"Why Did You Chose Occupational Therapy?"

 *For my hypothetical question, I played off the example of a spouse/caregiver of a person with dementia. In this imaginary scenario, I am envisioning a conversation that could have been held in my grandmother’s early days of her dementia diagnosis if we would have known more about potential resources that were available to us. *  

 

“Why Did You Chose Occupational Therapy?” 

When asked what the importance of Occupational Therapy services are by a husband, whose wife recently got diagnosed with dementia, I would respond by saying” Occupational therapy is a way to provide your wife with the means to still participate in the things she loves. I know you probably think of OT (Occupational Therapy) as a service only needed for patients at facilities such as a school, a hospital, or a nursing home; but I want to ensure you that through this treatment, I can help your wife to continue to be able to take part in activities that are meaningful to her. Such as gardening, reading books, or preparing meals for her family. I can also assist her with household chores such as doing the dishes or folding clothes. In the field of Occupational Therapy, we see the people we work with as “clients” and not “patients” and we provide services based off each individual’s needs- not based off her diagnosis! While her condition will steadily decline, I want to be able to provide the tools and strategies needed to engage in her chosen routines to fulfill her as much as we can mentally, spiritually and physically! We can work together as a team to ensure that throughout the course of my care plan, we will find ways to adapt to obstacles we will face and continue to find ways to add to stability to both you and your wife’s daily routines.”  

 

I often get asked the question “Why did you choose to pursue a career in Occupational Therapy?” and I have noticed that every time I answer, I have a different response. Ever since I can remember, I have always wanted to devote my life to helping others. In my early college days, I had decided that I was going to go to nursing school, but I knew something about this choice just did not feel right for me. I did not like the idea of only helping people when they are at their very worst health, such as being in the hospital, and then never really learning what progress they would make outside of the services I could provide them. I wanted a career where I could connect to people in every aspect of their life and devote my time to learning their physical and mental needs. When I saw a video promoting Occupational Therapy, I instantly knew it was exactly what I was meant to do! Since starting OT school, this idea has been reinforced every single day and the more I learn about the field; the more my answer to the question of why I choose this career changes. In class, we have learned about the five pillars of the profession which are summed up as Occupational Therapists are to be: effective and evidence based, leaders, collaborative, accessible, and have strong values such as equity, inclusion and diversity (AJOT, 2019). Every one of these pillars represents my own personal views and backs up my decision to become an OT, and I am so excited to one day be able to use these pillars as the foundation for the care I will provide my future clients. As for my answer to the question of why I chose this career; right now, my answer would be “I choose Occupational Therapy because it focuses not just on what a person’s diagnosis is but focuses on how we can bring purpose back into their daily routines. OT’s work to provide services that allow people to participate in things they find to be essential to their everyday life, and throughout OT intervention we can bring happiness and fulfillment to each client by finding a way to complete occupations that make them whole!".  While this answer is very likely to change again, I think that it just represents the beauty of our profession that is changing every day to be able to provide the most evidence-based care for our clients.  

 

 

 

 

References 

AOTA Board expands vision 2025. (2019). The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 73(3). https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2019.733002