What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational therapists are concerned with ‘occupation’. The profession of occupational therapy takes a broad view of ‘occupation’ to mean everything that people do to participate in daily life.

Practitioners use client-centred approaches for enabling participation in ‘occupations’. It is important that all persons, regardless of (dis)ability, age, gender, race, or other characteristics, have opportunities and resources to choose from, so that they can perform in the ‘occupations’ that they need and want to, with the goal of having a certain quality of life. Examples include enabling children to play and learn; enabling seniors to discover or continue with meaningful occupations throughout their old age; and dealing with work place stress, among others.

Occupational therapists work with clients in a variety of settings, such as clinics, hospitals, home care centres, schools, universities, among others. Occupational therapists work in a variety of environments, with all demographic groups. The goal in each case is to work with clients so that they can participate in meaningful living.