Occupational Therapy Analysis

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Occupational Therapy is to help people from all ages to improve their activity and daily living independently. OT has been around 100 years per AOTA. OT has been through many changes, polish, adjustment, and different names throughout history. The three major events that had influenced on OT are World War I, WWII, and Rehabilitation Movement. Many regulations like ADA or Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975 also played an important role to increase awareness of OT. (O’Brien, 2018)
World War I was the birth of Occupational Therapy. During WWI, OT was named reconstruction aides. Reconstruction aides program was created to rehabilitate solders after the war. The program focused on getting the solders back to work, or to help them …show more content…

After the war, the Veteran administration hospital focuses on creating a rehab for disabled soldiers. During this time, advance in medicine saved more lives, so we have more people living with a disability. The rehabilitation facilities were established to help service individual with disability. Numerous OT were hired as one part of the rehab program. The OT responsibilities were to improve activity and daily living, design orthotic devise, training patients how to use prosthetics, incorporate resisting exercise techniques, introduce muscle reeducation technique, and evaluating patient’s performance. (O’Brien, …show more content…

New developments helped shape OT to where it is today by expanding more research, different interventions, and more science proven bases. OT community will keep evolving and adapting along with the change of our society. https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/advocacy/health-care-reform/overview/hcr_ota.pdf

Bonus:
Currently, there will be big changes in healthcare system that affects Occupational Therapy. American Health Care Act knows as AHCA is expected to be a replacement for the ACA. After looking at the comparison chart by Hooper (2017), AHCA will cut down Medicaid expansion, limit funding on Medicaid, Health insurance cost base on medical history instead of age, and charge elderly 5 times more. People without insurance or Medicaid will not be able to afford OT services. OT might need to seek funds from other organizations or shift focus workplace safety. OT’s might target big corporation over individual.

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