School of Occupational Therapy
Faculty of Health Sciences
La Trobe University
Victoria 3086
Australia
Ph: +61 3 9479 5815
Fax: +61 3 9479 5737
email
OT Reception
Level 2
Health Sciences 2
Bundoora Campus
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Occupational
Therapy
About
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy has grown out of the need to understand the relationship between what a person does, that is their occupations, and their health and well-being. The School offers quality undergraduate and postgraduate courses and undertake research and consultancies, and community service activities in related fields. Occupational therapy addresses people's occupational needs and the loss of daily living skills that follow physical, emotional, psychological and social disorders. Occupational therapists assist individuals to make the transition from dependence to independence, maximising personal productivity, wellbeing and quality of life.
Broadly the goal of occupational therapy is
to habilitate and rehabilitate people who have difficulties managing their
daily activities. Historically,
occupational therapy developed to complement medical forms of treatment.
Today occupational therapy is both a profession
and a growing discipline (knowledge domain). Internationally the profession
is known as occupational therapy. The science related to the profession
is named in different ways depending on its direction, for example, occupational
science, or occupational therapy science. What they have in common is
that they study "the nature of occupation and therapeutic applications
of occupation to health care" (Yerxa, 1994).
The discipline of occupational therapy
The discipline of occupational therapy
can be defined as the science of human activity (occupation). Occupation
includes: daily living activities, personal care, work, education, rest,
leisure and play within specific environmental and cultural contexts.
The discipline of occupational therapy includes knowledge about, and study
of, human being's capacity to use their time with meaning and/or purpose
in their physical and social environment. Under normal circumstances,
humans strive to reach their potential and have control over their own
life within their physical and social context. This is not possible when
the person experiences disease, trauma, functional deterioration and/or
is placed in an environment which promotes disability or handicap.
The discipline of occupational therapy aims
to develop the art and science (or knowledge) about the way:
- Occupations influence human existence and
development.
- Occupations
influence health and prevent deterioration of health.
- Occupations
can be used therapeutically.
- Individual,
societal and political systems influence occupations.
- Environment
and culture influence occupations.
The practice of occupational therapy
Occupational therapy as a profession is
built upon the assumption that in order to maintain health, humans need
to be active; they need to manage daily life activities, and be able to
do what they want, and what they have to do. Taking into consideration
the individual's total context, occupational therapists use the usual
daily occupations which people perform in a therapeutic way to promote
health and well being.
The practice of occupational therapy is concerned with facilitating people
in performing their daily living activities, and in overcoming barriers.
The practice includes evaluation, intervention, consultation, supervision
and education in order to prevent health-related problems, and facilitate
habilitation or rehabilitation. Occupational therapy practice aims to:
- Promote
occupational health and well being.
- Prevent
decline of abilities in the performance of occupations.
- Maintain
or improve abilities in the performance of occupations.
- Compensate
for decreased ability in the performance of occupations.
Research in occupational therapy
Occupational therapy research draws upon
the sciences of, for example, occupation, medicine, sociology, pedagogy,
psychology, technology and anthropology. Occupational therapy research
areas include:
- Evaluation
and assessment instruments.
- Intervention
and treatment methods.
- The
relationships between occupation, health and ill health.
- The
environmental factors that impact on human abilities.
- The
relationships between humans, technology and society.
- The
meanings associated with the creative aspects of occupations, and the
contribution of this to health.
- The
concept of, and theory development related to human engagement in occupations.
- Human
engagement in meaningful, purposeful and self initiated occupations.
- Human
occupations across the life span and among different cultures.
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