That's a question that I get asked a lot.
If I'm meeting new people and I'm met with the dreaded 'what do you do for work' question, my answer of:
"Oh, I'm an OT; an Occupational Therapist"
Is met by plan stares 90% of the time.
It's a question I and many other OT's are used to. I remember in university even, one of the tasks we had to do was come up with an elevator pitch of 'how to explain OT to people we meet on the street, and who come in the door for therapy.
So then, what is an OT?
For an Occupational Therapist, an occupation is anything that occupies your time. So as an Occupational Therapist, we help people do the things in life that occupy their time.
Generally this means that we help people with:
- Self care (like showering or getting dressed)
- Productivity (like work, school, or chores)
- Leisure and play (anything we do for fun or joy)
All of these things are important for life and wellbeing, so OT's help find ways to help people do the things that are important for them.
There are different types of OT's too
Just like there are lots of different types of doctors and lots of different types of teachers, there are lots of different types of OTs who will work with different people or in different areas like:
- Children
- Mental Health
- Rehabilitation
- Aged Care
- Physical Disability
- Adults
- Teens
- mobility
So how do you do it?
OT's really are professional creative problem solvers. We use creativity and outside the box thinking to find ways to help people do things.
But some of the ways that OTs will help is by:
- Doing assessments to figure out funding and the best ways to support you
- Helping with home modifications or assistive technology to make life more accessible
- Skill Building where an OT will work with you or your loved ones to build skills to reach a regular goal.
There are also OTs that work in advocacy, education, policy building, design and so many more areas.
There are so many creative and different ways that OTs help people do the things that are important to them.
What does Collaborative OT do?
We work in:
- Skill building (we like to work to skill build the parents to help their child)
- Assessments
And we work with:
- Parents of neurodivergent children
- Neurodivergent adults
Got more questions? We love questions! Reach out on our socials or send us an email at info@collaborativeot.com.au