{"id":40996,"date":"2022-06-09T16:43:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T08:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/?p=40996"},"modified":"2023-03-14T13:36:32","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T05:36:32","slug":"what-is-an-occupational-therapist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/2022\/06\/what-is-an-occupational-therapist\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is an Occupational Therapist?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An Occupational Therapist (OT) is a healthcare professional who carries out assessments and intervenes to develop, recover, and maintain daily activities. Occupational therapists take a \u201cholistic approach\u201d to include both the mental and physical wellness of the patient to enable that person to reach their full potential.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Occupational therapists provide practical support and solutions to facilitate recovery and overcome barriers that prevent them from pursuing activities (or occupations). This gives people a sense of identity and independence to carry out daily tasks around self-care, work, or play. Occupational Therapists work with both adults and children of all ages with a wide range of conditions; most commonly people with mental, physical, or learning difficulties. They also work in a variety of settings including health organizations, social care services, education, volunteer organizations, or as independent professionals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #008080;\">What does an Occupational Therapist do?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The role of an Occupational Therapist is to help people of all ages overcome the effects of disability caused by illness, aging, or accidents, so they can perform everyday tasks or occupations. The job of Occupational Therapists is to consider all the needs of the patient; physical, psychological, social, and environmental. This support can make a real difference by giving people a renewed sense of purpose and changing the way they feel about the future. An OT\u2019s skills lend themselves to new emerging roles such as working with asylum seekers and refugees, working alongside police or firefighters, or liaising with psychiatric services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"row\"  id=\"row-1605041207\">\n\n\t<div id=\"col-1982334334\" class=\"col small-12 large-12\"  >\n\t\t<div class=\"col-inner text-center\"  >\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t<div class=\"img has-hover x md-x lg-x y md-y lg-y\" id=\"image_1571602873\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"img-inner dark\" >\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\" src=\"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Copy-of-DSC_6465-1-1024x684-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Copy-of-DSC_6465-1-1024x684-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Copy-of-DSC_6465-1-1024x684-1-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<style>\n#image_1571602873 {\n  width: 64%;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #008080;\">The areas of Occupational Therapist work<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #008080;\">Children and youth<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Occupational therapy can help babies, infants, children to grow, learn, have fun, socialize, and play, so they can develop, thrive, and reach their full potential. Occupational therapy allows people to participate in daily life to improve their health and well-being. The daily life or children can include taking care of themselves (getting ready to go out, eating, or using the bathroom), being productive (getting to day care or school, or volunteering), and leisure (playing with friends, and doing hobbies).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #008080;\">People with physical disabilities<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Occupational therapy can help people with a physical disability, including amputees, to perform daily activities and do their hobbies. The main focus of Occupational Therapists working with people with disabilities;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enabling patients to functional at optimal level and overcome any challenges.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How activities the patient needs or wants to do can be modified or adapted to suit them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How patients feel about themselves and their ability to tackle obstacles.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How physical or social environments can be altered to reduce restrictions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #008080;\">People with learning disabilities<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Occupational Therapists support people with all kinds of learning disabilities to help them continue building their skills for life, work, and leisure activities as independently as possible. The main focus of Occupational Therapists working with people with learning disabilities;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Work with individual, families, and support workers, so they understand the importance of participating in daily activities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Help people with learning disabilities to participate in activities at home, such as cooking.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Help people live independently.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Encourage the use of public transportation, so people with learning disabilities can access community facilities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support people to join volunteer work or employment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support people to develop their parenting skills.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #008080;\">People with mental health difficulties<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Occupational Therapists help people develop a personally satisfying routine of daily activities that creates a sense of purpose and enhances a person&#8217;s recovery journey. The main focus of Occupational Therapists working with people with mental health difficulties;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Help people improve their self-care, for example by supporting them to learn how to use washing machines or how to cook for themselves.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Help people manage their money by learning about budgeting and banking.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support people to live independently by providing systems to help deal with, for example, mail and bills or dealing with neighbors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Work with people to identify and improve job skills, apply for jobs, and stay in employment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Help people access and use regular leisure activities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provide advice on how much assistance a person may need to live independently long-term.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #008080;\">Elderly people<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Occupational Therapists can help older people continue to do daily activities that maintain their health and well-being and are important to them. An Occupational Therapist can support social opportunities:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understanding the difficulties and working with the older person to find ways to have more social contact.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Develop strategies to increase a person&#8217;s confidence when meeting other people.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recommending equipment, such as a walking aid, so that the person feels safe when they go out.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Occupational Therapist (OT) is a healthcare professional who carries out assessments and intervenes to develop, recover, and maintain daily activities. Occupational therapists take a \u201cholistic approach\u201d to include both the mental and physical wellness of the patient to enable that person to reach their full potential.\u00a0 Occupational therapists provide practical support and solutions to [&#8230;]\n","protected":false},"author":52647,"featured_media":45971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538,714],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52647"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40996"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46006,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40996\/revisions\/46006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmamedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}