Occupational Therapy

Victor

Is the objective of OT to aid people into an occupation or is it to provide theraputic benefit by keeping people occupied?

Rev Hellfire

Its aim is to provide people with the greatest degree of independance and skills for day to day living.
For example the OT will provide both equipment (ie chairs standers etc) and advice to facility a disabled person in their day to day living.

snorlax

occupational therapy looks at three different domains: self care, leisure and work. Occupational therapy is about faciltating people with a disability (be it a learning, physical or mental disability) that inhibits them from participating from an activity/ occupation from any of the domains mentioned.
if you think about it people often introduce and define themselves by what they do.

imagine that you couldn't meet friends in town in a pub due to it being inaccessible or we're afraid to play football as they we're feeling depressed and unmotivated, that it could lead to a less meaningful life for those involved if they couldn't participate in activities they enjoy/ed.

in fact spirtuality and purposeful activity is acknowledged by one of the models that guides our practise the Canadian model of OT, which puts the person/ individual at the centre of treatment based on the fact that there is no treatment without the client. thus all OTs are suppossed to acknowledge and provide choice to clients they are working with and they often do this by asking the clients goals for intervention and getting them to proritise them.

http://www.tcd.ie/Occupational_Therapy/aboutot.php
http://www.otworks.ca/otworks_page.asp?pageid=824

without engagement in occupation people can become depressed and apathetic about life and can often end up withdrawing from it completetly and isolating themselves (in the case of some clients with mental illness, and where im doing a placement in at the moment).