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All Things Occupational
OTs understanding occupation is important as a pharmacist understanding chemistry. It's our core business!
What is occupation?
You know more about occupation than you realise. People use occupation as a healing and health promoting tool intuitively because being "occupied" is universal in the human experience. Of course we use a different language to describe it. Simply put however, your occupations include all the things you do to "occupy" your time. Occupation meets many human needs. Some occupations help you survive. Others are important to thrive in a particular environment in a particular role. As such, occupations are as diverse as the people, roles and environments humans live in. Imagine your usual occupations for each of the following categories. How would your occupational performance and wellbeing go if you suddenly moved to Antarctica (presuming you don't already live there!) ?
- Things you do to look after yourself (self care role)
- Things you do to live in the community (community participant role)
- Things you do to invest in relationships (relational role)
- Things you do to be productive (work role)
- Things you do for fun (leisure role)
Because occupations meet so many human needs, occupational problems lead to physical, mental, spiritual and relational ill-health. (As you could imagine from the challenges of meeting needs through your usual occupations in the radically different environment of Antarctica!)
What's so great about occupation anyway?
The concept, and our capacity to be "occupied" in itself is not the issue. It's what occupations we choose to engage in, and how we engage in them, that makes the difference to us as individuals, the environment and the global community.
Occupational repertoires can:
- enable humans to flourish or wither
- build or undermine community
- shape identity or squelch identity
- orchestrate or preclude daily routines
- demonstrate social inclusion or marginalisation
- nurture or corrode spirituality
- sustain or exploit the environment
As a health professional, OTs are interested in occupations that meet human needs and thus create and maintain health and wellbeing.
What about occupation and culture?
Culture impacts upon every aspect of our lives, including what sort of meals we eat, who we live with, how we socialise at work, and what we chat about on the phone. Conseqeuntly, moving to another country with differing values has significant implications upon one's occupation and life roles.
Most migrants experience a continual and long-term process of adaptation in their new environment. Individuals and families have look at what they will keep from the 'old culture' and what will be rejected or taken on from the 'new culture'.
What is occupational deprivation?
Occupational Deprivation is a state whereby an individual or group of people are unable to take part in necessary or meaningful occupations for some time, due to factors that stand outside the immediate control of the individual (Whiteford, 2000).
As a result of socio-political factors, some refugees are removed from their homes and communities, or are unable to participate in work or study due to systematic discrimination. Some remain in refugee camps for long periods of time and are unable to participate in meaningful activities. On arrival to certain countries - such as Australia - asylum seekers may be detained in detention centres. In all these cases refugees experience occupational deprivation.
What is occupational science?
Occupational science is the study of human activity. The academic discipline aims to generate knowledge about how occupation impacts upon the health of people and communities around the world.
Occupational science was founded in 1989 with the intention of providing the Occupational Therapy profession with a scientific base for practise. The Journal of Occupational Science has loads of articles you can explore!
What is occupational therapy?
Occupational therapy (OT) is a global community of professionals trained to analyse occupational problems and tailor occupational opportunities that increase occupational perfomance and wellbeing
Global community: World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) exists to:
- act as the official international organization for the promotion of occupational therapy;
- to promote international cooperation among occupational therapy associations, therapists and other allied professional groups
- advance the practice and standards of occupational therapy
- help maintain the ethics and to advance the interests of the profession
- facilitate the international exchange and placements of therapists and students
- facilitate the exchange of information
- promote the education and training of therapists
- hold international congresses.
In 1959 WFOT was admitted into official relations with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and in 1963 it was recognised as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) by the United Nations (UN).
Professionals: University programs in occupational therapy are accredited by WFOT. OT is a protected title in many countries requiring registration. OTs are are also represented by national and state associations.
Occupational problems: People, families, communities and organisations can experience occupational problems. This is when there is a "mis-match" between the person, occupation and environment variables that interact to determine occupational perfomance and wellbeing.
- Person - strengths, disability, meaning, mastery, goals, education, spirituality etc
- Occupation - the demands on physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and relational resources
- Environment - the context of the occupation in the persons life, physical space, social/ political culture
What is it about occupation that means it can be used therapeutically?
Occupation is deceptively simple. Yet the more occupation is researched and understood, it highlights WHY occupation has been used for healing and health promotion for all the ages.
- Occupation is subjectively experienced
- Occupation is situated in the stream of time
- Engaging in occupation changes the individual
- Engaging in occupation changes the environment
- Engaging in ocupation is an interaction between person, occupation, environment variables
What is occupational justice?
The dialogue of occupational justice has been brewing since 1997, when Anne Wilcock and Elizabeth Townsend met in Australia. Frank Kronenberg and Salvador simo Algado describe similar processes as occupational apartheid.
Occupational injustices occur when participation in daily life occupations is:
- barred (eg women barred from free movement without a family/ male escort are barred from safe community participation once displaced from family networks)
- trapped (eg when survival occupies every moment, there is no time for occupations that build a better future; you are trapped - only existing)
- confined (eg indefinite detention of refugees)
- segregated (eg economic and educational participation due to gender, religion etc )
- prohibited (eg genuine refugees who seek asylum onshore get visas prohibiting economic or voluntary occupation)
- undeveloped (eg child development stunted due to poor exposure to stimulating opportunities and environments)
- disrupted (eg entire generations of children raised in the limbo of a war torn country where schools etc have been closed)
- alienated (eg refugees who can't practice their profession in settlement can be alientated in lower employment due to lost role, status, income, meaning etc)
- exploited (eg unjust trade systems and debt resulting in bonded child labour to redeem a family)
Occupational justice is concerned with the inequal opportunities to "do" as an extension of inequal posessions, services etc to "have". This distinction highlights the difference between occupational and social justice. This is not fussing with semantics, rather pointing out that the diversity of environments and humans mean even equal "having" will still lead to entire communities such as refugees, people with mental health problems etc with lives marked by occupational injustice.
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