"what is occupational therapy anyway?"

Happy Occupational Therapy Month!!!

I am a lover of holidays, festivity, and spirit. :)  April is OT Month, and ever since undergrad, I have tried hard to make sure that people knew it!  We had a Pre-OT/Pre-PT Club in college to try to bring together all the students who were planning to go into those fields.  In April we always tried to put on an educational event, host a speaker, put up posters, & find ways to make people aware of what OT was... unfortunately that is a topic I continue to have to educate people every single day (I don't even always correct people when they call me the "physical therapist".. Florence Clarke Slagle would be so disappointed)... maybe someday OT will be a term everyone knows, but until that day, there is April. OT Month. 30 days where I get the chance to shamelessly plug my profession and struggle to figure out a way to summarize my complex 2-years-worth of education on philosophy, theory, and research methods.  Sadly that layman's description never does justice to my 96-year old profession... and unfortunately for anyone who happens to catch me in April, I still can't summarize OT in under 60 seconds.

I work in a smaller "outpatient" clinic that is located within a retirement community of about 400 residents.  I am the only OT, and we have a PT, two PTAs, and a speech therapist.  This community is very very active and health conscious and independent.  This means there is a lot of demand for PT... but less for OT (I mostly treat residents of our Assisted Living or Memory Support village), and even less understanding of what OT is, because they are still so independent and haven't needed it!  BUT all the PT business means lots of people coming in and out of the clinic, experiencing the benefits of their PT and wanting to stay as active and independent as they can!

Since I am often not there (I treat outside the clinic the majority of the time, or am working at other facilities), I went the passive route and made decorations (I love holidays!) to draw attention to OT month from our clients!  It is not hard to strike up conversations with our clientele- I feel like I know many of PT patients as if they were my own because of random conversations and familiar faces.  But, since I'm MIA a lot (or attending to my patient), I wanted to make it easy for my co-workers to explain OT and promote OT month without difficulty.  I made these cute little signs and hung them up around the clinic!  I didn't get everything together and hung up until yesterday, but better late than never, and so far they've been a big hit!!  My coworkers love them too, and my boss gave me kudos!

 

The speech bubbles are BIG and large print enough that you can read them from several feet away.   On one side is a quote or question (and I legitimately adapted all of the phrases from things I have actually heard in my career!), and on the other side is a little explanation or response (to help my non-OT colleagues start the conversation with more ease.  I know I would have a hard time doing justice to PT or ST if I had to explain them without a script).  I came up with all of these myself!

"But I don't need occupational therapy... I'm retired!"

Even people who are retired continue to participate in all kinds of “occupations”–tasks or activities-- each and every day:  from driving a car to tying your shoe laces, from making the bed to eating ice cream! 

"What is occupational therapy?  Helping me find a job?"

 Occupations aren't just paid work!  They include self-care, community activities, chores, leisure pursuits, and social activities too!

" I thought occupational therapy was the same thing as physical therapy..."

Occupational therapists and physical therapists often work together! In addition to physical strengths, OTs address cognitive, social or neurological areas; PLUS the environmental components of a task, activity, or object.

"Is occupational therapy just for arms and hands?"

We use our arms and hands for a LOT of occupations- but that's not what it's all about!  An OT may address the entire body, as well as changing the environment or the task to help a person reach their potential."

The little squares are pictures of people doing different occupations: art, cooking, shopping, golf, driving a car, putting on shoes, brushing teeth. I printed everything on cardstock, used double sided tape to stick each side together.  I found spirally dangly things in the party decorations dept at Walmart, cut off the big stars and attached my bubbles and pictures. :)  They are very eye catching and have been a big hit the last couple days!  This is just the beginning though-- now I have them made for next year and I can keep adding on.

My other OT Month project is putting on an in-service for our IL residents.  Our therapy department gets a 1-hour spot once a month to do an educational presentation for residents, and they are usually pretty well attended.  The last one I did had 10 attendees, which was perfect for the topic.  This month, I am presenting on healthy vision and low vision strategies.

In the meantime, find out more at www.aota.org... or just comment and I can do my best to answer in under 200 words. ;)