialties. This broad spectrum of practice lends itself to difficulty categorizing the areas of practice that exist, especially considering the many countries and different health care systems. In this section, the categorization from the American Occupational Therapy Association is used. However, there are other ways to categorize areas of practice in OT, such as physical, mental, and community practice (AOTA, 2009). These divisions occur when the setting is defined by the population it serves. For example, acute physical or mental health settings (e.g.: hospitals), sub-acute settings (e.g.: aged care facilities), outpatient clinics and community settings.