Domain of OT

Description of the occupational therapy profession

o Supporting health and participation in life through engagement in occupation
Process of OT

2nd part of OTPF

o Outlines the way in which occupational therapy practitioners show their
expertise to provide services to clients.
Evaluation
Intervention
Targeting outcome/outcome monitoring
Occupation as the means and the end
o Occupations as a method of intervention implementation by engaging clients
throughout the process in occupations that are therapeutically selected
Key Points

1. The process outlined is dynamic and interactive in nature

2. Context is an overarching, underlying, and embedded influence on the process of service
delivery.
3. The term client is used to name the entity who receives occupational therapy services.
4. A client-centered approach is used throughout the Framework.
5. Engagement in occupation is viewed as the overarching outcome of the occupational
therapy process.
Evaluation
-

Focused on finding out what the client wants and needs to do determining what the
client can do and has done and identifying those factors that act as supports or
barriers to health and participation.
May be formal and informal
May depend on a practice setting
Occupational Profile
o Analysis of occupational performance
Occupational Profile

Why do we gather information for a clients occupational profile?

Summary of information that describes the clients occupational history and
experiences, patterns of daily living, interests, values, and needs.
Uses client-centered approached
o Involves working collaboratively with clients and is considered a foundational
component of occupational therapy practice.
OTs are interested in the clients, viewpoint, narrative, and desires.
Because the aim of therapy is to help the client re-engage in occupations, the
practitioner determines from the client, if possible, the occupations of interest.
Reason to facilitate evaluation: to gather information to understand what is currently
important and meaningful to the client
Includes what the client wants and needs to do in the present or future as well as
past experiences and interests that may assist in the identifying strengths and
limitations
Analysis of Occupational Performance

Accomplishment of the selected occupation resulting from the dynamic transaction

among the client, the context and environment and the activity
Synthesizing information from the occupational profile to focus on specific areas
of occupation and contexts that need to be addressed.
Observing the clients performance during activities relevant to desired
occupations, noting effectiveness of the performance skills and performance
patterns.
Selecting and using specific assessments to measure performance skills and
performance patterns, as appropriate
Selecting assessments as needed, to identify and measure more specifically
contexts or environments, activity demands, and client factors influencing
performance skills and performance patterns
Interpreting the assessment data to identify what supports performance and
what hinders performance
Developing and refining hypotheses about the clients occupational performance
strengths and limitations
Creating goals in collaboration with the client that address the desired outcomes
Determining procedures to measure the outcomes of intervention
Delineating a potential intervention approach or approaches based on best
practices and available evidence

Methods for Evaluation Process

Activity Analysis
- Process of examining an activity to distinguish its component parts
- Demands of an activity
- Range of skills involved in performing an activity
- Identify various cultural meanings that might be ascribed to it
- Consist of each activity being evaluated carefully to determine its therapeutic
potential
- Clients skills and abilities are compared to the demands of the activities or tasks
based on the activity analysis
- Activity Synthesis
o Process of combining components parts of human and non-human
environment so as to design an activity suitable for evaluation or intervention
relative to performance components and occupational performance.
Intervention
- Consists of the skilled actions taken by occupational therapy practitioners in
collaboration with the client to facilitate engagement in occupation related to health
and participation
- Occupational therapy practitioners use the information about the client gathered
during the evaluation and from theoretical principles to direct occupation-centered
interventions
- Intervention is provided then to assist the client in reaching a state of physical,
mental, and social well-being, to identify and realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and
to change or cope with the environment.
- Intervention should promote health
o Health promoting process of enabling people to increase control over, and
to improve, their health