Skip to main content

Occupation: More than just a job

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the OTPF?

The OTPF stands for Occupational Therapy Practice Framework. It is composed of ideas, concepts, and philosophies that guide OT. It addresses domain of OT, the OT process, occupations, and client factors. The domain of OT is the areas in which OT's have a great wealth of knowledge and expertise.  This is what defines the focus of OT. Client factors, performance skills, performance patterns, context, environment, and activity demand are all under the domain of OT practice. Each part of the domain brings a different part of occupational therapy to the table.  The OT process is the actions that a practitioner takes when providing services that are client-centered and focused on engagement in occupation. This is what defines the delivery of OT. Throughout the process, occupation remains central. There is also collaboration with the client throughout the process.  Occupations are ordinary, part of daily living, and are often taken for granted. They can be special when the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Expanding on Theory

The Neuro-Developmental Treatment Frame of Reference is a theory that is used to analyze and treat posture and movement impairments based on kinesiology, the study of human movement, and biomechanics, the study of forces and mechanical laws and their effects on movement in living organisms. It takes into account planes of movement, alignment, range of motion (the degrees of movement that a client has), muscle strength, base of support, postural control, weight shifts, and mobility when making a plan for intervention. The goal is to get the client to engage in meaningful occupations, which is done through assuming that posture and movement impairments are able to be changed. This theory can be used with children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. According to this theory, to be functional means that the client would be able to engage in meaningful occupations. An occupational therapist would look at upper extremity movement, specifically: reaching, grasping, releasing objects, self ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do's and Don'ts of Presenting

Presenting in front of any number of people is something I find extremely intimidating and very anxiety provoking. I do just about e verything I can to avoid talking to more than 4 people at a time. My senior year of college I took an online public speaking class to avoid speaking in public to a random group of people. As a result, I continue to struggle with presenting and unfortunately, online public speaking isn't an option in grad school. One of the topics we cover in our Leadership II class is how to best present yourself during speeches, projects or interviews. A resource we were given was titled "6 Ways to Look More Confident During a Presentation". I was intrigued. As I read the article my eyes were opened to just how much your body language impacts what you say. The article talks about how a group of people skilled in reading body language went to a tech entrepreneur competition and watched contestants body language and how it correlated to the scores they rec...
1 comment
Read more