Occupational Therapy Intervention Plan
Introduction
Leisure occupations are activities that a person engages in for personal satisfaction and pleasure (Hinojosa & Blount, 2014). Occupational therapy practitioners use purposeful activities as a method to restore function and compensation for functional impairment (Hinojosa & Blount, 2014). Before incorporating the meaningful occupation into the intervention plan, an analysis of the activity needs to be conducted. All the information received from the occupational profile must be taken into account when choosing a purposeful activity. The client is a 29 year old female who works as a licensed insurance agent. She works 12 hours a day, five days a week. When she is not working, she takes care of her six month old daughter and …show more content…
her seven year old stepson. She has a strong relationship with her two sisters and parents who live in close proximity to her. She enjoys playing with her daughter, going out to eat with her boyfriend/friends, doing Pilates with her sisters, and baking.
Interview Results
The client’s typical day involves getting up, getting herself and her daughter ready, taking her daughter to her grandparents’ house, and then going to work. She is a supervisor at an insurance agency and manages 30 employees. After work, she picks up her daughter and returns home. She cooks dinner after work and completes household chores. She feeds her daughter, bathes her, and lays her down to sleep. The client then gets herself ready and goes to bed just to do that same thing the next day. She does not have to work on weekends, therefore she tries to catch up on household chores if needed and for leisure activities. Out of all of the activities she enjoys, she stated that baking was an occupation that is very meaningful to her. She has been baking ever since she was a child and finds it stress relieving. She loves to bake for others because making others happy is very rewarding. She likes to bake every weekend, but is limited because she has a 6 month old daughter and at times she does not have the time or energy. She tries to incorporate baking into her weekends because her job is extremely stressful during the week.
Baking comes naturally to the client, therefore she believes it is more passive. If she is fatigued, the activity then becomes more active for her. When she is tired, she likes to invite someone to bake with her. Baking is cooperative and is a great way for her to spend time with her family. The client loves to be the one baking, but sometimes she teaches and directs another person on what to do. There are a lot of sequencing, organization, and interpretation skills needed to get a recipe right. Fine motor skills are needed for baking because she uses her hands to open things, pour ingredients, mix, etc. She relies heavily on her vision during the baking process for measuring, pouring, watching the timer, and to watch her treats bake. Before serving her baked goods, she tastes them to make sure they have the right amount of sweetness. Something that she loves about baking is how much creativity and free expression that is involved. There is definitely some structure because she follows a recipe, but she loves to alter the recipes and make them her own.
One thing that the client would change about her typical week is her work load. She works very long days and that inhibits her from doing other things. After work she is far too fatigued to engage in meaningful occupations. She does get to take care of her daughter, but sometimes needs help because all she wants to do is sleep after a long day. She is very thankful to have a supportive family and boyfriend because they are always willing to babysit. The client would love to travel more, but it is challenging because she is a new mother and does not have much flexibility with her career. She is hopeful that she will be able to take off of work this summer and can go on her family vacation.
Benefits of Occupational Therapy
The client would benefit from energy conservation techniques. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in December of 2016. She stated that her worst symptom is the extreme fatigue. An occupational therapist can provide techniques which may include cooling strategies, adaptive equipment, scheduling out the day, and modifying activities (Finlayson, Mathiowetz, & Matuska, 2007). An occupational therapist would promote her satisfaction and performance with activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). The client identified baking as a meaningful occupation, but is sometimes limited because of a lack of energy. An occupational therapist could provide different adaptive equipment for her to use to make ADLs easier and to reserve energy for other meaningful occupations. A commode, tub shower bench, shoe horn, and dressing stick can all be utilized to make getting ready in the morning less daunting, and also help the client reserve energy for the rest of the day (Arbesman, Lieberman, & Preissner, 2016). With help from her therapist, she can plan out her days to balance work and rest. It is important not to reach the point of exhaustion, utilize the best time of the day, and prioritize tasks (Finlayson et al., 2007).
MS is very individualistic, therefore some methods may not work for everyone. It is important to pin point what triggers the fatigue and to come up with a plan. For many people with MS, heat is the trigger for an array of symptoms. One of the main symptoms is fatigue. Since the client stated that baking was meaningful to her, cooling strategies are something that an occupational therapist may want to explore with the client. Something as simple as a damp wash cloth or a spray bottle filled with cool water may be adequate. If those low tech methods are not effective, there are more high tech options available. She may benefit from a cooling vest, headband, or neck band (“Cool It! Beat the Heat”, n.d). The occupational therapist can utilize the client’s purposeful activity and use it as part of an intervention.
Reflection
The interviewer met the client at an inpatient post-acute rehabilitation hospital.
The client was admitted due to an MS relapse. The interviewer made sure to interview the client a couple hours after her last therapy session so that she was able to rest. Consent was given and the interviewer assured the client that she would remain confidential. The client’s parents were in the room at the time of the interview. Since the client is soft spoken, they kept answering for her. It was challenging because the client disagreed with some of their input. Something that the interviewer could have done differently was take the client to the communal dining room to conduct the interview so that they could be alone. Body language is extremely important when interviewing a client. The interviewer faced the client and kept eye contact so that it was clear that the client was to answer the questions. The interviewer made sure to be interactive rather than just reading the questions verbatim and looking at a computer screen. She was prepared and the interview was more like a casual conversation than a school assignment. The client appeared happy to talk about her meaningful occupation, and even gave baking tips to the interviewer. After the interview was conducted, the client, interviewer, and parents all had a conversation about the client’s tasty treats and the interviewer’s lack of baking skills. Through the interview process, the rapport between the interviewer, the client, and the family became stronger because they were able to get to know each other better. An interview is an important component of an occupational therapy evaluation. How the practitioner conducts the interview can either build rapport or create a barrier between the client and the occupational therapist. It is also a way for the practitioner to determine the client’s
needs.
Conclusion
Occupational therapists analyze activities to departmentalize the task, determine the meaning it has to the client, and the therapeutic possibilities (Gillen, Scaffa, & Schell, 2014). An analysis is a tool to create therapeutic interventions that allow clients to engage in the occupations that hold meaning to them (Gillen, Scaffa, & Schell, 2014). To the client that was interviewed, the occupation that held the most meaning to her was baking. She is a new mother, has a demanding work load, and often feels fatigued. She was able to state some of the demands that are incorporated in baking. She also identified that she is constantly feeling fatigued and it limits the amount of time she spends baking. The clients satisfaction and performance in ADLs and IADLs will improve with the use of energy conservation techniques and adaptive equipment. The occupational therapist can incorporate baking into the intervention plan. Her purposeful activity will enhance her abilities and can result in success in personal and functional goals (Hinojosa & Blount, 2014). Baking is a goal-oriented task that can work on different areas including motor function, sensory function, and cognitive function.
Leisure occupations are activities that a person engages in for personal satisfaction and pleasure (Hinojosa & Blount, 2014). Occupational therapy practitioners use purposeful activities as a method to restore function and compensation for functional impairment (Hinojosa & Blount, 2014). Before incorporating the meaningful occupation into the intervention plan, an analysis of the activity needs to be conducted. All the information received from the occupational profile must be taken into account when choosing a purposeful activity. The client is a 29 year old female who works as a licensed insurance agent. She works 12 hours a day, five days a week. When she is not working, she takes care of her six month old daughter and …show more content…
her seven year old stepson. She has a strong relationship with her two sisters and parents who live in close proximity to her. She enjoys playing with her daughter, going out to eat with her boyfriend/friends, doing Pilates with her sisters, and baking.
Interview Results
The client’s typical day involves getting up, getting herself and her daughter ready, taking her daughter to her grandparents’ house, and then going to work. She is a supervisor at an insurance agency and manages 30 employees. After work, she picks up her daughter and returns home. She cooks dinner after work and completes household chores. She feeds her daughter, bathes her, and lays her down to sleep. The client then gets herself ready and goes to bed just to do that same thing the next day. She does not have to work on weekends, therefore she tries to catch up on household chores if needed and for leisure activities. Out of all of the activities she enjoys, she stated that baking was an occupation that is very meaningful to her. She has been baking ever since she was a child and finds it stress relieving. She loves to bake for others because making others happy is very rewarding. She likes to bake every weekend, but is limited because she has a 6 month old daughter and at times she does not have the time or energy. She tries to incorporate baking into her weekends because her job is extremely stressful during the week.
Baking comes naturally to the client, therefore she believes it is more passive. If she is fatigued, the activity then becomes more active for her. When she is tired, she likes to invite someone to bake with her. Baking is cooperative and is a great way for her to spend time with her family. The client loves to be the one baking, but sometimes she teaches and directs another person on what to do. There are a lot of sequencing, organization, and interpretation skills needed to get a recipe right. Fine motor skills are needed for baking because she uses her hands to open things, pour ingredients, mix, etc. She relies heavily on her vision during the baking process for measuring, pouring, watching the timer, and to watch her treats bake. Before serving her baked goods, she tastes them to make sure they have the right amount of sweetness. Something that she loves about baking is how much creativity and free expression that is involved. There is definitely some structure because she follows a recipe, but she loves to alter the recipes and make them her own.
One thing that the client would change about her typical week is her work load. She works very long days and that inhibits her from doing other things. After work she is far too fatigued to engage in meaningful occupations. She does get to take care of her daughter, but sometimes needs help because all she wants to do is sleep after a long day. She is very thankful to have a supportive family and boyfriend because they are always willing to babysit. The client would love to travel more, but it is challenging because she is a new mother and does not have much flexibility with her career. She is hopeful that she will be able to take off of work this summer and can go on her family vacation.
Benefits of Occupational Therapy
The client would benefit from energy conservation techniques. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in December of 2016. She stated that her worst symptom is the extreme fatigue. An occupational therapist can provide techniques which may include cooling strategies, adaptive equipment, scheduling out the day, and modifying activities (Finlayson, Mathiowetz, & Matuska, 2007). An occupational therapist would promote her satisfaction and performance with activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). The client identified baking as a meaningful occupation, but is sometimes limited because of a lack of energy. An occupational therapist could provide different adaptive equipment for her to use to make ADLs easier and to reserve energy for other meaningful occupations. A commode, tub shower bench, shoe horn, and dressing stick can all be utilized to make getting ready in the morning less daunting, and also help the client reserve energy for the rest of the day (Arbesman, Lieberman, & Preissner, 2016). With help from her therapist, she can plan out her days to balance work and rest. It is important not to reach the point of exhaustion, utilize the best time of the day, and prioritize tasks (Finlayson et al., 2007).
MS is very individualistic, therefore some methods may not work for everyone. It is important to pin point what triggers the fatigue and to come up with a plan. For many people with MS, heat is the trigger for an array of symptoms. One of the main symptoms is fatigue. Since the client stated that baking was meaningful to her, cooling strategies are something that an occupational therapist may want to explore with the client. Something as simple as a damp wash cloth or a spray bottle filled with cool water may be adequate. If those low tech methods are not effective, there are more high tech options available. She may benefit from a cooling vest, headband, or neck band (“Cool It! Beat the Heat”, n.d). The occupational therapist can utilize the client’s purposeful activity and use it as part of an intervention.
Reflection
The interviewer met the client at an inpatient post-acute rehabilitation hospital.
The client was admitted due to an MS relapse. The interviewer made sure to interview the client a couple hours after her last therapy session so that she was able to rest. Consent was given and the interviewer assured the client that she would remain confidential. The client’s parents were in the room at the time of the interview. Since the client is soft spoken, they kept answering for her. It was challenging because the client disagreed with some of their input. Something that the interviewer could have done differently was take the client to the communal dining room to conduct the interview so that they could be alone. Body language is extremely important when interviewing a client. The interviewer faced the client and kept eye contact so that it was clear that the client was to answer the questions. The interviewer made sure to be interactive rather than just reading the questions verbatim and looking at a computer screen. She was prepared and the interview was more like a casual conversation than a school assignment. The client appeared happy to talk about her meaningful occupation, and even gave baking tips to the interviewer. After the interview was conducted, the client, interviewer, and parents all had a conversation about the client’s tasty treats and the interviewer’s lack of baking skills. Through the interview process, the rapport between the interviewer, the client, and the family became stronger because they were able to get to know each other better. An interview is an important component of an occupational therapy evaluation. How the practitioner conducts the interview can either build rapport or create a barrier between the client and the occupational therapist. It is also a way for the practitioner to determine the client’s
needs.
Conclusion
Occupational therapists analyze activities to departmentalize the task, determine the meaning it has to the client, and the therapeutic possibilities (Gillen, Scaffa, & Schell, 2014). An analysis is a tool to create therapeutic interventions that allow clients to engage in the occupations that hold meaning to them (Gillen, Scaffa, & Schell, 2014). To the client that was interviewed, the occupation that held the most meaning to her was baking. She is a new mother, has a demanding work load, and often feels fatigued. She was able to state some of the demands that are incorporated in baking. She also identified that she is constantly feeling fatigued and it limits the amount of time she spends baking. The clients satisfaction and performance in ADLs and IADLs will improve with the use of energy conservation techniques and adaptive equipment. The occupational therapist can incorporate baking into the intervention plan. Her purposeful activity will enhance her abilities and can result in success in personal and functional goals (Hinojosa & Blount, 2014). Baking is a goal-oriented task that can work on different areas including motor function, sensory function, and cognitive function.