What Does an Occupational Therapist Do?
An occupational therapist is a health care professional who helps their clients overcome activity and occupation barriers. Occupational therapists work with different kinds of clients in different settings.
The Typical Occupational Therapist
Most occupational therapists work for health care organizations, such as hospitals or physician offices. Their primary job is to help acutely ill or injured patients recover and improve basic life skills. They do this through observations, interviews and patient history reviews. They develop personalized treatment plans for their patients. Many occupational therapists specialize in certain fields and only work with certain patients, such as those injured at work or those recovering from cancer. In fact, occupational therapists who specialize in work injuries work closely with employers, insurance companies and workers’ compensation agencies. They often advocate for injured workers when their unscrupulous employers attempt to make them return to work early. …show more content…
For example, developmental occupational therapists provide early intervention therapy to infants and toddlers who are developmentally delayed. The goal of planned interventions is to create lifelong development plans with measurable goals. However, sometimes adults with mental health problems are diagnosed late in life. These individuals will need assistance learning how to accomplish basic life activities, such as taking balancing a checkbook, taking public transportation and even cooking simple foods. Still, there are also occupational therapists who exclusively work with recovering drug and alcohol addicts. They provide individualized evaluations, structured support and continual feedback. These occupational therapists must have clinical training with substance abuse treatment therapies and
An occupational therapist is a health care professional who helps their clients overcome activity and occupation barriers. Occupational therapists work with different kinds of clients in different settings.
The Typical Occupational Therapist
Most occupational therapists work for health care organizations, such as hospitals or physician offices. Their primary job is to help acutely ill or injured patients recover and improve basic life skills. They do this through observations, interviews and patient history reviews. They develop personalized treatment plans for their patients. Many occupational therapists specialize in certain fields and only work with certain patients, such as those injured at work or those recovering from cancer. In fact, occupational therapists who specialize in work injuries work closely with employers, insurance companies and workers’ compensation agencies. They often advocate for injured workers when their unscrupulous employers attempt to make them return to work early. …show more content…
For example, developmental occupational therapists provide early intervention therapy to infants and toddlers who are developmentally delayed. The goal of planned interventions is to create lifelong development plans with measurable goals. However, sometimes adults with mental health problems are diagnosed late in life. These individuals will need assistance learning how to accomplish basic life activities, such as taking balancing a checkbook, taking public transportation and even cooking simple foods. Still, there are also occupational therapists who exclusively work with recovering drug and alcohol addicts. They provide individualized evaluations, structured support and continual feedback. These occupational therapists must have clinical training with substance abuse treatment therapies and