Definition of occupational therapy, its values and beliefs
Occupational therapy has a unique approach to service users
Its beliefs and values have been drawn together and incorporated into the College of Occupational Therapists’ Curriculum Guidance for Pre-Registration Education (COT 2009d):
Occupational therapists view people as occupational beings. People are intrinsically active and creative, needing to engage in a balanced range of activities in their daily lives in order to maintain health and wellbeing. People shape, and are shaped by, their experiences and interactions with their environments. They create identity and meaning through what they do and have the capacity to transform themselves through premeditated and autonomous action.
The purpose of occupational therapy is to enable people to fulfil, or to work towards fulfi lling, their potential as occupational beings. Occupational therapists promote function, quality of life and the realisation of potential in people who are experiencing occupational deprivation, imbalance or alienation. They believe that activity can be an effective medium for remediating dysfunction, facilitating adaptation and recreating identity. (COT 2009d, p1)
A shorter definition for occupational therapy was adopted by the College of Occupational Therapists’ Council in January 2004. Listed as the current BAOT/ UK definition on the World Federation of Occupational Therapists website, it reads: Occupational therapy enables people to achieve health, well being and life satisfaction through participation in occupation. (COT 2004)
Further descriptions of occupational therapy and its values and beliefs are available from:
Definitions and Core Skills for Occupational Therapy (COT 2009b)
Occupational Therapy Defined as a Complex Intervention (Creek 2003)
The Value of Occupational Therapy and its Contribution to Adult Social Service Users and their Carers (COT etal 2008)
From Interface to Integration: A Strategy for Modernising Occupational Therapy Services in Local Health and Social Care Communities. A Consultation. (COT 2002).
