Occupational Therapy is (according to the World Health Organization) the set of techniques, methods and actions that, through activities applied for therapeutic purposes, prevent and maintain health, promote the restoration of function, replace disabling deficits and evaluates the behavioral assumptions and their deep meaning to achieve the greatest possible independence and reintegration of the individual in all its aspects: work, mental, physical and social.
Occupational therapy is characterized by education and rehabilitation by activity. It is through activities of daily life (personal care, work and leisure) and other global and analytical exercises that the therapist organizes therapy to improve the ability to act and skills, individually or in a group.
Focusing on adults, the elderly or children, including the field of psychiatry, neurology, rheumatology or functional rehabilitation, occupational therapists carry out their work in institutions (hospitals, rehabilitation centers, etc.), or they can also work in a private way.
This profession is also characterized by using orthotics (devices that are used to support the functioning of the neuromusculoskeletal system), with medical prescription, advice on technical aids for people with disabilities. Occupational therapy plays a vital role in rehabilitation in the ecological environment, promoting rehabilitation by establishing the conditions to allow a return to autonomy in a re-education framework so that the person can move with maximum autonomy in their personal, professional diary, leisure and activities of your daily life.
In most cases, occupational therapists work with psychomotor, physical therapists, doctors (prescription required), nurses, psychologists, neuropsychologists, social workers, pathologists.
The occupational therapist is a health professional who bases his practice on the link between human activity and health. Acts on behalf of a person or a group of people in a medical, social, educational and professional environment. It evaluates the injuries, capacities and integrity of the person, as well as their motor, sensory, psychological and cognitive abilities. It analyzes the needs, life habits, environmental factors, handicap situations and makes a diagnosis of Occupational Therapy.
It implements care, prevention, therapeutic education, rehabilitation, reintegration and psychosocial rehabilitation with the aim of reducing and compensating for limitations and alterations in activities, developing, restoring, maintaining the independence, autonomy and social participation of the person.
