Occupations are intrinsic to human health and well-being. There are many factors that play a role in how, where, and why people engage in occupations. The occupations people engage in often emerge from environmental opportunities, cultures, and are ultimately shaped by the context in which they occur (Thompson & Kent, 2014). Environments can shape occupational participation and help provide appropriate services for clients to promote occupational performance. There is a direct correlation between a person and the environment (Beagan, 2015). The way a person’s life intertwines with the dimensions of culture and environment can be positive or negative, due to barriers or opportunities they are afforded. Occupational therapists work with people to address these barriers and help people overcome or adapt. This paper will discuss the importance of the interrelationship between the context, environment, and culture in terms of how these components affect a person’s occupations. It will also highlight how occupational therapy helps encourage occupational performance within these dimensions to promote quality of life and health in clients. It is first important to define context, environment, and culture in order to relate them to their impact on occupations. Context is defined as the situational factors that influence what people do or how they behave (Christiansen & Townsend, 2010). Human occupations are directly affected by the context in which they occur (Thompson & Kent, 2014). Environment refers to the particular physical, social, cultural, and built features within a person’s life that can affect their motivation or performance (Rigby, Trentham & Letts, 2013). The environment can either directly or indirectly, facilitate or hinder occupational choice and performance. Culture is difficult to specifically delineate, as it encompasses many factors and is based on a person’s individual behaviors that are constantly changing based on new experiences, which can transpire in a group or on an individual level (Farias & Asaba, 2013). Culture embraces shared ideas, beliefs, meanings, values, knowledge, and customs that can arise over a period of time (Beagan, 2015). Culture therefore ultimately shapes human behavior and the environment (Chavis, 2012). Culture can have a positive impact on occupational performance as well as a negative impact, thus resulting in the disenfranchisement of individuals. Culture is constantly adapting and emerging through the actions of individuals (Beagan, 2015). Culture emergent means that new behaviors, beliefs, and values emerge as individuals acquire new information and gain experience throughout their life (Beagan, 2015). A person’s culture and identity can be negotiated and redefined through occupations in the context of a new environment as a result of international migration (Farias & Asaba, 2013). Each member of the Chilean-Swedish family discovered different meanings from being in the new environment, which in turn impacted their occupational identities and performance. Pedro was never interested in cooking before, but after moving to Sweden, he learned how to integrate Swedish and Chilean traditional flavors, which he shared with his family during Sunday meals (Farias & Asaba, 2013). The activities and interactions that took place during the lunch directly impacted the ongoing configuration of the family’s identity through occupations enacted within specific contexts. The Sunday lunch activities are, “literally, temporally, spatially, and culturally localized and they take place in context” (Farias & Asaba, 2013). Elena on the other hand, experienced marginalization and struggled to maintain a sense of identity, oftentimes as a result of cultural clashes with Swedish parents. This was typically because of a mutual lack of knowledge of social norms,
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Virtual reality technologies have become increasingly prevalent in occupational therapy practice because of its ability to create “seemingly real” environments that provide patients with opportunities to engage in meaningful, purposeful occupations (Weiss, Naveh & Katz, 2003). The virtual environment gave individuals with unilateral spatial neglect, true-to-life situations when crossing the street that would otherwise be inaccessible to them because of their motor limitations (Weiss, Naveh & Katz, 2003). The ability to grade task difficulty, change the virtual environment, and modify it based on the individual’s capabilities are only some of important benefits of virtual environments (Weiss, Naveh & Katz, 2003). The benefits of virtual environments are only beginning to be studied, but it is clear that it has enormous growth potential in the field of health
Virtual reality technologies have become increasingly prevalent in occupational therapy practice because of its ability to create “seemingly real” environments that provide patients with opportunities to engage in meaningful, purposeful occupations (Weiss, Naveh & Katz, 2003). The virtual environment gave individuals with unilateral spatial neglect, true-to-life situations when crossing the street that would otherwise be inaccessible to them because of their motor limitations (Weiss, Naveh & Katz, 2003). The ability to grade task difficulty, change the virtual environment, and modify it based on the individual’s capabilities are only some of important benefits of virtual environments (Weiss, Naveh & Katz, 2003). The benefits of virtual environments are only beginning to be studied, but it is clear that it has enormous growth potential in the field of health