Hello again! So my old 12 week placement is over, I had a week off in between, and a new placement has begun! I am not longer working with young children. Currently working in a transitional program for young adults who require mental health support. They are learning life skills, social skills, and job skills in hopes to prepare them for greater independence when their time ends in this program.
It's taboo, but it's all around us. I'm not just talking about the "major" disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar, PTSD, personality disorders. What about anxiety? Depression. A miscarriage can bring a time of grief and depression from dashed hopes of a new life. A birth can bring postpartum depression. Many people have phobias - fears of spiders, crowed spaces, fear of heights or flying - but have found ways to cope and function pretty normally in their daily lives. Others, for whatever reason, may not be able to cope, and their fear of crowded places may keep them from going grocery shopping, or getting out of the house much. It's really very normal for people to go through periods of depression or to be anxious about new situations. Quite a bit of mental health is just these things you or I have felt or experienced at some point, maybe for a brief time, but beefed up and felt more intensely to the point that it impacts someone's ability to do daily tasks and routines.Mental Health is Everywhere
No it's not... Umm yes it is.
In any healthcare setting that is treating physical ailments, you have many clients with mental illness, because these people break bones and need surgeries too. In school, our professors warned those who wanted to veg out in our mental health classes because they want to only work with physical disabilities that it's unavoidable. Because there is so much stigma around mental illness many people go without treatment, or inconsistent treatment. They may want help but aren't in a space to commit to consistent help. But when they cut their hand or have the flu (just random examples), you better believe they'll go get care. So healthcare settings specifically for physical recoveries see it too.
Occupational Therapy
So I thought occupational therapy was about fine motor skills? Fitting people for wheelchairs and assistive devices? Making sure someone can safely get in and out of the shower so they can be discharged after a hip replacement? Don't OTs work in schools and do handwriting? And work with sensory stuff?
Yes yes and yes. Haha, but we can also play a role in the treatment of mental illnesses, and helping people establish healthy habits, roles, and routines to function in a meaningful way to them. We can help people with life skills such as doing laundry, using public transportation, and using a stove safely. We can work on better hygiene as a step to having friends and getting a job. We can work on home maintenance skills so someone is better equipped when they get their own place, not to get evicted due to negligence and smell. We can work on safety awareness and problem solving -- things needed for crossing the street and making a purchase.
Ok so what's the connection between all these random things you are listing that you work on? What don't you do? But there's a ton of things you don't do either - you don't diagnose, you don't prescribe - and yet some of these things you're describing, can't they be done by a less trained person? A paraprofessional can help a kid write, and a personal care assistant can help someone with hygiene and safety in the kitchen. So... what makes OT so special? In the most basic terms, we have been trained to look at the underlying causes of a problem and help someone overcome the causes so they can do the activity/task themselves. Whereas the other professions I mentioned (which are both super necessary and helpful for many folks) tend to do things for people. We'll explore this more later.
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