Uniting Practice and Theory in an Occupational Framework

Abstract

The term occupation conveys the powerful essence of our profession--enabling people to seize, take possession of, or occupy the spaces, time, and roles of their lives. Occupation is activity that is both purposeful and meaningful to the person who engages in it. Our uniqueness lies in our use of occupation as a therapeutic agent, but our unique focus on occupation is not always apparent in practice. Four global groups of activities that occupational therapy practitioners use in practice are described--exercise, contrived occupation, therapeutic occupation, and adaptive occupation. Therapeutic occupation and adaptive occupation are proposed as the legitimate activities of occupational therapy. The Occupational Therapy Intervention Process Model is then presented. This model stresses a top-down approach to evaluation and provides a framework for implementing adaptive occupation for purposes of compensation as well as therapeutic occupation for purposes of remediation.

Interprofessional Learning Through Shadowing in Rehabilitations Department: A Qualitative Study of the Student´s Placement in Hospital Setting

“…One of the occupational therapist's responsibilities is to design the physical environment in residential properties and public buildings with a view to safeguarding the patients' safety and participation (Regjeringen.no, 2005), in other words, they facilitate the patients' activities. The occupational therapist's function is to enable patients to look after themselves and to be self-sufficient, says Fisher (1998).…”

Optimal Positioning of Occupational Therapy

“…Is it always the case that remediation of performance components is incongruent with occupational performance? Perhaps what is meant here is the outcome that is the focus of the intervention (Fisher, 1998). If the success of the intervention is grounded in the performance component itself, then it is not proximal to occupation.…”

Introduction to Occupation‐Centred Practice with Children

“…This occurred in response to critical refl ection by a number of occupational therapy theorists and researchers (e.g. Clark, 1993;Fisher, 1998;Kielhofner, 2007;Molineux, 2004;Pierce, 2001;Yerxa, 1998). This has led to the reclamation of occupation as the defi ning feature of our profession and practice focused on occupation, its meaning for individuals, its importance for health and well-being (Kielhofner, 2007;Molineux, 2001;Wilcock, 1998) and the importance of an individual's occupational identity as a way of defi ning self within relevant social and cultural contexts (Christiansen, 1999).…”