Patients who want results must stick to treatment
TODAY is World Occupational Therapy Day and, on this occasion, experts in the field have underscored the need for patients to stick to their treatments if they want to see results.
Guyana has only two occupational therapists, Mr. Rabindra Gena, who works, primarily, with children and visits the special education needs schools across the country and Mrs. Sarah Verveld, who attends adults and is based, mainly, at Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
Verveld, a Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) volunteer attached to the Health Ministry’s Rehabilitation Services Department, noted that, in addition to the delivery, some amount of capacity building is done by both she and Gena.
“We need people to know that there is occupational therapy and they can be helped. They can have the independence they knew returned to them…there is a good level of service here that only needs to be upgraded,” she said.
Supporting the due are approximately 40 rehabilitation assistants (RAs) posted in nine of Guyana’s 10 Administrative Regions.
Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) is, presently, without the service but, with 19 additional RAs, this will change in 2011.
According to the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), it is a profession concerned with promoting health and well-being through occupation and its primary goal is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life.
WFOT contends that occupational therapists achieve this objective by enabling people to do things that will enhance their ability to participate or by modifying the environment to better support participation.

STAGES

The different stages in the occupational therapy process start with referral, then move to information gathering, initial assessment, needs identification/problem formation, goal setting, action planning, ongoing assessment and revision of action, outcome and outcome measurement, end of intervention or discharge and, finally, review.
Verveld said: “The process is different for each patient and, depending on their needs, we recommend a number of visits or, if it is something they can do at home, then we support that, too.”
She explained that, in the delivery of services, both patient and therapist have to deal with inherent challenges.
For patients, it is transportation to and from different points and access to buildings, even their home, as well as having a strong support framework that is, sometimes, unwilling to step back for the good of the patient.
“Families and neighbours here are very supportive and that can be both good and bad. Bad because, sometimes, the patient needs to go it alone and those supporting the individual are, at times, unwilling to step back,” Verveld elaborated.
She said this is a challenge also for therapists.
However, the primary challenge affecting the delivery of services, is the lack of patience among those receiving therapy, Verveld stated.
According to her:“Patients like to see changes quickly and, if it takes too long, in their estimation, then they stop coming to therapy…they need to stick to it for a little longer to see the results they need.”
She reiterated that patients need to recognise the support they have in occupational therapy and maintain it, so they return to the level of independence they knew and not have to depend on relatives or friends.
“Occupational therapy is focusing on the occupation of the patients, what they used to do and try our best to return them to that state…we look at the possibilities to help them return to what they knew as normal,” Verveld said.

CONTEXT

It is within that context WFOT decided to dedicate World Occupational Therapy Day, so it is used as an opportunity to increase the visibility of the profession.
Included in occupational therapy services, typically, are:
* teaching new ways of approaching tasks;
* the ways in which to break down activities into achievable components e.g. sequencing a complex task like cooking a complex meal;
* comprehensive home and job site evaluations with adaptation recommendations;
* performance skills assessments and treatment;
* adaptive equipment recommendations and usage training;
* environmental adaptation, including provision of equipment or designing adaptations to remove obstacles or make them manageable;
* guidance to family members and caregivers and
* the use of creative media as therapeutic activity