If you’ve ever been in hospital or a psychiatric day centre you’re sure to have come across them.
I dislike chopping and peeling. Years ago when I was a psychiatric inpatient I was put on a cookery group. I got chucked off for supposedly being bolshy. The reason I was taking ages to peel potatoes and not doing a good job of it.It was a task I really struggled with. OT staff may be more clued up now but back then ignorance abounded.
What have been your experiences - good or bad ?
Occupational therapist staff?
What’s that?
We haven’t had OT staff in any of the hospitals I’ve stayed in.
What’s been your experience with occupational therapists?
I’m not sure I’ve ever met one. I don’t really know what it is or if we have them here.
No experience whatsoever. I’m pretty sure this is an alien concept to our healthcare system.
Are they the people who do all the weird stuff like art/music therapy in psych wards?
This is an American description
https://www.aota.org/About-Occupational-Therapy/Professionals/MH/Community-Mental-Health.aspx
This is a UK one https://www.rcot.co.uk/about-occupational-therapy/what-is-occupational-therapy
I used Google Translate. It’s called something else here. We have them, but not many of them, and I don’t think I’ve ever talked to one. I also Googled the national organization for occupational therapists here and found an official document they had written about mental health. It seemed kind of stupid and pointless, and was poorly written. 
I guess I’m glad I haven’t met one.
I haven’t seen any of that in hospitals. I never even see them in real life. I should have one but I don’t.
I haven’t seen that in the hospital I’ve been to. They do more art therapy and stuff rather than work-based stuffs
My friend is an OT, with a specialization in autism therapies. She disguises all her fine motor exercises as fun games so the kids get excited and stay motivated.
At the school I worked at, our OT would mostly do crafts with the kids. She was great at getting them to stay engaged and they learned loads from her.
Adult OT services are much more boring and have a much lower budget.
We have something similar and they are called Educators here. I’ve met one 2-3 times, she proposed jobs, activities, volunteering, courses…
We have an OT at the hospital here. She runs some groups, arranges pet therapy (a dog visits), and we do arts and crafts group with her. I totally don’t see how it is related to an occupation unless you’re going to water paint for a living…I think she’s just there to keep us busy.
I hated art therapy in the psych ward. Completely pointless. If I needed to do art, I would go to an arts and crafts store, not the psych ward.
I had a great OT when I was in the youth psych ward for half a year.
We made cool little clay stones with symbols (I chose my Aquarius sign) and dripped essential oil onto them, I chose scents that calmed me down. I still have them and still use them.
Pretty much whenever I met with my OT we were alone which I liked.
The only time I ever went into a group and saw any other people (I was in intensive care unit that only fit one other person at a time) I went to do clay, which was amazing and fun.
Making things with my hands calms me down for the most part, as long as I’m not too fixated on being perfect.
What annoyed me most about the arts and crafts groups in hospitals is that they always had these dumb projects that we were supposed to do. If you wanted to color and it wasn’t a scheduled coloring day or you wanted to just draw and it wasn’t a scheduled drawing day, you couldn’t do it. You could only use supplies for specified projects. It was dumb af. And it was like that in almost every hospital I’ve been in.
When I first did therapy in the mid 70s it was basket weaving and making stuffed animals. Both of which with my dyspraxic symptoms I couldn’t do. They eventually added play reading to their repertoire. Usually 2-3 play books shared between 5-6 of us.
We could use the materials we wanted to use, regardless of what the assignment was. But then we didn’t even get time to finish them because half the class was supposed to be about interpreting the artworks we had made, i.e. our teacher talking stupid spiritual mumbo jumbo crap and pointing out incredibly obvious stuff for 30 minutes.
Forgot to add we also got to make small cakes.