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April is National
Occupational Therapy Month
According to the American
Occupational Therapy Association's executive
board, occupational therapy is defined as "the
therapeutic use of work, self-care and play
activities to increase development and prevent
disability. It may include adaptation of task
or environment to achieve maximum independence
and to enhance the quality of life."
But why the term "occupation"?
The dictionary defines occupation as "that
which chiefly engages one's time, trade, profession
or business."
A person's occupation
can therefore be defined as the way in which
we occupy our time. Our time is divided into
three categories of activities that we take
part in daily: Self- care or activities of daily
living are sleeping, eating, grooming, dressing
and toileting; work is the effort that is exerted
to do or make something or perform a task; leisure
is free, unoccupied time that a person chooses
to do something they enjoy. Therefore, occupational
therapy is the use of meaningful activities,
"occupational activities", to help
patients recover from illness or injury.
Occupational therapy is
not a new concept. The earliest evidence of
using occupations as a therapeutic modality
can be found in ancient times. One-hundred years
before the birth of Christ, the Greek physician
Asclepiades initiated humane treatment of patients
with mental illness using "occupational
activities."
Move through time about
2,000 years and we see the use of occupational
therapy really coming into its own. World War
I forced the occupational therapy profession
to clarify its role in the medical domain and
to standardize their training and practice as
they treated thousands of returning wounded
soldiers. Today, a registered occupational therapist
has a Masters degree, and doctoral degree programs
are starting to show up in several universities
around the country. A certified occupational
therapy assistant has to have an associates
degree.
Today, occupation is the
main focus of the profession. It is certainly
an ever-evolving and dynamically moving profession.
Occupational therapists work in a variety of
settings with several different age groups and
disabilities. Anyone with a physical, emotional
or developmental deficit can be referred for
treatment by an occupational therapist. Those
diagnoses might include: pre-maturity, birth
defect, spina bifida, attention deficit disorder,
developmental disabilities, cerebral palsy,
sensory dysfunction, autism, hyperactivity,
downs syndrome, amputation, stroke, arthritis,
burns, head injury, dementia, diabetes or cardiac
conditions.
The J. D. McCarty Center
for children with developmental disabilities
in Norman has a staff of six registered occupational
therapists and three certified occupational
therapy assistants. Through this staff of nine
therapists, the McCarty Center provides inpatient
and outpatient services to children throughout
the state of Oklahoma.
"The focus of occupational
therapy here at the McCarty Center," explained
Maria Greenfield, director of occupational therapy,
"is to apply creative problem solving and
adaptation of our patient's environment to help
them reach their highest level of independence
and functionality. We apply it to all areas,
whether we working on activities of daily living
skills, work activities like school or play
activities."
To celebrate National
Occupational Therapy Month the McCarty Center's
occupational therapy department will be hosting
an OT carnival on Friday, April 30 from 1:00
p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the hospital's therapy
department gym.
The activities of the
carnival will include a half-mile walk and eight
carnival booths with occupational therapy activities
with information about why these activities
are used for rehabilitation. The booths will
include: a sensory booth, crafts, switch/assistive
technology, an obstacle course, face painting
and a bubbles booth.
"The carnival will
be open to inpatients, outpatients and staff,"
said Greenfield. "The primary objective
of the carnival is to educate our staff about
occupational therapy and how it works with our
patient base," she added.
Volunteers from Kappa Kappa
Gamma sorority at the University of Oklahoma
will be assisting with the carnival.
The J. D. McCarty Center
is Oklahoma's center of excellence in the care
and treatment of children with developmental
disabilities from birth to age 21. The hospital
was founded in 1946, to provide physical, occupational,
speech and language therapy that children with
cerebral palsy needed to reach their highest
level of function and independence. Since that
time, the McCarty Center has treated more than
70 different diagnoses in the developmental
disability category.
For more information
about occupational therapy visit www.aota.org
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