Hello Friends!

September 9, 2015
by Heather

Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

For my first blog post, I wanted to stick to the student ambassador tradition of telling my “how I found occupational therapy” story.

A long, long time ago, I graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in History, Art History, and a minor in Photography. I had ambitions to become a food photographer and to travel the world to photograph for publications like Bon Appetit. While I endeavored to fulfill this dream, my grandmother suffered from a stroke at home in Santa Barbara.

At the time, I had always liked being in the position of helping others, but this became especially apparent while caring for my Grandma throughout her recovery. In my case it took a crisis to realize an untapped skill that I had. When I first began helping my Grandma, she was receiving inpatient therapy at a rehabilitation hospital. I observed her treatments with several health care professionals, but was most impressed by the work of the occupational therapist. This was my first introduction to occupational therapy. My Grandma’s occupational therapist spent multiple sessions with her every day, helping her regain independence in activities of daily living and remediating her motor control deficits. As I watched the occupational therapist work with her, I learned that the basic tenet of her rehabilitation stemmed from the idea that all activity should be purposeful in her recovery.

I wanted to get involved.

Then, one morning, the occupational therapist asked, “Would you like to do an exercise with your Grandma?” I had been waiting for that question since the moment I arrived. She showed me activities that were tailored to my Grandma’s current cognitive level, which were modified weekly to reflect her improvement. I was overjoyed to be an active participant in my Grandma’s recovery. I was amazed at how her occupational therapist was affecting her recovery in incremental ways, and doing something monumentally important.

Occupational therapy slowly but surely transformed my Grandma. Her sense of self-worth improved and she was able to appreciate a quality of life that seemed lost after the stroke. Active participation in my Grandma’s recovery inspired me to discover more about occupational therapy. I volunteered at a pediatric clinic, Ready Set GO Therapy, and at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in San Francisco. I enjoyed my experiences in both clinics tremendously because they offered different insights into the array of care-styles that occupational therapists provide. But most importantly, they both gave me the ability to be a component in the rehabilitation of a patient.

At the pediatric clinic, I gained a better understanding of pediatric occupational therapy, with its focus on sensory integration, motor skills, and rehabilitation that facilitates confidence and healthy development. Whereas, at Laguna Honda Hospital, I was exposed to occupational therapists that treated patients with the effects of stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and other major traumas. Here, I assisted the occupational therapists with patients with an extraordinary variety of social needs, including homeless people. I learned the importance of comprehensive care and the focus on full community integration. It was unlike any other opportunity I’ve had before because I was able to connect with a forgotten sector of society. Most importantly, my experience taught me, like my experience with helping my Grandma, that empathy, compassion, and sensitivity are necessary characteristics for an occupational therapist to possess.

I have truly united my vocation with my avocation, and I am so thrilled to be on the road to becoming an OT! ☺

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