Occupational Therapy Case Study

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Basic Concepts of Occupational Therapy When asked what is meant by “occupation”, people will often think of “work” or even a “job” that is done by a person. An occupation has multiple dimensions. It includes anything from abilities to skills and tools. Occupations are usually goal directed or purposeful (Pierce, 2001). In occupational therapy, “occupation” is looked at through a different lens. Occupation can be looked at in many different contexts and Nelson (1998) describes occupation as, “The relationship between occupational form and occupational performance.” He also describes related terms such as meaning, purpose, developmental structure, impact and adaptation (Nelson, 1998). Occupation encompasses all aspects of life. Occupations are…show more content…
Meaning is an active construction, it’s not passive. Meaning also depends on occupational form as well as occupational performance (Nelson, 1998). I heard what my coach was saying to me and I interpreted in the best way that I could. I followed her instructions. I knew that she believed that I could do it and that was what motivated me to go through the exercises. Some of the exercises that we did were hard, not because I could not do them but rather because I had not done them in a while. They were also hard because my knee was not used to all the exercises. I was working towards building up my muscle memory inn my right leg again. I knew what netball meant to me as a sport and that really helped to motivate me through the challenging exercises. Purpose Purpose is the experience of wanting an outcome from an expected voluntary doing. Purpose refers to the desire to do something about a situation. Purpose is derived from meaning. When something has an importance to you, you develop a reason to do…show more content…
She also knew before time the kind of injury that I had sustained and so planned the session according to that. I would also tell her how my knee was feeling every now and then. Occupational adaptation is a therapeutic goal (Chrisriansen, 1994). The therapist helps the patient to set up a path that will lead them towards self-change. Adaptation in my example was the restoration of the ability to play netball. I was also able to restore the trust that I had in my knee. Often times, you find that after an athlete has sustained an injury, they always worry about hurting themselves again and that compromises their entire performance. Therapeutic occupation is the combination of occupational assessment, occupational adaptation and occupational compensation. These three basic processes all depend on the concept of occupational

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