Occupational Therapy Is More Than Enhancing Activities

Occupational therapy is much more than enhancing activities of daily living to me. I see occupational therapy as helping people achieve daily freedom and making attainable goals to improve their physical and mental health while providing a professional relationship to encourage trust and reliability throughout treatment. Something as simple as tying shoes or being able to grab a fork to eat can make all the difference in the world to the patients an occupational therapist will treat. I have been working at a hand clinic since September and have seen that the small achievements like the tying of the shoes of the ability to bend the finger 10 more degrees puts a big smile on the faces of the patients and improves their outlook and demeanor towards their injury. Encouraging home exercise, helping with self cares, teaching writing skills and helping provide custom splints are all aspects that I have seen with my job and observation of occupational therapy as a whole. When I started my jo b at the hand clinic a therapist told me that the most basic occupational therapy explanation she could provide me is that occupational therapy is a way of helping others achieve a better level of daily living for things that they want and or need to do in life than when they sought help from therapy. Growing up I worked at Les Schwab Tire Center since I was 16 years old. I loved working on cars and learning how to be self sufficient if something of my own ever broke. I knew after a few monthsShow MoreRelatedOccupational Therapy : A Fun, Active, And Exciting Way Of Helping Children With Disabilities1566 Words   |  7 PagesOccupational therapy is a fun, active, and interesting way of helping children with disabilities. It is interesting because children learn new ways to overcome their disabilities, and it is fun because it makes the child feel as if he or she is not even doing much work at all. 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