Why You Should Know What The Core Values of Occupational Therapy Are

If you’re anything like me, you probably have no idea what Occupational Therapy is, or what an Occupational Therapist does. That is until you happen to meet one. I didn’t understand it myself until I started my degree, and spoiler alert; I’m still learning. But fear not, I’m here to share what I’ve learnt so far.

According to the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), Occupational Therapy is;

A client-centred health profession concerned with promoting health and well-being through occupation. The primary goal of Occupational Therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life.

That’s simple enough, right? If not, this is how I think about Occupational Therapy, and what Occupational Therapists do;

An Occupational Therapist focuses on enabling you to successfully do anything, and everything, you want to do or need to do, daily.

As we move through the rest of this post, we are going to be looking at Occupational Therapy in a little more depth. We’ll cover the core principles of Occupational Therapy to give you more insight into a profession that most people aren’t too familiar with.

The first thing you need to understand about Occupational Therapy is what the word’ occupation’ means in the profession. And to help you with that, you can check out my earlier blog post all about’ occupation’ in Occupational Therapy. It covers the meaning of occupation, it’s categories, and there’s also a short exercise at the end that you might find useful.

However, here is the WFOT definition to get you started:

Occupation/Occupations refer to the everyday activities that people do as individuals, in families, and with communities to occupy time and bring purpose and meaning to life. Occupations include things people need to, want to, and are expected to do.

Core Values of Occupational Therapy

Depending on who you ask, there are quite a few core values that guide the practice of Occupational Therapy. However, we are going to be discussing the eight core values that I feel capture the essence of Occupational Therapy the best.

1. Holistic or Person-Centred Practice

Holistic or Person-Centred Practice in Occupational Therapy refers to seeing the clients we work with as whole individuals, and not limiting our attention to the physical or mental health challenges that brought them to us in the first place. We are concerned with the challenges that brought the person into our care, but the person in our care is more than the condition that brought them to us.

So we look at all the context that surrounds the individual; their motivations, goals, social life, family life, community involvement, home environment, work/school environment, and so much more. All these things are relevant because they all inform the kinds of occupations that a person engages in. And understanding this often gives an Occupational Therapist a unique view of the person and how best to approach their care.

Being holistic or person-centred also encourages the clients we work with to actively engage in their therapy, which facilitates co-produced therapy goals. And when a client is actively involved in setting their own therapy goals, they are more likely to comply with treatment and achieve better outcomes.

2. Inclusion

Occupational Therapists believe that everyone has the right to be able to engage in the occupations that they need to, and want to do.

This principle drives the focus on adaptations that Occupational Therapists are so skilled at. Whether the presenting problem the client is having is physical or mental, an Occupational Therapist’s focus on inclusion is what informs our assessments and recommendations. What is the barrier to engagement in their occupations? And what can be done to remove or reduce that barrier?

Inclusion also informs the social justice work that is also an essential aspect of the work Occupational Therapists do. Human beings are social creatures by design, and an inability to engage with other people socially can affect our lives in so many ways. You only need to look back on the ways COVID-19 has affected our realities over this past year, to understand how important social interaction is in our lives.

3. Autonomy and Self-Management

As social as we are, human beings also long for a sense of autonomy and independence in our lives. We want to be able to do things for ourselves when we need to, even if those activities may involve others. A simple example of this is taking the bus to visit a friend. It’s a simple activity that most people can do without support, but imagine how different your life would be if you couldn’t just decide to make the trip to see your friend because your ability to take the bus independently had been affected.

That is why promoting autonomy and self-management are so crucial in Occupational Therapy. We want to empower people to live their lives on their terms as much as possible, and this extends to the approach we take when working with clients. Encouraging them to take ownership of their health and well-being not only improves the outcome for the clients we work with, but it also allows them to take back some of their power and control in a situation where they are trusting the healthcare professionals they are working with, to make the best decisions for them.

4. Equality & Diversity

Equality and diversity are core values in any health care profession, but I feel they are woven into the fabric of what occupational therapy is on a profound level. They come through in everything we do; from our assessments to the interventions we engage in with our clients.

Our end goal is for everyone to have access to the activities they want to engage in, and to achieve this, we utilise the concept of equity. The reality is that not everyone is at the same starting line in life, so in our work, we recognise that and adapt accordingly.

These values are what makes it so important that we assess each person on an individual level and make recommendations that are in line with their abilities, capabilities, needs, wants and cultures, to the best of our abilities. Factors like finances, social support, and access to services may impede our ability to achieve all the outcomes we want, but you can be sure that we’ll do everything in our power to bridge that gap for you.

5. Cultural Competence

When it comes to cultural competence, a clear understanding of the nuances of culture is a necessary first step. In this context, culture does not just mean different racial, ethnic groups, or languages, although those are a big part of the discussion. Culture refers to how individuals choose to carry out their occupations and the ’why’ behind it, which can sometimes be a bit harder to identify.

For example, people around the world drink tea, but do they all go about making their tea the same way? The answer is no. Some people might boil their teabags in a pot over a fire, others might put a kettle to boil and pour that boiling water over their teabags, and still, other people make their tea using tea leaves. We all have our peculiarities and rituals that are associated with the occupations we engage in, and all those little differences come together to form our individual cultures.

These cultures are influenced by everything we learn and experience in our lives. So the ability to be aware of and sensitive to these differences, and how to effectively manage them, is a necessary skill that Occupational Therapists employ in our practice.

6. Evidence-Based Practice

Evidence-based practice is precisely what it sounds like. Working with a solid evidence base is a vital part of every successful profession. In Occupational Therapy, it is crucial to the development and progression of the profession as a whole, and our ability to provide the most effective care to the clients we work with. The areas where we focus our attention can be very nuanced and because of that, having concrete evidence to support our clinical and professional reasoning is essential.

You can see the push for more research into Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science reflected across the profession all over the world, and that is a testament to the importance that the profession places on sound evidence.

7. Occupation-Based Practice

Of all the core values considered up until this point, occupation-based practice is the only one that is unique to Occupational Therapy. This core value emphasises our focus on occupations and the understanding of how they impact our lives.

An Occupational Therapist uses occupation as both the tool and the end goal of treatment. Whereas a doctor might prescribe medication, and a physiotherapist might prescribe targeted exercise to reach the outcomes that have been identified for a client, an Occupational Therapist will prescribe occupations.

Our goal is to understand which occupations will be the most beneficial for you, and then encourage you to engage in those occupations. There is a firm belief that the process of engaging in occupations has therapeutic value in and of itself, and our primary skill lies in strategically identifying the occupations which will provide the best results for you, and then facilitating your engagement in those occupations in whatever way is most appropriate given the other contextual factors that are at play. To this end, there are multiple different models of Occupational Therapy practice which have been developed to improve upon and streamline this process.

8. Sustainability

Sustainability is the last, but definitely not the least, of the core values of Occupational Therapy. Ensuring that the interventions we use and the results seen by the clients we work are sustainable, is a necessary part of the Occupational Therapy process.

Because of our role in facilitating occupations in people lives, ensuring that the measures taken to enable occupation are sustainable isn’t an option. If sustainability weren't a part of the equation, the likelihood of any tangible improvement in our clients would be minimal at best. Think about your new years’ resolutions or the times you’ve tried to change habits without having a sustainable plan, what happened? You probably ended up right back at square one after trying to keep up with activities that you could not sustain in the long run. I’ve been there myself with my journey towards losing weight, and I know how it feels when you try with the best of intentions, but it still doesn’t work out.

Because Occupational Therapists are in the business of working with you to achieve long-term improvements in everyday activities, the sustainability of the goals we set with you and the outcomes you achieve is always at the front of our minds. Setting SMART goals which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely, is just one of the ways that this value translates into our everyday practice.

I know that was a lot of information to digest, but you’ve made it this far! So here is a virtual high-five for reading this all the way through.

To summarise, you now know how to define Occupational Therapy to anyone who asks (and they usually will if you bring it up). You also now have a good grasp of the core values that inform the work Occupational Therapists do, and you have a clear idea of what to expect if you ever happen to work with an Occupational Therapist, as a colleague or client. And all that new knowledge is pretty amazing if you ask me.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. If you did don’t forget to give it a clap, and if you would like to read more, hit the follow button!

I post every week, and I’d love to have you on this journey with me.

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This article is for informational and educational purposes only. Do not take anything written in this post as a substitute for information from a trained professional familiar with the specifics of your situation.