Relationship Between Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy

Question 1

Occupation is..
1. Adressed…
2. Central…
3. Defined…

Answer 1

• Addressed peripherally (or implicitly) in many fields
• Central to occupational science and occupational therapy
• Defined differently (compared with social sciences or government statistics)

Question 2

Occupational Therapy: Background?

Answer 2

• Roots in the 19th century
• Modern OT founded in US in 1917
• Influenced by reductionist view of medical profession
• Reengagement with occupation as central focus
  
  • After the military
• Current tension between philosophy and practice of OT
  
  • Less narrow focus seeking more than the medical model, looking beyond just the person seeing structural barriers

Question 3

Core assumptions of current paradigm of Occupational Therapy?

Answer 3

• Humans have an occupational nature
• Humans may experience occupational dysfunction
  
  • Missing the means, physical ability, or mental
  • Idiosyncratic occupations = unique that happens one time (raising children) and more tasks you’ll do throughout your life (cooking)
• Occupation can be used as a therapeutic agent

Question 4

Occupational Therapy
OT as defined by the WFOT International Advisory Group

Answer 4

“[…] a profession concerned with promoting health and well-being though occupation. The primary goal of occupational therapy is to assist people to participate in the activities of everyday life.”
- Excluding Idiosyncratic occupations
- More than a health profession

Question 5

Occupational Therapy: Practice
- Practice has an occupation-based approach

Answer 5

• Collaborative-relational approach
  
  • Shared design-making between the client and the therapist
    
    • Example, a client goal is to smoke again after burning his hands -> Should I be enabling this unhealthily occupation? It is a conversation and negation between the therapist and the client
  • Working between different sectors
  • Moved away from a client centred practice to a collaborative approach -> acknowledging structural barriers
  • Expanding beyond just the client and rehabilitation’s more towards meeting a broader group’s needs

Question 6

Person-Environment-Occupation Model?

Answer 6

• Person
  
  • Intrinsic factors, scriptural, motivations, interests, abilities etc.
• Environment
  
  • Physical environment, social space, institutional space, political-, cultural- (norms etc)
• Occupation
  
  • Activities or tasks that people do to manage themselves in a daily life, to find meaning and purposed, patterned by completely (micro level and micro level), responsibilities that we have

Venndiagram
Sometimes one aspect can be completely separate from the other -> try to bring them closer together.
You can change the person, occupation, or environment

Question 7

Key stages of occupational therapy practice?

Answer 7

1. Assessment
   
   • A structured report
   • A conversation
2. Therapeutic planning
   
   • Start building the relationship
3. Implementation and evaluation
   
   • The outcome

Question 8

Two Approaches to OT + the middle way?

Answer 8

Improve/maintain clients capacities & capabilities
- Improvements in capacities and abilities likely

Modify occupation and/or environment(s)
- Improvements in capacities and abilities not likely

Middle way, it is a spectrum
- Some improvements in capacities and abilities likely, but probable residual effects

Question 9

Practice Areas of Occupational Therapists?

Answer 9

• School
  
  • Leaning disabilities, physical disabilities, or other challenges, provide extra support. Provide guidance, follow up on the implementation
• Mental health
  
  • Neurodivergence, mental illness. Mental health and physical health are connected
• Acute
  
  • Hospital, post-surgery education, only seeing their client once, a lot of assessments -> discharge planning
• Rehabilitation
  
  • Typical 3 step basic evalutaion
• Community
  
  • Advocacy
• Private
• Work
  
  • Centre for Accessibility

Question 10

Scholarly Practice of OT:s?

Answer 10

“As a Scholarly Practitioners, occupational therapists routinely evaluate their work from multiple perspectives and demonstrate a lifelong commitment to evidence based practice, encompassing reflective learning, critical appraisal of practice, and quality improvement.”

Question 11

Occupational Science: Background?

Answer 11

• Normally recognised as discipline in late 1980s
• Began as doctoral program at USC
• Viewed the science of occupation as a field of study
• Conceptualised as separate from OT
• Basic ‘vs.’ Applied science

Question 12

Being an occupational being means that we have a need to engage in occupation in order to thrive. Occupation occur in a particular context, in a time and space. Example?

Answer 12

A spinal cord injury in your mid twenties disturbs the timeline of future occupations

Question 13

Occupational Science?

1. Provides…
2. Declares…
3. Articulates
4. Sharpens…

Answer 13

• Provides the essential foundational knowledge for occupational therapy
• Declares a unique professional perspective
• Articulates an occupational framework for research and evidence-based practice
• Sharpens practitioners’ occupational lens on clients and society

Question 14

Making Occupation Central?

Answer 14

• Expands thinking beyond a biopyschosocial to an occupational perspective
• Expands practice beyond the therapeutic use of activity to enabling occupation

Question 15

Expanding thinking about occupation
- Biopsychosocial moving towards Occupational?

Answer 15

• Biopsychosocial
  
  • Impairment and disability
  • Reducing individuals to their components: biological, psychological, social

Moving towards
- Occupational
- Occupation and participation focused
- Assess and address occupational performance and occupational justice

Question 16

Flow State
Csikszentmihalyi (1975) underscores the importance of flow?

Answer 16

• ‘Just right’ challenge, balance between person and environment
• Balance of person and environment (need to have the skills and the setting)
• Experience of occupation is beyond observed behaviour, the experience behind cooking can be very different (stressful/enjoyable creativity)

Question 17

Occupational Science Research
- Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies
Some examples?

Answer 17

• Experiential elements of occupation, how are people experiencing occupation
• Connections between occupation and identity, “So what do you do?”
• Occupation is situated in time, lifespan app round to minute- to- minute
• Occupation is related to health and well-being, occupational deprivation is detrimental to one’s health

Question 18

What is Occupational Science in Canada?

Answer 18

• Academic society founded and growing (CSOS)
• Developing within universities
• First graduate program at Wester
• Some OT programs expanding OS content
• Some OT Schools and departments even renaming programs

Question 19

Based on the readings and class?

Answer 19

• What triggered the ‘turn’ in occupational science?
  “… recognition of an urgent need… characterised by growing inequalities and increasing individualisation of social issues…”
• One concern is dualistic thing in occupational science and occupational therapy. What does that mean?
  Separation of basic and applied science and seeing them as absolutes rather than acknowledging the tensions as the possibilities for integration and overlap
• Hoe does ‘questioning the status quo’ play a role in occupational science research?
  Moving “beyond socially sanctioned occupations within dominant social groups” and being critical of the dominant narratives embedded in our society

Question 20

Non-sanctioned occupation examples?

Answer 20

• SEX-work
• Drug use
• Tagging

Question 21

Relationship between OS and OT?

Answer 21

• Under development and in negotiation
• Closely related
• Each share ‘occupation’ as a central construct