I have just completed the school work phase of my Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program and embark on the final stage - full time fieldwork clinicals! This past year and a half has been quite the adventure and roller coaster of emotions. It has been exciting and stressful, motivating and frustrating, thrilling and humbling. I have met wonderful people and made new friends that are like family. I have learned far more than I thought possible. I have been blessed to serve patients and been blessed to hear their inspiring stories. I can't believe that we are only a few more months away from the grand finale!
This program has been a reminder to me to be thankful for each and every day as a gift. I have had to check myself several times, when things got hard, and remember that this program was an answered prayer, that God has made clear his desire for me to finish it. Today I'm praising him for his faithfulness in seeing me through this first phase and challenging me to grow in the midst of intense and stressful moments. I'm still working on it, but this program has given me huge opportunities to practice being joyful always, praying continually, and giving thanks in all circumstances.
So what do OTs do? This is something I'm asked a lot. For starters, it's not about work, although it could be. The "occupation" in "occupational therapy" could be work, but it could also be your leisure, education, social, or play activities. It even encompasses all the other stuff you do every day - like getting dressed, grooming, bathing, cooking, grocery shopping, driving your car, caring for children or pets, and balancing your checkbook. We are concerned about what people desire to DO and how they do it. In order to DO all the things you want to, you need certain abilities like motor, sensory-perceptual, cognitive, and social skills and all your body parts need to function in certain ways. When a child is born with a developmental delay, or a teenage soccer player is in a car accident, or a young mom is diagnosed with MS, or a 50 year old CEO has cancer, or a 75 year old volunteer has a stroke, suddenly doing all those things they care about becomes much more difficult. That's where we come in - providing activities, techniques, education, safety, equipment, and support to help these live their lives to the fullest. Our therapy sessions may include some exercises, but if the stroke patient wants to be able to dress herself then we will practice dressing and if the young mother misses cooking for her family then we will be in the kitchen! We may provide restorative interventions to help patients improve or we may provide compensatory tools and techniques for those facing more long-lasting challenges. OT is HUGE, covers all aspects of life, and works with a huge variety of people in a huge variety of settings... so I could talk all day...but that's OT in a nutshell for the three of you interested people out there!
