A conversation at a networking event between X and Y (chromosomes; haha) X= Her, Y= Him…

Y: Hi, how are you?

X: I’m fine; and you?

Y: I’m fine as well... My name is Y; you are?

X: (smiles) I am X.

Y: Nice to meet you.

X: (smiles) unsure what to say… 

Y: Do you live in the area? I haven’t seen you around.

X: Yeah I do.

Y: Oh really?! Have you been hiding?

X: (smiles) what we see depends on what we are looking for at any given point in time.

Y: (Smiles) Interesting… Do you have a minute?

X: A minute?! She smiles...

Y: You know what I mean… Do you mind taking a walk?

X: I wouldn’t be asking if I knew what you meant. I’m not a mind reader… (Smiles and starts walking)

Y: What do you do?

X: In regards to?

Y: School or work?

X: While attempting to answer…

Y: Wait let me guess… Nursing?

X: Nope! Nice try though...what I do is still in the health field.

Y: Pharmacy? Doctor?

X: Even if you had a hundred years to guess, you probably wouldn’t guess right.

Y: Really? Are you sure?

X: Positive!

Y: Ok, what do you do?

X: I am an Occupational Therapist. (Smiles)

Y: Laughs… looks away... What do they do?

Ooohh okay! Enough of the conversation!

First, let me say that I admire people who admit that they don’t know something and are open to learning about it. Even if it is just the basic information.

I am sure we have been asked one of the following questions at least once thus far in our journey of life. If you are in school, the question would be; what is your major or what are you studying? If you aren’t in school, the question would be, what do you do for work? Acknowledging that the question; what do you do, is a little vague, it, however, allows the conversation to flow in any direction. Also, with the shift in entrepreneurialism in our generation, people have more than one job or multiple streams of income.

I have had the above conversation too many times to count and each time it amazes me to see the reaction of the people who haven’t heard or don’t know about Occupational Therapy, a profession that was founded in 1917 and celebrated its 100th year in 2017. National Occupational Therapy month is celebrated in April; this year’s annual celebration was canceled due to COVID-19. So I am writing this in honor of that and to share my journey thus far and how it has molded me into the person I am today.

It has been four years of me working as an Occupational Therapist... It’s been challenging with speed bumps, rocky hills, roller coasters especially leading up to the new Medicare changes that happened in October 2019 that felt like a 360-degree change in the field for me. Between September 2018 and December 2019, there were moments that tested me to the core because, in addition to preparing for the Medicare changes, the company I worked for was being sold; so the transition was... Somehow I still woke up every morning and got myself ready to keep going because besides all the chaos that was/is going on, I LOVE what I do. Then came 2020 when things were beginning to stabilize and boom COVID-19... 

I consider my journey to becoming an Occupational Therapist as a non-traditional one. The background story; some of which are mentioned in a previous blog post I wrote back in September 2017. My journey to a non-traditional profession in the African community. As you can tell from the conversation at the beginning, the typical professions in the African community are or were Pharmacy, Doctor, Nursing and throw in Engineer. But the narrative is changing now as the Sitmpod sheds light on how we are deviating from what was the norm and still excelling and thriving.

May I share that I was humbled when recently asked to participate in a research study; Understanding the impact of a WhatsApp support group for health and community development practitioners during times of political/social crisis. This forum has been very enlightening with the information shared. At some point, it was a little overwhelming with the wealth of information shared from people in varying fields in healthcare residing in different parts of the world with vast extensive years of experience. I sometimes thought to myself, I only have four years of experience and probably one of the youngest in the forum, what do I really have to share. But there came moments when I shared from my personal experience in my journey thus far and the uniqueness of my experience with the response from other participants made me want to ask more questions to learn and share more of my perspective.

Working as an Occupational Therapist has helped me to be more grounded, more humble, more grateful, more present in the moment, more patient… the list goes on. Some of my experiences include using varying strategies/techniques to help people relearn how to get out of bed, to feed themself, complete grooming/hygiene, take a shower, get dressed, how to go from laying down to sitting up, how to maintain balance when transitioning from sitting to standing, how to make the simplest of meals like a cup of tea or a sandwich, cereal, oatmeal..etc. Some of which require quick thinking on my feet and creativity.

Whenever I have a challenging day and my emotions try to get the best of me, I recall an experience of someone I worked with whom with the help of occupational therapy, they celebrated their ability to drink water from a cup on their own meanwhile they had experienced a health condition that affected their ability to recognize the use and or differentiate a hairbrush from a toothbrush which they were able to prior to the health condition that changed all that. Another experience where someone celebrated their ability to scope their food and feed themself rather than wait for someone to come feed them or their ability to sign their own checks because they weren’t able to hold/manipulate a pen. Or someone who celebrated their ability to take a shower instead of sponge baths... The list/examples can go on and on. These experiences and more have helped me to appreciate the simplest of things.

One thing that surprised me during my first year working as an occupational therapist was that there were some healthcare providers who did/do not know what Occupational therapy is. I work in a skilled nursing facility where the population is mostly geriatric (older people) when I knock on the door to introduce myself to new patients; I’ll say Good morning, my name is X and I am an Occupational Therapist. Some of the responses I get include; I’m retired I don’t need a job; derived from the term “Occupation.” Others would say; what does that mean? What do they do? In my four years in this field, I still do get to explain what I do. It got to a point where I called being an Occupational Therapist a mystery profession. In 2017 when we celebrated our 100th year, I could not understand how a hundred years later, we still have to explain who we are and what we do. 

Prior to the initial partial lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19 that only allowed essential employees to go work, I initially thought that essential was only for hospitals. And given the way the term “Therapy” tends to be interpreted, I was bracing myself for a stay at home situation when I was notified otherwise. So the worry of staying at home for X duration shifted to fear of... See my most recent blog post

Some of my friends say my personality is a mystery to them so that’s probably why I was drawn to a profession that is a mystery as well (wink). Maybe, maybe not! Some theories suggest that who we are fundamentally shaping what we do, others suggest that what we do day in/day out shapes who we become… Will this be a tomayto/tomahto situation?

So, who is an Occupational Therapist and what do they do? A description from The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Website; 

[Occupational therapy practitioners ask, "What matters to you?" not, "What's the matter with you?]

“In its simplest terms, occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants help people across the lifespan participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities (occupations). Common occupational therapy interventions include helping children with disabilities to participate fully in school and social situations, helping people recovering from injury to regain skills, and providing support for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes. Occupational therapy services typically include:

• An individualized evaluation, during which the client/family and occupational therapist determine the person’s goals, 

• Customized intervention to improve the person’s ability to perform daily activities and reach the goals.

• An outcomes evaluation to ensure that the goals are being met and/or make changes to the intervention plan.

Occupational therapy services may include comprehensive evaluations of the client’s home and other environments (e.g., workplace, school), recommendations for adaptive equipment and training in its use, and guidance and education for family members and caregivers. Occupational therapy practitioners have a holistic perspective, in which the focus is on adapting the environment to fit the person, and the person is an integral part of the therapy team.

Happy Occupational Therapy Month to my fellow colleagues working in different settings from hospitals (aka acute setting), to sub-acute, Skilled Nursing Facilities (aka SNF/nursing homes), NIH, NRH, Medstar, Walter reed, Military, Navy, Air Force, Armed force, to outpatient settings, home setting, school setting, mental health in/outpatient, work & industry, self-employed, research, policy making/lobbying, ethics and list continues… 

Have you or are you on a journey to something non-traditional in your culture, society, community, home? It doesn’t have to be work related. If so, what has your journey been like thus far?