Occupational Therapy Evaluation Process

Occupational Therapy Process: Evaluation, Intervention, & Outcomes

• The occupational therapy process is the client-centered delivery of occupational therapy services.
• The OT process involves actions practitioners take to support client engagement in occupations.
• This process involves collaboration between the occupational therapist and the client.
• The process guides practitioners in supporting client participation in daily living activities.

Learning Objectives

• List and define components of the OT process.
• Differentiate between the components of the OT process.
• Understand and appreciate the importance of each component of the OT process steps.
• Grasp the flow and organization of OT service delivery.
• Recognize the importance of outcome monitoring.

Therapeutic Use of Self

• Occupational therapy practitioners develop and manage therapeutic relationships with clients using professional reasoning, empathy, and a client-centered, collaborative approach to service delivery.

Therapeutic Use of Occupation

• Occupational therapy practitioners prioritize occupations as primary intervention methods to promote health throughout the entire process.
• Analyzing occupational performance requires understanding client contexts, performance patterns, performance skills, and client factors for daily activities.

Clinical and Professional Reasoning

• Clinical and professional reasoning applies knowledge and reasoning skills to identify activity and occupation demands.
• This entails identifying required skills and potential meanings of activities and occupations.
• It also involves gaining a deeper understanding of interrelationships affecting performance.

Process of Occupational Therapy

• The three-part process includes evaluation, intervention, and targeted outcomes within the purview of occupational therapy.

Evaluation

• Evaluation focuses on identifying client needs, problems, priorities, abilities, and support/barrier factors to health and participation.
• Evaluation takes place formally (assessment tools) and informally (observation) throughout client interactions.
• The evaluation consists of occupational profile, analysis of occupational performance, and synthesis of evaluation process.
• Occupational Profile: Includes information about the client, needs, problems, and concerns related to performance in areas of occupation.
• Analysis of Occupational Performance: Focuses on collecting and interpreting information using assessment tools to observe, measure, and inquire about factors supporting or obstructing occupational performance.
• Synthesis of Evaluation Process: The occupational therapist synthesizes information gathered from the occupational profile and analysis of occupational performance.

Evaluation vs. Assessment

• Assessment refers to specific tools or instruments utilized during the evaluation process.
• Evaluation is the process of obtaining and interpreting data to plan for and document intervention and results.

Activity Analysis

• Activity analysis is a crucial process for OT practitioners to understand the demands of a specific desired activity for a client.
• This process considers the activity's demands, required skills, and cultural meanings.

Intervention

• Intervention involves skilled actions of OT practitioners in collaboration with clients to facilitate engagement in occupations.
• Practitioners use evaluation information to guide direct interventions.
• The intervention process is divided into three steps:
• Intervention plan: The plan directs the actions of the occupational therapist and is developed collaboratively with the client based on their goals and priorities.
• Intervention implementation: Putting the plan into action by determining and applying OT interventions, monitoring client progress through ongoing assessment.
• Intervention review: Continuously reevaluating the intervention plan, its delivery effectiveness and progress towards outcomes. This involves re-evaluating the plan, modifying it as needed, and determining the need for continuation or discontinuation of OT services.

Types of Occupational Therapy Interventions

• Therapeutic use of self: The practitioner's planned use of personality, insights, perceptions, and judgements.
• Therapeutic use of occupations/activities: Selected occupations and activities to meet therapeutic goals including occupation-based interventions, purposeful activity, and preparatory methods.
• Consultation process: Practitioners using their expertise to collaborate, identify problems, and create solutions.
• Education: Teaching knowledge about occupation, health, and participation.
• Advocacy: Efforts to empower clients to access resources to fully participate in daily occupations.

Outcomes

• Outcomes are defined as important dimensions of health attributed to interventions that consider ability to function, health perceptions, and satisfaction with care.
• Outcomes are the end-result of the occupational therapy process and describe what occupational therapy interventions achieve with clients, including occupational performance related aspects, adaptation, health and wellness, participation, prevention, quality of life, self-advocacy, and occupational justice.

Outcomes Monitoring

• Outcomes monitoring determines client success by assessing observable outcomes, such as a client's ability to incorporate skills into a routine or improved strength/range of motion to enable engagement in everyday activities(IADL).
• The implementation of the outcomes process selects outcome types/measures.
• Using outcomes to measure progress and adjust goals/interventions for future direction, modification, or discontinuation.

Outcomes Types

• Occupational performance, adaptation, health, wellness, participation, prevention, quality of life, role competence, self-advocacy, and occupational justice are different outcome types in OT practices.