mOTivation with mikayla

Outside of gross anatomy, we are learning about leadership and, specifically, how to think like occupational therapists. We are learning how to use the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF) to guide our thought process to assess and treat clients. As practicing practitioners, we will look at individuals with a Top- Down approach, meaning we will look at them by their roles, goals, and occupations before their disabilities or restrictions. Beginning with an initial interview, we will converse with the client about their “client factors”, which include their values, beliefs, and spirituality, as well as their body functions and structures. By knowing this information, you allow the client to unknowingly guide their plan for treatment. We do this because there is substantial evidence supporting occupation- based functional activity. The client’s are more intrinsically motivated to engage in the activities that they said are important and worthwhile to them. Along with client fact...

I tend to be more partial to the pediatric setting only because my nephew is who inspired me to pursue occupational therapy in the first place. He spent a lot of his early development getting rehab services after suffering from a TBI at four months old. I remember watching my nephew fall behind developmentally and then be brought back up to speed and thinking "I have got to figure out what those therapists did!" While this definitely impacted my perspective on occupational therapy, I have always had a fascination with how individuals develop and what biological and environmental factors influence physical, mental, and social growth during development! Some of my favorite experiences were made while shadowing in the school system and outpatient pediatric clinics. While both settings were high energy and worked with the same aged population, they worked on different skill sets. In the school system, which is a public agency funded by the government, they were limited in the amo...

We looked at occupational therapy decade by decade and saw some substantial changes in the field along with other general aspects of life! If I have learned one thing about occupational therapy, it's that those in the field and the field itself are extremely adaptive and this was verified once more during these presentations. Starting in the 1940's there was a serious need for occupational therapists. There were more men returning from World War II than there were therapists to rehabilitate them. The eighteen months that it currently took to become a therapist was deemed too long for the number of therapists needed, so the War Emergency Courses of 1943 condensed this program into two weeks! I cannot imagine being a practicing therapist after two weeks, but the need was there and so were occupational therapists! One thing that really stuck out to me was how far education has come for individuals with disabilities. While racial discrimination and segregation were major issues i...