Making daily life easier for people with functional difficulties
"Are you the ones who help people find jobs?"; "My neighbor takes her son to a place where they play with him"; "You're the one who entertains my mother at the nursing home, aren't you?" Occupational therapists have surely heard some of these phrases when asked about our profession. And nothing could be further from the truth.
Occupational therapists are professionals trained to assess, diagnose, identify, prevent, and treat problems related to occupation (self-care, productivity, and leisure) in individuals , families, or groups affected by a health condition that directly interferes with their level of independence. In other words, the role of the occupational therapist is to enable a person with functional difficulties (physical, cognitive, or emotional) to participate in the daily activities that are relevant to their life.
"We just need to prepare ourselves so that we can have our own voice and space."
But what distinguishes an occupational therapist from other professionals? An occupational therapist specializes in the comprehensive analysis of activities, from the cognitive processes that initiate an action (what do I want to do?, how am I going to do it?, what result do I want to achieve?), to the movement of that action (movement pattern). In this way, we can assess what problems exist, what aspects we need to work on to achieve the greatest possible degree of independence, and whether it is necessary to incorporate any support.
The role of the occupational therapist is to enable a person with functional difficulties (physical, cognitive, or emotional) to participate in those daily activities that are relevant to their life.
All this retraining or rehabilitation is based on a core idea—the foundation of occupational therapy—: person-centered care (PCC), that is, what the client wants and what is important to them. Thus, any intervention we undertake is focused on the person's interests , which is also a way to foster a stronger connection with the rehabilitation treatment. For this reason, we carry out not only physical and psychological interventions, but also social ones, with community activities.
Occupational therapy in people with ASD
At the specialized Intellectual Disability Unit of the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu hospital, we have adapted the rehabilitation processes for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other functional diversity, who often experience behavioral disorders. To achieve this, in collaboration with the educational team, we have adapted the TEACCH educational model (a model designed to improve the social, communicative, and behavioral development of children with ASD) to better structure the daily activities of individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Evidence-based treatments for autism spectrum disorders
This daily structure and routine allows individuals with ASD to anticipate upcoming events and mitigates the anxiety that uncertainty about the unknown produces in them. In this way, a space is created (not necessarily a physical one) in which they can better adapt to slight changes , improving their flexibility and adaptability and reducing disruptive behaviors.
From the perspective of occupational therapy, we identify the skills and interests that these individuals already possess, in order to use them as a means to develop the learning of new skills that will improve their execution, planning, and performance skills in other areas of their lives, extrapolating that knowledge to different times and activities.
The importance of the environment of the person being cared for
Occupational therapy recognizes the importance of viewing the individual holistically, as they are constantly influenced by their physical and social environment. Sometimes, a person's autonomy depends not only on their skills and abilities but also on the opportunities to explore them. For example, a building without wheelchair access or with narrow doorways that are impassable; kitchen utensils that are not adapted; and leisure activities that are inflexible for people with disabilities can all contribute to a loss of autonomy.
We are what we do, and when we are denied the "doing" we lose our "being".
In this sense, another function of occupational therapists is to offer individuals, with adaptations when necessary, the opportunity to participate in activities that are important to them and that give them a sense of identity, since, ultimately, we are what we do, and when we are denied the opportunity to "do," we lose our "being." Based on this premise, we work with individuals on aspects that interfere with their daily lives, such as emotional regulation, frustration tolerance, waiting times, fine and gross motor skills, and social skills, and we put this into practice in community activities. In this way, we try to prepare clients to face all their daily tasks with the greatest possible autonomy.
None of this would be possible without the collective work of a multidisciplinary team, made up of different professionals (social integrators, social educators, psychotherapists and occupational therapists), who collaborate and share knowledge to ensure that the people we serve achieve well-being at all levels.
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