Man cutting lettuce with large gardening shears in kitchen
Occupational Therapists have a lead role working with individuals in the area of occupational performance. Occupational performance refers to how a person engages in meaningful and valued activities in their life and can include self care, daily living skills, community living skills, work, leisure and many more.
An Occupational Therapist who is assisting a person with their occupational performance will identify strengths, barriers, supports, problems and solutions to participating in occupational performance. This process often involves an observation of the person undertaking a or a select number of tasks, as well as completion of checklists and standardised assessments. From here, the OT will then identify possible interventions, with regard to the person (P), the environment (E) and the task/occupation (O), aimed to improve or assist their ability to actively engage in the activity, thus enhancing their occupational performance.
There are a variety of occupational therapy assessments which identify whether a person can or cannot participate in certain tasks, and what level of independence they have to perform such tasks. For example, can the person take a shower independently, what level of assistance might they require?
Other assessments can help to identify the underlying factors contributing to the person being able to complete the task. This information can then be used to work with the individual to problem solve possible solutions to these issues, thus enhancing potential to improve independence, occupational performance and quality of life.
Julie O Sullivan and Carolyn Fitzgibbon at Sensory Modulation Brisbane have developed an observation checklist ‘Factors Influencing Occupational Performance’ which expands on the range of factors to include trauma, sensory preferences, and social and environmental factors.
The Factors Influencing Occupational Performance checklist is available as a (free) pdf to download on the Sensory Modulation Brisbane website.