Occupational Therapy In The Uk Health And Social Care Essay

This treatment of wellness demands will be based on Susan Como and structured in essay signifier, get downing with a brief debut to her and her household. Susan Como is a married 21 twelvemonth old adult female. As a kid she suffered minor afflictions ( eczema and Mumps ) which appear non to be prolonged or damaging to her long-run wellness so I am traveling to concentrate on her wellness from the twelvemonth 2000. In 2001 Susan suffered from repeated thorax infections which will non be disregarded as a minor affliction yet does non use in relation to the context of this treatment as it was many old ages ago and does non look to be afflicting her any more, although relentless unwellness can be a precursor to depression ( Fox, 2008 ) which she began enduring from after she gave birth to Billy in 2003. The gestation and birth caused no complications, nevertheless she was diagnosed with postpartum depression the same twelvemonth and has suffered from important clinical depression of all time since. Billy is now 4 old ages old and has been diagnosed with planetary developmental hold. Susan is married to Saul, whom she perceives herself to be really near to, although her household do non look to O.K. of him. Her hubby Saul works really long hours, and likes to pass the clip he is non working socialization and imbibing intoxicant, and provides her with really small in the manner of support, with respects to rearing. This makes Susan the primary health professional of Billy, and he has been described as “ clingy ” , the premise being that this term is used to intend excessively attached to his female parent and highly emotional and distressed at their separation. The forenoons Billy spends at baby’s room are difficult for Susan as she finds it hard to make full her clip and delaies for him to return place once more. Billy is due to get down go toing full yearss at school shortly, which is traveling to give Susan even more clip to make full. Though at times her depression has been managed by medicine and cognitive behavioral therapy, Susan is presently sing an addition in depressive symptoms and is frightened she may go really badly once more due to the absence of Billy when he is at school all twenty-four hours. Susans wellness demands in relation to occupational therapy are traveling to be the chief focal point of this essay.

It is historically logical that occupational therapy rules be applied to mental wellness jobs as that is where the foundations of occupational therapy as it is known today began. Elizabeth Casson ( 1881-1954 ) a outstanding figure in the debut of occupational therapy to the UK began with incorporating pattern into a residential unit for female psychiatric patients, Dorset House in Bristol. The first school of occupational therapy was attached to Dorset House which opened in 1930 ( Creek, 2008, pp.11-12 ) and all work within the field of occupational therapy in the UK stems from this ( Long & A ; Cronin-Davis, 2006 ) . Throughout the history of occupational therapy, there have been shifts in the manner it is taught, applied and theorised, with the focal point being on different paradigms. However, since the 1970 ‘s the focal point of occupational therapy has returned to its core belief: that business should be at the Centre of occupational therapy. ( Molineux, 2004 ) .

Occupational therapy is defined by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists as “ a client-centred wellness profession concerned with advancing wellness and good being through business ” ( WFOT, accessed 08/10/10 ) . There are, nevertheless, many different definitions of occupational therapy and no individual definition to embrace all that occupational therapy does. The implicit in premise is that if people are given meaningful and purposeful businesss to make full their clip, it is contributing to a better province of physical and mental wellness, and a better quality of life.

Definitions are debatable in themselves as they need farther definitions to clear up the term which they encompass, such as business. Wilcock ( 1998 ) defines business as “ All purposeful human activity ” , the focal point on this definition so inquiries what is meant by meaningful and purposeful? The activity must hold important significance for the client and be directed towards a end for the client that will help them in their day-to-day lives. A0TA ( 2002 ) expands this thought to integrate leting a client to heighten their occupational battle, intending to utilize the accomplishments they have in order to portion in an activity. In Susans instance, it would be unpointed giving her a ‘meaningless ‘ business such as doing a cup of tea, this would non profit her wellness or well-being at all as her unwellness does non forestall her ability to do a cup of tea. A more worthwhile business could be practising assertiveness or assurance, to talk up when she needs aid from her hubby. This would keep a batch more significance and intent to Susan. Occupational therapy focuses on spread outing the accomplishments the client already has and habilitating the accomplishments that would be good to their day-to-day lives and which they agree has great intent in their lives.

Most definitions of occupational therapy focal point on the human usage of business. Occupational scientific discipline is the name given to the survey of worlds as occupational existences ( Yerxa, 2000 ) saying that worlds need to carry through businesss in their life. Wilcock ( 1993 ) outlined three major maps of business throughout history. These involved fulfilling immediate demands such as self-care and shelter, developing accomplishments and engineering to last ( against marauders, for illustration ) and keeping and developing the being. A theory linked to this thought is the 1 of temporal version. Creek ( 2003 ) negotiations about the issue of temporal version ( intending the manner people use their clip ) and the negative impact on the encephalon of non being meaningfully occupied. Harmonizing to this theory, if Susan does non do good usage of the clip she is entirely when Billy is at school and is merely sitting making nil, or waiting to pick him up as she has been, her encephalon can steal into a province of confusion ; it will non be working as population norms would propose it should and could go forth her highly vulnerable to cognitive disfunction. As she has a history of depression and is already disquieted about her depression acquiring worse when Billy returns to school, Susan is at great hazard of this go oning therefore it is pertinent she should hold her occupational demands identified and addressed. Harries ( 2009 ) wrote an article about a adult female who suffered from anxiousness jobs. In relation to utilizing her clip efficaciously she negotiations of maintaining her head and organic structure stimulated in order to battle her anxiousness and stating that when she is non stimulated and there is non every bit much busying her head, the anxiousness can increase once more. Although Susan does non endure from anxiousness jobs, there could be some analogues between her depression and the anxiousness in this illustration ; symptoms of both appear to increase with the deficiency of business. The deductions of this theory can non be to the full supported though ; although many people feel the demand to be active or occupied, this can non be generalised to all worlds. For illustration, speculation could be classed as non physically exciting the encephalon or carry throughing an activity as such yet it is considered both meaningful and purposeful.

Occupational individuality involves how you see and separate yourself through the businesss in your life ( Kielhofner, 2009 ) . For illustration, if person plays tennis they may see their individuality as ‘a tennis participant ‘ . It can be assumed from the grounds stated that Susan views herself as a married woman, a girl, a grand-daughter, a female parent. As she does non look to hold any other close relationships and the familiarities she does hold go around around her boy and female parents of his friends, it can be assumed these occupational individualities are the chief 1s in her life. She does non look to hold any avocations or activities outside her place so her individuality is limited to strictly household relationships. Susan has identified the issue of non being able to make full her clip when Billy is at baby’s room and her occupational individualities are non linked to involvement in any activities or businesss other than related to her household life. As her hubby spends long hours working or socializing she does non even have much contact with any grownups in a societal manner and she spends a batch of her clip isolated with Billy.

Social inclusion is a major factor in the country of mental wellness ; people enduring from mental wellness jobs are the most at-risk group for experiencing excluded from society and societal inclusion is by and large believed to better mental wellness and well-being ( LeBoutillier & A ; Croucher, 2010 ) . Social inclusion is defined as:

“ A virtuous circle of improved rights of entree to the societal and economic universe, new chances, recovery of position and significance and decreased impact of disablement ” ( Sayce, 2000, p122 ) .

Social exclusion has many deductions for occupational therapy, and occupational therapy can be instrumental in helping societal inclusion. Lack of meaningful businesss can take to societal exclusion, and societal exclusion can intend the person has a deficiency of resources to transport out their coveted businesss, due to occupational unfairness. Molineux ( 2004 ) negotiations of the construct of occupational justness ; intending entree to businesss, are non restricted in any manner to the person ; without societal inclusion, a individual may non hold certain engineering or resources to manus in order to carry through their coveted businesss. Activities of day-to-day life ( ADL ) mostly act as barriers to societal inclusion, such as self-care functions and modus operandis. If persons self attention is missing and they become unkempt, this may take to stigmatization of the person which may take to exclusion from any societal circle. If Susan focuses much clip or does non pass adequate clip on her self-care this could hold been a barrier to her societal inclusion. Occupational therapy could assist her recognize the demand to set or accommodate her self-care function in order to help in perchance spread outing her societal circle. Habits and modus operandis can besides be a barrier to societal inclusion, if person has a really rigorous modus operandi they may non be able to accommodate to a societal circle that have their ain functions and modus operandis which may hold clip struggles. Habits and modus operandis can besides be said to be a barrier to occupational balance. Occupational balance involves a healthy balance of ego attention, productiveness, leisure clip and rest/sleep ( Turner et al, 2002 ) . Susan spends the bulk of her clip with her boy Billy, or clean uping the house when he is at baby’s room. She besides visits household members. The clip she spends with household and clean uping the house can be classed as productive in a sense, that in disbursement clip with her household she has achieved something ( she is non sitting at place merely ‘waiting ‘ to pick Billy up ) and it has kept her meaningfully occupied, although this is personal to Susan and other people may non see it really productive. Self attention, remainder and slumber are countries in which premises can non be drawn based on Susan, her medical notes and other information do non relay any cognition about these countries. However, leisure is one country in Susans life that is badly deficient and this could be interrupting her occupational balance. She spends her clip with Billy, household, or clean uping the house and waiting for Billy to return ; she has no personal avocations, involvements or mercantile establishments in which to impart her energies or balance against what she already does. However, occupational therapy is really much focused on client-centred pattern, intending a partnership between the healer and the client. An occupational healer would necessitate to run an initial appraisal on Susan to reap whether she considers leisure activities to be meaningful and good although in this instance it could be assumed she would as she is worried about the province of her mental wellness when Billy starts traveling to school full-time. If she did non, or she considered seeing her household as leisure clip and felt she was balanced in the activities in her life this must be respected, as occupational therapy utilises a client-centred attack. Client-centred pattern involves a working partnership between healer in client to hold on wellness demands and intercessions together. For the healer to do all the determinations without affecting the client would be really bad pattern ( except in instances where the client is deemed to be unable to do determinations ; in which instance the healer still acts in the clients involvement ) .

Physical inaction could besides be described as a wellness demand in this context ; aerophilic exercising has been found to better temper for people with depression in a short sum of clip ( Dimeo et al, 2001 ) . Blumenthal et Al ( 1999 ) found that a specific dosage of aerophilic exercising for patients with depression showed a decrease or complete remittal of depressive symptoms. This survey besides showed that the dosage of aerophilic exercising had the same rates of response and remittal as antidepressant medicine and cognitive behavioral therapy. Physical activity is shown to cut down depressive symptoms in people with depression so possibly the fact that Susan does endure from depression but does non acquire any physical exercising can refer to it being a wellness demand instead than an intercession. Physical inaction can increase the hazard of many wellness jobs such as bosom disease, shot, diabetes and certain malignant neoplastic diseases ( WHO, 2010 ) besides foregrounding it as a specific wellness demand. Physical activity is besides a good manner to spread out your societal life and make full your clip which is a great manner to battle some effects of depression ( Williams, 2009 ) which could help in the other demands of Susan, such as her occupational individuality and occupational balance.

In decision, the chief wellness demands of Susan involve her deficiency of societal activities and societal inclusion, her demand to make full her clip with meaningful businesss, physical inaction and possibly a support web outside of her household. There is a batch of support available for people with mental wellness jobs, or kids with particular demands outside of occupational therapy, such as MIND, a mental wellness charity in England ; DirectGov, a authorities tally association with many drivers, one being towards support for particular instruction demands where Susan could acquire a batch of rearing support and run into other parents in the same state of affairs, and rearing support groups for kids with larning troubles run by the NHS across the state, such as The Maze ( Extra Support For Families, 2010 ) . Aside from these national support webs, occupational therapy could be an highly good intercession to the wellness demands of Susan. NICE ( 2010 ) guidelines for the intervention of depression province that a structured programme of activities is recommended for persistent or mild to chair depression, either entirely or alongside other psychosocial intercessions. An appropriate theoretical account to use to utilize in measuring and working with Susan could be the Model of Human Occupation ( Kielhofner, 2008 ) which would look at Susans will ( how she feels about the businesss she undertakes ) , addiction ( how she regulates her modus operandis and forms of behavior, and the functions in which she sees herself ) and public presentation capacity ( how able Susan is to carry through her current and future businesss based on her organic structure and cognitive abilities ) . This along with the other administrations mentioned could turn to her wellness demands and aid to spread out her occupational individuality and better her occupational balance and quality of life.