Iðjuþjálfinn - 2020, Page 43

Iðjuþjálfinn 1/202043
“Occupational therapists around the world feel like they have some-
thing unique to contribute but they can’t express what they do”
I think that this book and these models give us a structure that
helps us to keep our focus on occupation and guide us through how
we implement each phase. As well as the details on how we gather
information and implement our performance analysis. Other mod-
els do not give us the details of the intervention and that is what we
need. All of this started as I travelled around and met occupational
therapists around the world, they consistently felt like they had
something unique to offer but they couldn’t express what they did.
What they were doing was often like other professions. I thought,
we need a model that will help occupational therapists keep their
focus on occupation. And as I said earlier, use occupation for both
evaluation and for intervention. So, if we are occupational thera-
pists, that means it´s occupation, if we are physical therapists, we
focus on the physical functions. If we are psychological, we will be
focusing on the psyche, but we´re occupational therapists. Always
use your occupation-centred reasoning, keep your practice occu-
pation based and occupation focused. It doesn’t mean you can’t do
some of the other things, but if you emphasize on the other things,
you have lost your focus.

Dr. Anne G. Fisher defined her path as a researcher, consultant
and professor more than 40 years ago and has for years been
internationally recognized as an expert in occupational thera-
py theory, functional assessment, and instrumental develop-
ment. What would she advise the practicing occupational ther-
apist and occupational therapy students?
If you want to be an occu pational therapist, then the focus of what
you do should always be occupation. And I am go ing to repeat my-
self, that means that the focus of your evaluation is occu pation, the
focus of your intervention is occu pati on. You use occupati on as
your inter vention. It’s not just your outcome. All professions have a
focus on occupation as an outcome. Doctors do it because they
want their patient to be able to do what he wants to do. Physiother-
apists do it because they want us to do what we want to do. We all
have occupation as an outcome. We don’t call it that, but that’s ul-
timately what everybody cares about. We´re the only ones that
use occupation and base our evaluations on occupation like with
the performance analysis.
Dr. Fisher developed the Assessment of Motor and Process
Skills (AMPS) and co-developed the Evaluation of Social Inter-
actions (ESI). AMPS is now standardized on more than 150.000
people for use in more than 25 countries around the world and
many Icelandic occupational therapists use it in their practice.
In 2015 Dr. Fisher had two courses in Iceland over the course of
two weeks, the first on the use of ESI and the second on the
Occupational Therapy Intervention Process Model (OTIPM).
How does she see the future of occupational therapy?
What I dream for, is a world where occupational therapists believe
in what they do, they have this professional identity or profession-
alism that when our boss, who is the physiotherapist, tells us we
have to work on the hand, we dare to say no. We stand up for our-
selves, we believe in ourselves, we feel good about ourselves. And
that we actually capture the full value of occupation. Said in the
words of this textbook, that occupational therapists around the
world practice authentic occupational therapy. What we see in all
countries around the world, is that many occupational therapists
for one reason or another do not do that. My dream for the future is
that we do.
„I dream that we dare say no. That we stand up for ourselves, believe
in ourselves and feel good about ourselves”
On numerous occasions I have discussed the concepts of occupa-
tion based, occupation centred, and why it is so hard to focus on
the occupation with occupational therapists around the world. It is
so easy for us to say: “my boss tells me I have to do this”, or “I don’t
have the time to do that”, or “we can’t do that at the place that I
work”. One time the occupational therapists broke into groups and
we didn´t guide them at all, and when they came back, they said:
we realized that it’s us that have to change. When we believe in our-
selves, when we dare to say no, then can we practice occupational
therapy.
Focusing on body functions does not always translate into occupa-
tion. These could be the physical functions of the physiotherapist,
the mental functions of the social worker or the psychologist, it
could be the oral motor functions of the speech therapist. None of
these translate to occupation. They help, they build foundations
but in and of themselves they do not produce occupation.
The best way to get better at occupation is to engage in occupation.
You need to practice. How do you become a better athlete? You
practice. How do you get better at being an occupational therapist?
You practice authentic occupational therapy, you get better at it,
practice, and stick with it. We are the only profession that does
that, but occupational therapy is not easy, there are no simple an-
swers. There is no black or white, no concrete path to follow except
practicing authentic occupational therapy.
HEIMILDIR
Center for Innovative OT Solutions. (n.d). Anne G. Fisher, ScD, OT, FAOTA
President & Founder. https://www.innovativeotsolutions.com/blog/
anne-g-fisher/
Colorado State University. (n.d). Anne Fisher Affiliate Faculty Occupational
Therapy. https://www.chhs.colostate.edu/bio-page/anne-fisher-2344