Case Study: Occupational Therapy Assistants

Cultural Diversity
Occupational therapy assistants must realize that an individual’s culture plays a large role in who they are as a person and what their occupations are. The cultural contexts of an individual can impinge the individual’s sociocultural, socioeconomic, and diversity in lifestyle. This being said, occupational therapy assistants should be aware that their client’s culture impacts their occupational performance and their ability to participate in meaningful occupations during the intervention process. One of the cultures I decided to research was Indian culture. In this culture, individuals typically have strong relationships with their family members and tend to value families more than individuals. Ideally, Indian families
This culture is most widely known for their rejection of associating and utilizing the electrical world. The Amish don’t use electricity because the Bible tells them that they aren’t allowed to be “conformed to the world”. They believe that using electricity could lead them to temptations that would change the church and family life (Amish People...). This being said, people of the Amish culture live very primitive lives. Amish individuals don’t wake up to alarms, get to flick a switch for light, or even use vehicles for transportation. Instead, people of this culture walk, scoter, bike, rollerblade, or use a horse and buggy to get
Starting at an early age, children too, help on Amish farms. Since Amish don’t use electric devices, they do not use tractors. Everything they do is through means of mules and hand (Amish People...).
Since Amish individuals participate in a rigorous work and life style, the practitioner should be aware of the techniques they use. Without having a knowledge of how the individual completes their tasks, the intervention could be meaningless. Even though having a knowledge of how the client completes their occupations is important, the practitioner should also be aware that the client may not be able to complete all the things he/she used to. To address this issue, the practitioner should be sensitive and help the client take on other occupations within their abilities.
Through culture, an individual develops sense of identity. Culture ultimately makes up the customs of an individual and can be broken down to performance patterns, contexts/environments, and diversity in lifestyles and thought. Since every culture differs from others, and occupational therapy must be purposeful and meaningful to every client, the practitioner must be aware of the ways that culture plays a role in the client’s life. If the occupational therapist does not do this, many issues could arise regarding the purpose of occupational therapy and could end up offending many clients. Culture is essential to identifying individual’s