Today is

 

A number of questions about Occupational Therapy, severe brain injury and Neurology

So,

Will an investigation of occupation be more helpful than an investigation of neurology for this approach?

A knowledge of neurology is an essential component of any work done with people with brain injury as factor which is to be taken into account. However, this knowledge is not the focus of the practice when the need is identified for occupation. If this is the need which is identified then a study and understanding of occupation is more helpful.

How do you know how to go on when working with a client with an occupational predicament?

You gain your cues from your past and from the situation in which you find yourself, especially the latter. Once you get started, you keep on going doing whatever it is that needs to be done. And then you stop when it is done. You know how to keep on going because you have had success in one thing and this begins to provide the cues for the next thing to be done. If you are really stuck you find someone who is able to help you.

How do you know how to go on as a practitioner with an occupational focus?

You diagnose the origin of dysfunction as being one of lack/distortion of engagement, and spend time gaining a thorough understanding of the situation the client is in. Then you take your part as a full participant within that situation. You know how to go on because you heed the situation and have the kind of knowledge that means you understand what needs to be done.

The kinds of things that the practitioner would heed include: the ambience of the activity and all the things that are associated with it; the ergonomics necessary to ensure the success of the activity; the kind of communication that is generated by the activity and that which is supportive of it; the ways that the meaning of the activity is manifested over time.

Who is the client?

The client is someone who does not know how to go on and who has not got the resources in their immediate environment to find a way out of their predicament.

Who is the practitioner?

The practitioner is someone who can identify and meet the need for occupation in others.

What do they do?

They both take their parts in a situation. The client is occupied in doing what needs to be done in his life, the practitioner is occupied in facilitating the process of engagement for the client.


As I wrote this conclusion I was entering into my third year of working with Barry. Remembering the film ‘Benny and Joon’, I cannot say that he has found his ‘Sam’ yet. But, like Joon in the film, he has come to need less support and he has got more life. He already needs much less support than I described in this thesis, but I cannot imagine a time when he will need no support. He said to me recently that he had a social network now, which suggests that he is beginning to be part of a community. The neuropsychologist who reassessed him could find no significant changes in his clinical scores, and yet his life is very different. I can only now imagine the possibility of a fulfilled and meaningful life for him, in a way that I could not a few years ago. I have hope for him now and in conceiving that hope I have changed the way that I see the world. However, in spite of all this, it is still very difficult to get him out of bed!

Next page: Works cited

 

 

 

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Occupation in Literature -
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Occupation
Alienation
Being "well occupied"
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Discussion -
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Becoming well occupied
Facilitation
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Occupation and neurology
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