If you were to ask random people how they would define occupation a vast majority of the responses would be job or employment. While that is one definition of occupation, occupational therapists use another definition. Introduction to Occupational Therapy by Jane Clifford O'Brien defines occupation as "Activity in which one engages that is meaningful and central to one's identity." Today in class, we learned about decades from the 30's to modern day. We learned about the society, politics, big events, education, healthcare, occupational therapy, work, and leisure. With each presentation it was interesting to see how each topic of the presentation changed, specifically occupations, the OT definition. One occupation that changed throughout the time periods was the role of women. With the start of World War II, women went from keeping the house and children together to working and keeping the house and children together. After soldiers returned home from war, women were forced to return to the home. The Civil Rights Movement sparked the call for equality for all and gave women an opportunity to voice their opinions about wanting role outside of the home. Fast forward to present day and we have women who are the CEO's of major companies, such as IBM, Pepsi, General Motors and many more. Some women found that an activity that they engaged in, found meaningful, and was central to their identity, after having a job outside of the home, had changed. In other words, their occupation had changed and so had their view of where they fit into society.
Growing up in the South, sex was a topic that was not talked about a lot and when it was it was done in a very "hush hush" way. I went to a public school in Alabama so sex ed class was very similar to the sex ed scene in Mean Girls. Thankfully I had parents and health care providers who were open to talking about such a taboo topic. Fast forward to OT school. One of the first things we discussed was activities of daily living (ADLs) and meaningful occupations. We talked about how this could vary from person to person and the range of activities it could include, one of which being sex. For some, sex is a meaningful occupation. This would make it fall within the OT scope of practice. This past week in our older adult class we had a certified sex therapist come talk to us about how our two disciplines can work together. It was a time of learning for both the speaker and my class. During this lecture we discussed various interventions. For a couple we learned that OT can h...
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