Occupational Therapy: the misunderstood profession.
You see an occupational therapist playing a game with a child…what you don’t see is that the therapist is encouraging the child to improve their fine motor, social interaction, and visual motor integration skills via the game. These skills are essential for success in school and self-care performance.
You see an OT assist a stroke survivor to get dressed… what you don’t see is the one-handed technique that was taught to the client as well as the positional changes the OT facilitated in order to compensate for the client’s hemiplegic arm. With the skills the client has learned by working with this OT, this person no longer relies on their caregiver to get dressed for work in the morning.
You see an OT working with a client that is painting on a canvas… what you don’t see is that the client is recovering from a radial nerve injury and is painting on a canvas (especially in an elevated, vertical position) to facilitate active wrist extension against gravity in order to improve functional use of the hand in other daily activities.
As you can see from these scenarios, occupational therapists put the FUN in FUNCTION. However, that “FUN” makes our distinct value as a healthcare profession a little more difficult to be distinguished by other disciplines.
This is precisely why EDUCATION and ADVOCACY are so important to address daily in practice. It is only through these efforts that we may prevent misunderstandings
#YouSee Campaign
If you are an occupational therapist, I challenge YOU to passionately and frequently address these two important missions
- educating others about the profession as well as
- ADVOCATE for the need for our services
You can start by continuing my campaign to educate others about OT by using the hashtag #YouSee to share your own personal scenario similar to the ones I have listed above.
And for my friends in other professions, thank you so much for reading this. I hope that through this short post, I have accomplished my mission on shedding some light on the true value of occupational therapy & our common goal in returning our clients to their most meaningful life. After all….
“La Vida es Unica, hay que vivirla.” (There’s only one life, you must live it!)
-Michelle DeJesus, OTR/L.
*featured photo retrieved from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/physical_medicine_rehabilitation/_downloads/ot-mental-health-fellowship.pdf
Hi!!
I just wanted to know your thoughts on a masters vs an OTD program. Is it even worth it? Thanks so much in advance
It depends on your goals in terms of the profession. For me, I wanted to graduate with the least amount of debt and I wanted to pursue clinical practice as opposed to research or becoming a professor which led me to pursue a Master’s. I also aspire to open a business which a Master’s degree allows me to do.
So ultimately, it is a personal decision but in a few years, the OTD will be mandatory for incoming students. (those with a master’s will be grandfathered in).
Plus, if I want to go back for my doctorates degree, I can!