Occupational Therapy Service - Essay Example

Occupational Therapy Service Introduction Occupational therapy entails the activities undertaken by occupational therapists (OT) with the aim of improving the life of physically disabled individuals as well as those with mental problems. In addition, Occupational therapy focuses at improving the reasoning abilities and motor function of individuals. In this way, the services that are offered by OT enhance the lives of the persons who seek their assistance by reducing the level of independence on their relatives and other members of the community. Kielhofner (2008) argues that major aspects that occupational therapists use to identify obstacles to Occupational therapy include environmental issues, psychosocial, cultural and political. To ensure that quality services are offered to individual with physical and mental problems, occupational therapists seek the contribution of various disciplines such as sociology, psychology, anthropology and medicine. Role of occupational therapists within the chosen setting The role of the occupational therapists in the service is to promote the health situation of the young children within the ages of 0-19 years. This is done by providing them with equipments that are vital in improving their lives as well advising the parents on how to cater for the children during their daily activities. To ensure that children have a sustainable health and improve their productivity, occupational therapists assist them to seek for additional services from various health professionals. Through targeting the toddlers and the infants, the centre offers early intervention therapy that is vital in ensuring that developmental delays that affect the learning process of the young children are avoided. Key aspects that affect the learning process of the young children include visual/sensory disorder, difficulties in perceiving things, high level of forgetting as well as speech problems. Role of occupational therapists within the selected client group The problems that are faced by the boy during the learning process propagated the educational psychologists to recommend for remediation in the occupational therapy service. According to Hocking (2004) occupational therapists may opt to deal with children with particular disabilities or with children in a particular age bracket. Based on the fact that basic education is vital for the growth of every child, the occupational therapists ensured that the boy’s situation and learning process were streamlined through ensuring that he participated in various activities such as Connect 4, Beery VMI, Pencil control activities, building blocks with pegs, cutting shapes among others. In this way, the boy participation in schools was enhanced. Other vital implications of the occupational therapy on the boy included development of fine motor skills, improvement of visual memory skills as well as development of strong visual discrimination skills. Another significant role of the occupational therapists was the consultation that they held with the educational psychologists. This allowed the therapists to have a deeper understanding of the mental problems that faced the boy. One of the major obstacles that affected the learning process of the boy was lack of proper understanding of his personal capabilities. It is vital to note that even though teachers are highly interested in delivering useful skills to the boy and others with similar disabilities, the role of occupational therapists was vital in allowing the boy to explore his personalities. The imperative roles of occupational therapists were also evident in the way they catered for the needs of the 6 year old girl who was suffering from cerebral palsy. To ensure that effective strategies that addressed the plight of the girl were adopted, occupational therapists sought the assistance of the mother. Being a permanent disability, cerebral palsy affects the life of the girl in various ways. For instance, the child has movement problems as well as difficulties during eating and dressing. This led to therapists arranging for an appointment to visit the girl at her home in order to come up with adaptive equipments such as orthotics and wheel chairs that would improve the life of the girl. The visit to the girl’s home was imperative in ensuring that special equipments were designed to assist the girl in the home and in school. In addition to providing the equipments, Case-Smith (2005) argues that therapists give an orientation to the persons with permanent disabilities on how to use them so as to improve their communication process thus ensuring proper interaction with other members of the community. Role of occupational therapists within the multi-disciplinary team As mentioned earlier, an occupation therapy entails corroboration of various disciplines in order to promote the health conditions of individuals. Some of the main professional that work with therapists include General Practitioners, Palliative Care Nurses, Social workers, Pain management Clinician among others. Based on the wide range of duties that occupational therapists undertake, team work with other professionals is imperative in order to fully understand the situations that face individuals in need of occupational therapy. As depicted by Turner et al (2003) a link between occupational therapists and other health providers is vital to ensure proper medication management as well as addressing illnesses that occurs in the working environment and in the learning institutions. In their efforts to assist children and old persons with disabilities, College of Occupational Therapists (COT) that is based in UK maintains that therapists should closely work with mental health units (Turner et al, 2003). These units include older person rehabilitation wards, prisons units, and psychiatric units among others. In the same way groups such as home treatment teams, child mental teams and community mental heath teams should be engaged in the provision of occupational therapy. Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it is clear that occupational therapists play a vital role in child development and improvement of the lives of people seeking occupational therapy services. Being a dynamic profession, occupation therapy entails the participation of various groups of people for instance parents, teachers, employers and other health care providers. Through the assistance of other teams dealing with community health, therapists expose the individuals to various activities that are focused at improving their daily life. Such activities include proper budgeting, homemaking, effective time management among others. Similarly, therapists aim at dealing with problems faced by the youth and the old people that include drug abuse, alcoholism as well as depression References Case-Smith, J. 2005. Occupational Therapy for Children. St. Louis: Elsevier. Hocking, C.2004. Making a difference: The romance of occupational therapy. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 34(2), 3-5. Kielhofner, G. 2008. Model of Human Occupation: Theory and Application. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Turner, A, Foster, M, Johnson, S. 2003. Occupational Therapy and Physical Dysfunction: Principles, Skills and Practice. London: Sage. Read More