อยากให้บันทึกนี้จุดประกายน้องๆ กิจกรรมบำบัดที่เพิ่งจบ ให้ริเริ่มและพัฒนาตนเองเพื่อคิดโปรแกรมใหม่ๆให้กับชาวไทยครับ

ผมอยากให้นักกิจกรรมบำบัดที่เพิ่งจบและกำลังจะถูกระบบราชการไทย หรือแนวคิดที่ล้าหลังทางสาธารณสุขไทย ลองมาอ่าน "บทบาทของนักกิจกรรมบำบัดในออสเตรเลีย" ผมได้เน้นสีในบทบาทที่คิดว่าน่าจะยังไม่ค่อยได้ทำกันในบ้านเรา ลองพิจารณาและปรับแนวคิดให้สร้างโปรแกรมสุขภาพเพื่อชาวไทยกันนะครับ

Cited reference from OT Australia WA at http://www.otauswa.com.au/index.cfm?objectid=C0CE8FC9-1422-130F-33F1EFAA8E763AF5

Occupational Therapy Specialty Areas

Arthritis, Burns, Mental Health, Neurology, Occupational Health and Safety, Older Adults, Orthopaedics, Pain Management, Palliative Care, Pediatrics, Upper limb rehabilitation, Vocational Rehabilitation

Arthritis

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• People with rheumatoid arthritis (swelling of the joints, particularly in the hands)
• People with osteoarthritis (damage to the joints, particularly in the hips)


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• joint protection techniques
• work simplification / energy conservation techniques
• prescription and provision of assistive equipment
• prescription and production of splints
• home modifications
• maintain range of movement and muscle strength
• education
• stress and pain management strategies
• relaxation techniques
• psychological support



Burns

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• Children and adults who have sustained burns from fire, boiling liquid, steam, and chemicals


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• maximize personal independence in self-care, leisure and work roles
• compensate for disabilities
• adjustment to injury through education and coping strategies
• wound care
• scar management
• preventing loss of movement through splinting and exercises
• sensory retraining
• prescription of assistive equipment



Pediatrics

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• Children who have difficulties with fine motor skills (e.g. handwriting & drawing), perceptual skills (e.g. puzzles & reading) or gross motor skills (e.g. sport activity & coordination).
• Children who were born with a disability (e.g. cerebral palsy, down syndrome & autism)
• Children who have been involved in an accident (e.g. head injuries & burns)
• Children who have severe illnesses (e.g. cancer & anorexia)


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• Assessing children's abilities in fine motor, gross motor and perceptual skills.
• Teach techniques to improve school skills (e.g. pencil grasp, posture, hand-writing & drawing)
• Teach children how to independently do daily activities (e.g. dressing & feeding)
• Provide wheel chairs and other equipment required
• Create splints to improve the child's use of their hands
• Run fun activities for children who are very ill
• Health Promotion


Who do occupational therapists work with?

• People who are at high risk of becoming ill.
• People who are acting in ways that will make an illness they already have worse.
• Indigenous communities
• Clients who have had their first episode of psychosis
• Elderly people to prevent functional decline (e.g. the "Well Elderly Program")


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• Consult the community to see what they see are the important health problems to address
• Educate individuals and communities about healthier lifestyles and behaviours (e.g. diet, exercise, stress management, and balanced activities)
• Provide activities to assist people to take up healthier lifestyles


Occupational Health and Safety

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• Managers of businesses
• Workers within businesses
• Work Safe
• Insurance companies


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• Visit workplace to assess safety hazards and risks
• Suggest changes to work locations, equipment and activities to ensure that work can be completed safely
• Educate employers and workers about occupational health & safety legislation, how this can be followed, and the consequences for ignoring it
• Provide training in manual handling and other safe work practices.



Mental Health

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• Adults or children who...
• have depression or manic depression
• have phobias
• have panic attacks
• have schizophrenia
• are dealing with trauma, grief or bereavement
• have an eating disorder


What roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• Relaxation techniques
• Anger management
• Stress management
• Counseling
• Problem solving skill training
• Life skill training (e.g. budgeting, transport, cooking)
• Individual and group work
• Communication and social skills training
• Exploring leisure and recreation options
• Managing taking of medications
• Managing side-effects of medication
• Managing symptoms of illness


Neurology

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• People who have conditions or disease processes arising from or affecting the nervous system
• Conditions include cerebral palsy, head injury, stroke, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's disease, peripheral nerve lesions, spinal cord lesions


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake in

• maximizing personal independence in self-care, leisure, and work roles
• education on establishing routines and balancing daily activities
• promotion of normal movement
• fine motor skills training
• compensate for disabilities
• prevention of deformity and spasticity
• maximizing personal independence
• compensate for disabilities
• home modification and environmental control systems
• management of perceptual, sensory, cognitive and behaviour problems
• provision of slings and cushioning to support the shoulder
• wheelchair and transport training
• coping strategies to reestablish family, work, and leisure roles
• discharge planning / advise
• social and psychological support
• referral to other services within the community
• splint prescription and production



Older Adults

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• People who have had a total hip or knee replacement
• People with arthritis
• People who have Parkinson's disease
• People who are frail or weak
• People who are isolated
• People who have dementia


What roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• Equipment prescription and provision
• Training in use of equipment
• Issuing wheelchairs and training in use
• Modifying activities and tasks
• Individual and group activities
• Co-ordinate leisure and recreational activities
• Counseling
• Referrals to community services
• Addressing issues of physical comfort and health



Orthopaedics

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• People who have had total hip replacements, broken bones (fractures), amputations or are born without parts of limbs.


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake in...

• maximize personal independence in self-care, leisure and work roles
• improve joint motion and strengthen muscles
• prescription of assistive equipment and training
• massage and stump care
• coping strategies and psychological support
• home modification
• coping and relaxation strategies



Pain Management

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• people who have back pain
• people who have migraines
• people who have pain syndromes, such as reflex sympathetic dystrophy and phantom limb pain
• people who experience pain as a result of any injury, condition or illness


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• prevention of pain syndromes
• maximize personal independence in self-care, leisure and work roles
• compensate for disabilities
• heat treatments
• exercise programs
• electrical nerve stimulation
• massage and trigger point therapy
• movements and strengthening exercises
• stress and pain management strategies
• home modifications
• coping strategies


Palliative Care

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• Children and adults with a terminal illness


What roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• counseling
• relaxation techniques
• stress management
• pain management
• improving quality of life
• encouraging meaningful activities
• bereavement support for individuals, families and others
• providing home modifications and equipment
• facilitating sense of personal closure
• spiritual support
• facilitating carrying out of final wishes
• referring to community services and support groups



Upper limb rehabilitation

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• People who have sustained some sort of trauma or disease process that affects the upper limb


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• Assessment
• Splinting, strapping
• Muscle strengthening / stretching, coordination, and fine motor exercises
• Scar management, massage, wound care
• Prescription of adaptive equipment
• Coping strategies
• immobilize stabilize, or protect tissues
• optimal functional use
• substitute for paralyzed muscles
• correct deformity


Vocational Rehabilitation

Who do occupational therapists work with?

• People who have had an accident at work and need help to get back to work with their injuries
• People who have a physical disability or mental illness and are interested in gaining employment


What sort of roles do occupational therapists undertake?

• Analyzing previous jobs of the worker, along with other jobs within their workplace that they are interested in
• Liaising with insurance companies, employers and doctors about the workers rehabilitation
• Assessing the workers abilities to do a variety of different tasks (this may require observing them do a task or using specialized equipment)
• Assisting the worker to relearn how to do a job despite their injury or disability, and with minimal risk of re-injury
• Suggesting activities (e.g. exercise and healthy diet) to reduce the impact of the injury to prepare the worker to return to a job
• Providing evidence in courts for workers compensation claims