Finding the Occupation in Occupational Therapy!

December 8, 2014
by Claire

What makes an occupational therapist a good occupational therapist?

The past few weeks, I have been so inspired by all the different kinds of activities that an occupational therapist can do to help individuals improve their participation in daily life activities!

One of my favorite highlights of this semester was working with a patient at my Level I Fieldwork site. He was referred to occupational therapy after a motor-vehicle accident that broke his right arm and and left leg. When we first met him, we interviewed him using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and found out that he wants to get back to his hairdressing job! We also learned about his interest in cooking. During our treatment sessions, we would review some exercises in preparation for an occupation-based activity, which included making mashed potatoes (I learned his recipe — absolutely delicious. It’s all about adding a lot of butter) and braiding hair! As a Level I fieldwork student, our role includes observing the occupational therapists and also possibly participating in some of the treatment process. In this case, it meant that I volunteered my hair to be braided during the treatment session, and I also ended up receiving a free head massage! Besides all the laughter, our patient was able to practice standing for longer periods of time without crutches (important for one hair-cut session!) and using his muscles in ways that he would for doing someone’s hair. We learned a lot about both occupation-as-ends and occupation-as-means, and I felt like this treatment session really showed that. Our patient was participating in a purposeful activity which he was motivated about, but the occupational therapist was also analyzing his movement and problem-solving with the patient regarding challenges that he was facing while doing the activity. That’s super cool! I look forward to his recovery so that he can keep changing people’s lives — one hairstyle at a time.

Here’s a couple pictures of me with my new hair after the treatment session:

In class, we have been learning about developing treatment plans that help improve the daily functioning of our clients. We also looked at different kinds of adaptations that may be used in the kitchen. Here are some things that we did — a pie in time for Thanksgiving and a big brunch potluck in our occupations lab.

We are moving into our finals week — best of luck to all students, and I will update again soon!

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