What is Occupational Therapy?
What is Occupational Therapy?
What is occupational therapy and where did the profession start? Occupational therapy is known as the treatment of people with physical as well as mental disabilities to increase their chances of being productive in their daily life. Occupational therapy wasn’t known as a profession until the 1700s where a Frenchman and an Englishman started to rehabilitate people with mental illness. During that time, mentally ill patients were put in the side-lines.
In France, Phillipe Pinel, advocated the therapy and rehabilitation of mentally ill patients through the use of physical activities and the like. His aim was to make the mentally ill patients more productive and to start to heal them so they can be reintroduced into society. William Tuke also advocated the therapy and rehabilitation of mentally ill patients. It is because of these two pioneers that we know what is occupational therapy. The profession became known over the years but it wasn’t until 1917 that an association just for occupational therapist was formed. For a few years the profession or what is occupational therapy was linked to treating mentally ill-patients but in the 1960s, more and more occupational therapists began to treat the physically challenged and disabled patients as well.
What is Occupational Therapy? Occupational therapists-what do they do?
What is occupational therapy and what do occupational therapists do? Occupational therapy as its name indicates is the therapy of occupation. And occupation could be anything from the daily activities or job being done by the patient. Occupational therapists or OTs as they are called often work with children and adults who have certain impairments or disabilities. They work hand in hand with other medical practitioners to improve the standard of living and the function of the patient.
A lot of people do not know what is occupational therapy and often confuse them with physical therapists. This is understandable since these two work hand in hand to restore certain functions lost by the patient. Those who do not know what is occupational therapy think that it is not a full college course. The thing is, the profession requires five years of college degree plus an additional 2 years of master’s degree. The occupational therapists work on a one-on-one setting with these patients to restore some if not all of their functions. OTs work with physically disabled children and adults, mentally ill patients and injured individuals.
What is Occupational Therapy? Occupational therapists-how much they earn
What is Occupational therapy and what are their salaries? The occupational therapist can get paid as much as $89,000 on average. But this is dependent on many factors like the location or the state of employment, the working facility worked, and the rank. An occupational therapist gets paid that much because they have to work in close contact with the patient. Most OTs are required to go to their patients’ home or school, and assess their working or school conditions. They have to do this in order to know what physical limitations need improvement.
If you need more information, feel free to read on how to become an occupational therapist and the average occupational therapy assistant salary. Thanks for reading this article, we hoped this has helped you to learn what is occupational therapy.