What does an Occupational Therapist (OT) do?
Lavonah Gure | Tuesday June 21, 2022 06:00
To understand what occupational therapists do, you must know the concept of occupational therapy. Occupational therapy aims to restore or improve participation in meaningful occupations where there was disruption.
Meaningful occupations are activities people do every day that are purposeful to them and contribute towards their improved health, quality of life and a sense of wellbeing.
In simple terms, occupational therapists help people of different ages who have various health issues. It can be injury, illness or disability that makes it hard for them to do their every day life activities (self-care, job, school, leisure). Occupational therapists assess and devise treatment plans that improve function and promote independence.
They help people learn new ways of doing things, restore skills and develop new ones, remove barriers to function in the environment or adapt environment to enhance function and where necessary use equipments or materials to make function easier. To get a broad overview what occupational therapists do, let’s explore the setting where you can or you supposed to find them. Hospital setting is common place where you can find an occupational therapist and they play a key role in patient rehabilitation.
In hospitals, occupational therapists treat a wide range of health conditions for both inpatients and outpatients. They treat patients with neurological, surgical, orthopedic and medical conditions.
They help adults and children with conditions like stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injuries, burns, rheumatoid arthritis, upper limb factures, nerve and tendon injuries, chronic pain and diabetes just to mention but a few. Early intervention clinic is one setting where the role of occupational therapist is imperative. In early intervention, occupational therapist identifies and provides early support to children who are at risk of poor outcomes in child occupations performance (play and school).
These are children with developmental delays and disabilities. Some of these kids could have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, microcephaly, down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Occupational Therapists also play a key role in schools. They have the skill to assess and determine school readiness in children and offer treatment strategies that assist the child’s learning in a classroom. They work with children with learning disabilities.
Learning disabilities are conditions that affect children’s abilities to gain knowledge and skills at the same rate as their peers. Conditions like sensory integration disorders, visual perception/visual motor deficit, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia and asperger syndrome. They work in collaboration with guardians and teachers. Occupational therapists also assist with vocational training interventions in mental health setting and community centres. They help people with cognitive impairments and psychosocial dysfunction through interventions that intend to reintegrate them into society. Occupational therapists also facilitate return to work after an injury or accident.
They are skilled in understanding abilities of the worker and their impairments. They conduct functional capacity assessment and provide recommendations for a realistic return to work transition, working in collaboration with the client and relevant stakeholders. Last but not least, occupational therapists have role in industrial setting. It involves conducting ergonomic assessment and making appropriate recommendations to the work space in order to promote highest levels of function and reduce workplace injuries.
In conclusion, occupational therapists are usually described as “jack of all trades” because a general occupational therapist has the capacity to assess any client because they are skilled in “activity analysis”. However, they can choose to be a “master of one” with experience and additional training in a specific area. That is why you might find an occupational therapist who specialises as a hand therapist, pediatric OT, mental health OT, and school-based OT just to mention but a few. Currently in Botswana there is a great need for occupational therapists.
There are around 50 occupational therapists in both private and public sector, which means there is a gap in terms of delivering holistic health services in place where there are no occupational therapists.