Occupational Therapy Settings: My Interests

     My first exposure to the field of occupational therapy was in a pediatric setting which led to my interest in becoming an occupational therapist. My younger cousin was diagnosed with polymicrogyria and as a result attended many forms of therapy including occupational therapy. I got to attend some of his sessions, which were in an outpatient clinic and would be classified as a private for profit agency where the funding comes from private investors. I loved getting to see him interact and learn through simple tasks and games that he had fun doing. From there I did more research and realized that being an occupational therapist that specializes in pediatrics was a perfect fit for my interests. I had the opportunity to shadow an occupational therapist at my cousin's school, which would be a public agency and founded by the government. There the main focus was on handwriting and it was with the whole class and so there was little individualized attention due to limitations of the OT's time. As of now I am pretty confident I want to work in pediatrics, however this could change throughout my time as a MOT student.

Era Presentations: My Takeaway

     After listening to different groups present on the individual decades spanning the 1940s-2010s I learned a lot about how great of an impact the outside world has on a field such as occupational therapy. Much of the current OT profession revolves around helping a client with their activities of daily living; I learned this focus came about in the 1950s when Sidney Katz developed the index of independence in activities of daily living. This index, commonly known as the Katz ADL, was the first assessment created for measuring a persons ability to complete activities to live independently, which now serves as a guiding principle for our field.
  One occupation that evolved and continues to evolve is dancing. The style of dance has changed to match the changing trends in music. In the 1940s big bands were the popular music which coincided with swing dancing which was used for leisure and entertainment. In the 1980s there was still dancing for leisure due to MTV, however the style of dance had drastically changed to match the new music styles. There was also a shift to dance based exercise with the fitness craze that occurred in the 1980s.
  I was shocked to hear that in the 1940s an 18 month occupational therapy course was packed into a 2 week course to meet the demands of Occupational Therapists during the war. I also thought it was kinda cool to see learn that USC was the first school to create an Occupational Therapy Masters program in the 1960s, since USC is both of my parents alma mater. In learning about the 1990s I found it interesting that OTs were already integrating computers and technology into their therapy modalities since I always viewed technology as an intervention as more recent and more of a novel concept. I loved seeing how much the profession of Occupational Therapy changed from decade to decade based on what was going on. Occupational therapy serves to meet the needs of the client, looking at what was going on during the decades, it is easier to see how the needs of the client changed and therefore the demands of an Occupational Therapist. This helped highlight the need for individualized approaches based on what the client wants or needs to be able to accomplish. The bottom line is Occupational Therapy is an ever evolving profession.