Philosophy
According to Draft IV of the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework:
Occupational therapy is based on the belief that the need to engage in occupation is innate and is related to survival, health, well-being, and life satisfaction. Occupational therapy, therefore, is a profession whose focus is on enabling a person (i.e., individual client) or a group of persons (i.e., group, community, or an organization client) to access and participate in activities that are meaningful, purposeful, and relevant to their lives, roles, and sense of well-being. (Commission on Practice, August, 2000, p. 3)
In keeping with the profession’s philosophy, the following belief statements represent the philosophy of the faculty and the educational programs in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Colorado State University:
Beliefs about occupational therapy
- Occupation is defined as the engagement in a course of actions that has meaning and purpose to the person engaged in those actions, and that culminates in the enactment of a daily life task, habit, or routine.
- Occupation is both the primary form of intervention (means) and the desired goal of intervention (end).
- Occupational therapy practitioners enable people to engage in those self care, work/productive, and play/leisure activities, habits, and routines (occupational performances) that they need, want, or are expected by society to perform in order to achieve highest possible role competence and life satisfaction (quality of life).
- Occupational therapy practitioners promote optimal occupational performance and quality of life along the ability–disability continuum (including enhancement of skills for wellness and/or prevention of functional decline or disability) through:
- compensation/adaptation (i.e., modifying physical/social environments, training in compensatory strategies, and providing adaptive equipment and assistive technology);
- restoration, development, or enhancement of occupational skills (e.g., tying shoes, keyboarding, driving);
- restoration, development, or enhancement of occupational habits/routines (e.g., morning care routine; work habits; balance among self care, work/productive, and play/leisure activities);
- restoration, development, or enhancement of underlying capacities (e.g., strength, self-esteem, attention, memory).
- Important methods used by occupational therapy practitioners include the use of educational (teaching/learning) and consultative strategies.
- Occupational therapy practitioners collaboratively engage individual clients or groups in the occupational therapy process (e.g., evaluation, goal-setting, intervention planning and implementation, discontinuation of services, documentation).
- Occupational therapy practitioners collaboratively engage individual clients or groups in the occupational therapy process (e.g., evaluation, goal-setting, intervention planning and implementation, discontinuation of services, documentation).
- Occupational therapy practitioners enhance or promote occupational performance and quality of life along a continuum of direct and indirect services (i.e., from direct contact with clients to sharing knowledge with others so that they can carry out the services).
- Occupational therapy practitioners collaboratively engage individual clients or groups in the occupational therapy process (e.g., evaluation, goal-setting, intervention planning and implementation, discontinuation of services, documentation).
- "Best practice" in occupational therapy involves professional reasoning that is client-centered, occupation-based, top–down, and grounded in theory and research-based evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention(s).
Beliefs about humans
- Humans are open systems, capable of change through transaction with their social and physical environments.
- The occupations, habits/routines, and roles change over the life course of the individual.
- Each person possesses unique personal characteristics (e.g., interests, values, beliefs, goals, abilities, skills, needs, and background/cultural experiences).
- Personal characteristics influence a person's occupational performance and quality of life, and, conversely, changes in a person's occupational performance and quality of life can effect change in the person's characteristics.
- Each person has the right to participate fully in a society free of social and environmental barriers, and is entitled to exercise personal choices, make decisions, and to experience the consequences of those choices and decisions.
- Personal characteristics, and environmental and societal factors, may facilitate or hinder a person's ability to carry out desired or necessary occupational performances and may impact his or her quality of life.
Beliefs about how humans learn
(many of the following have been adapted from Mosey, 1986)
- Optimal learning occurs in an ecologically relevant context.
- If learning cannot occur in the optimal context, efforts must be made to approximate the ecologically relevant context.
- Personal characteristics, and environmental and societal factors, may facilitate or hinder a person’s ability to learn.
- When a person establishes his or her own goals, the potential for learning is enhanced.
- An individual’s learning is enhanced when he or she knows and understands the purpose and goal of the learning.
- Optimal learning occurs when the learning experience matches an individuals’ personal characteristics and occurs at a rate that is best for the individual.
- Learning occurs through active engagement.
- Learning is enhanced through reinforcement and feedback.
- Learning occurs in stages: (a) understanding what is to be learned, (b) trial and error/problem solving, and (c) generalization.
- Repetition and practice are needed for learning.
- Learning progresses along a continuum from simple to complex tasks.
