By Gitta Ankomah, Naffisa Nathwani, Sarah Sheffe, and Todd Tran
October is Occupational Therapy month, so let’s take a moment to celebrate and recognize the contributions our incredible occupational therapists make at WCH!
What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapists are healthcare professionals who work with people experiencing challenges managing day-to-day living skills that limit their participation in activities that are important and meaningful for them. Occupational therapists work with people across the lifespan to enable them to return to or participate in occupations, which simply refer to everyday life activities that people need to do, want to do, or are expected to do. These can include:
- Self-care – dressing, bathing, functional mobility
- Productivity – work, school, play
- Leisure – social participation, recreation, hobbies
Occupational therapists are unique, as we are the only healthcare profession that focuses on occupation as both a therapeutic tool and an outcome when working with clients. We take a holistic approach, in which we consider the person, the environment, and occupational factors when providing care to clients. Occupational therapists can work with clients or communities to return to or regain the skills needed for their day-to-day activities that have been reduced or lost due to chronic disease, injury, mental health issues, or other health related conditions (OT Ontario).
Occupational therapists have been around for a long time – over 100 years in Ontario! Check out this video for more about the history of OT.
What do Women’s College Hospital Occupational Therapists do?
We are a small but mighty group! At WCH, you will find us in the Mental Health Day Treatment Program, Women’s Mental Health, Family Health Team, Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute (TAPMI), Wellness for Independent Seniors Clinic (WISE), Breast Cancer Rehabilitation, Virtual Ward, the Acute Ambulatory Care Unit /General Internal Medicine, The Centre for Osteoporosis and Bone Health and Rheumatology. Whew! Would you believe there are only five OTs for all that?
WCH occupational therapists use many different skills and interventions with clients, including splinting and custom orthosis fabrication, mobility, cognitive assessment, facilitating mindfulness groups, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy groups, education groups, exercise programs, pre- and post-surgery rehabilitation, Complete Decongestive Therapy, falls prevention, return-to-work, ergonomics and research … the list goes on!
On top of all that, we are involved in research, quality improvement projects, and best practice work within the hospital. This year we also celebrated one of our colleagues (Dr. Todd Tran) for achieving his PhD! We have published several peer-reviewed research articles adding to the importance of evidence-based practice within our profession.
To learn more about Occupational Therapy, visit these websites:
Enabling Aging, Growth, and Engagement https://en-age.ca/
OT Ontario https://otontario.ca/
100 Years of OT https://youtu.be/Dop1712BPqo