What Is Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy intervention Occupational therapy creates intervention plans that involve the “therapeutic use of everyday activities” and “occupations” so individuals can participate in the activities they want and need to do. Occupations refer to the activities that individuals want, need, and are expected to do. Furthermore, occupational therapy offers individuals a holistic client-centered treatment. This allows their clients to receive treatment for their whole problem and find new ways to help improve their standards of life (AOTA, 2017). In recent years, occupational therapy has effectively began treating schizophrenia patients. One of the evidence based techniques that occupational therapists use to measure the client’s self-perception of their performance during their everyday lives is called the COPM (Canadian Occupational Performance Measure). According to Rouleau, Dion, & Korner-Bitensky (2015) this standardized measure “enables the client to participate actively in identifying meaningful goals and assists the occupational therapist in planning individualized treatment. Moreover, the COPM is a client-centered tool. (p. 185) If the occupational therapist wants to use the COPM, they must implement it before there is a treatment plan for the patient. To use the COPM, occupational therapists use open dialogue while conversing with the patient. Through the conversation,

To use this with schizophrenic patients, occupational therapists converse with their patients and determine what ADLS their patients are having difficulties completing. Once they find the ADLS the patient is having problems carrying out, the occupational therapist shifts the conversation topic to try to find what the patient used to find meaningful in their lives. By doing this, occupational therapists can individualize the patient’s treatment and get the patient more involved (Rouleau et al.,