Oxfam Personal Statement

Improved Essays
After breaking my arm, a couple of years ago I was restricted in participating in many activities and this made me realise how much of our everyday activities we take for granted. What also came to my attention was how our physical and mental health ,in addition to our social environment, can affect our capability of carrying out daily living activities. For example,personal care, domestic tasks, socialising, and work. From this moment, the physical function of the human body has been an interest of mine. Having always wanted to enter a health profession career, what drew me towards Occupational Therapy was the diversity that the course offered from working in rehabilitation clinics, hospitals and care homes.
I am currently studying Psychology,
…show more content…
This included elderly and children, people with physical and learning disabilities, different nationalities, and gender. Working in an Oxfam charity shop, I was working with partially disabled staff and this was an eye-opening experience as it allowed me to acquire much more knowledge about the difficulties certain sections of our community may face. My experience at Oxfam included responsibilities within the shop floor where I was required to use my initiative if customers had any queries they would come to me for assistance. By dealing with customer complaints, I was interacting in conversations and building relationships with people I had never met before. In addition to this, I also volunteered in a local care home for the elderly with Dementia and Alzheimer disease. Engaging with the elderly residents required a lot of patience due to the communication barrier that was present at times. However, I was resilient and learned how to communicate effectively so that I could build a better rapport with the residents. I was also able to encounter other different professions such as an occupational therapist, physiotherapist, and social workers to see how they all work together therefore I now understand that for treatment to be successful the integration of all the staff Is

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Occupational therapy role with stroke patients This literature review builds on effects or roles of occupational therapy with people who have had stroke. Occupational therapy that involves “use of purposeful activity intended to accomplish functional outcomes which advance wellbeing, avert injury or disability, and support or reestablish the highest possible level of independence play important and essential role with population who have had stroke that is driving reason for serious , hospital admission, and long-term inability in generally populace. The expression “stroke” is not reliably defined in clinical practice, in clinical research, or in assessments of the public health. Person’s activities that have effected by stroke will be…

    • 200 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What am I going to do with my life? What am I going to major in? What do I want to be? Many people ask themselves these questions, especially students who are attending college for the first time. I was one of those students.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Prior to beginning the masters of occupational therapy program it was as if I was an ancient wanderer in the dark ages, eager to learn new ideas and discover new places not sure what the world would throw at me next. Over the next eight years I found myself at a series of personal crossroads one encounters during life’s journey. Not the crossroad where one sells their soul to the devil for some magical power. It was more of one of those forks in the road, a kin to the Robert Frost Poem, where one path leads to life A and the other leads to life B. Crossroads that impacted my future, shaped who I am and my character, influenced life changes, which led to a transition that will influence me and my family for generations to come. I come from…

    • 1592 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oxfam was established in 1994, during World War 2, by a group of non-governmental individuals who form a committee. This committee tried to influence and persuade the government to let them help European countries such as Greece and Belgium with vital supplies and relief to civilians. The following year they had launched their first appeal which was called “Greek Week”, where they raised over £10,700 which was a great achievement, bearing in mind that is was during the war. 5 years later they opened their first shop on Broad Street Oxford, however it wasn’t called Oxfam but the Oxford Committee. In 1951 they responded to their first emergency aid in Bihar, India which was a developing country.…

    • 226 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The objective of this paper is to discuss in detail why Occupational Therapy Assistant is my program of choice. My Program The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) defines Occupational therapy as the “only profession that helps people across the lifespan to do the things they want and need to do…

    • 1307 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It examines the whole person rather than focusing on one specific issue and it addresses the vital importance of psychological and emotional well being as well as using varied therapeutic interventions to help physical needs. My future career goals are to contribute to the occupational therapy world as much as possible. I would like to follow in the footsteps of occupational therapy founders and innovators by continuing to complete research and contributing innovations as they have done for the profession. I am pursing this Master’s degree to be exposed to many facets of occupational therapy, and to be able to grow into the best professional I can be. I aspire to be a key contributor to the future and evolution of occupational…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Occupational therapy theories, model of practice and framework form the foundation on how practitioners build and shape clinical knowledge to help their clients. The most common occupational therapy theoretical models that I use in my practice setting are biomechanical, cognitive disability, motor control model, Person-Environment-Occupation model and neurodevelopmental model. In few instances, I have used functional group model. Over the years, our profession has seen a paradigm shift from medical model to client-centered approach.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Occupational Therapy Practice in Hospital-based Stroke Rehabilitation? I chose this article because I am very interested in learning more about the rehabilitation process and how effective that process is for stroke victims. Also, I find the topic in this specific article interesting because it focuses on explaining the impact rehab can have on a person while in the hospital immediately following his or her stroke. This article, like the other articles I chose, focus on how Occupational Therapy can help improve the activities of daily living (ADL) after someone suffered from a stroke. In contrast to the other articles, this article explains some difficulties that occupational therapists (OT) can face while working in the hospital setting,…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Introduction: The Model of Human Occupation is a commonly used model in occupational therapy practice. This model will be the focus of the paper and was chosen because it is a large aspect of occupational therapy. Although I have learned about this model in different classes, I wanted to learn more about it on my own to further understand about the use of it in practice. This being said, I chose a quantitative research article on MOHO.…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (A) Assessment: In initial evaluation, client presents with deficits in ROM and strength in shoulder, wrist, neck, and hips causing a decrease in performance of client’s ADLs such as dressing, bathing, fixing hair, toileting and clients IADLs of cooking and driving. Pt. would benefit from skilled occupational therapy intervention focusing on education on ergonomics and adaptation of environment to facilitate a return to ADL performances listed above. (P) Plan: Patient will participate in skilled occupational therapy services, two 30 minute sessions per week for 4 weeks, focusing on adaptation of environment by providing client with education on assistive devices for cooking such as wall-mounted jar opener, two handled pans vs. one handle…

    • 212 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I also worked with teachers in the planning and delivery of lessons. More recently, I have worked at the Swanswell Centre, an alcohol and drug charity that helps people rehabilitate and find inner happiness. This enabled me to work with people of all ages in and attempt to help steer them towards lifestyles that are less destructive and detrimental to themselves and others. As part of this work, I liaised with professionals such as social workers. I prevented cross infection through hand washing and using personal protective equipment.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As an occupational therapy graduate student, I had already decided, working with seniors was not for me. I wanted to work with exciting clients, in an exhilarating envrioment; not in a nursing facility. However, as I had just learned, I would I would be stuck there for the next six weeks observing and assisting an occupational therapist. On my first day, I slowly pulled into the parking lot. “Well here I am,” I thought as I got out of the car, “it’s only six weeks, I can do this.”…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    This realisation showed me the versatility of the roles of an occupational therapist within any work environment which in turn makes occupational therapists important within many industries and not just within the health sector. After defining occupational therapy and identifying the roles of an occupational therapist we began exploring the different aspects within the definition of occupational therapy by defining the client centred approach and discussing the importance of occupations in a person’s daily…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The “Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process” (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2014) stresses the importance of how occupation, performance patterns and skills, and contexts influence a client’s occupational performance. One of the biggest occupational performances that is hindered is the occupation of activities of daily living (ADL). ADLs may be affected because of balance problems, fatigue, or muscle impairments, so bathing, dressing, and functional mobility may be impacted (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2014). Work is another occupation that will be highly affected because clients cannot return to work until they are cleared by a doctor and job performances may be declined. Leisure, social participation, sleep, and instrumental activities of daily living are also affected to some degree (Powell et al., 2016).…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    A volunteer experiencing an acute disability was interviewed on their experience with their injury in order to gain insight on their past and present occupations and occupational roles. This information was then used to construct an occupational profile of the volunteer. A follow up appointment was organized the following week and the volunteer observed as they performed a task.…

    • 59 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays