I like Functional Therapy, but do we have to stop using the O-Word?

“All words are pegs to hang ideas on.”

Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth, Pulpit, 1887

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So my answer to this is an emphatic: NO! I personally like the word "Occupation."

We have a great word, a great concept. The word “Occupation” helps us as OTs expand the thoughts we have about what function can be. It took us years of training to get this insight.

But then again…

It took us years of training to get this insight!

The other day I was discussing the tremendous experience that going to school to learn Occupational Therapy had been. In many ways we didn’t notice the subtle indoctrination we were undergoing. It was very persuasive because it is an excellent way of looking at the world. We came out of the experience different people. We share a broadened understanding of humanity and holistic approaches to health care. I could never go back to being who I was before.

Now as ALOFT tries to lead us to the opportunity to use the term “Functional Therapy” we have many people asking us if we want to stop using the “O-Word.” How could we stop?

“To expand language is to expand our ability to think.” (David G. Myers, Exploring Psychology.) In this case by seeking to expand the discussion around a novel word the people who were trained in the use of the word gained a level of deeper understanding. These people, the Occupational Therapists, are some of the most interesting, broad minded people I have ever met. It comes partly from the language we learned to describe what it is to live.

So why change and use function?

Most people are not going to go to school for 6 years to get a Masters Degree in Occupational Therapy. It is the rare few who choose this path. Everyone else uses common language to talk about what they want and what they need.

For example, today, pharmaceutical companies are marketing directly to the public. Patients go to their doctors asking for “the purple pill” and drugs like “Lipitor”TM have more brand recognition than Occupational Therapy. How can this be? We’ve been around longer than Physical Therapy, but we are barely clutching PT’s coat tails in most health care sectors.

I am asking you to look at the word from the point of view of a typical patient. A typical person. What do they think they know about Occupation… what do they know about Function? Maybe we can make the in-roads after we make the first contact. Lets get the patients in the door and then we can help them broaden their understanding of function… and soon after that we can teach them more about Occupation.

We have a great product! Occupational Therapy services are wonderful the world round. But while we are trying to compete we should look at what would help us place ourselves better in the marketplace.

In University I took a class in the “History of Medicine.” Our professor asked us to look at the funny treatments of the past with a different question “Why would people believe that X was a good idea?” There was a time when bloodletting to let off an imbalance of your humors was state of the art. What questions will we be asking this about in our era.

Another gem from that same class was a different look at the “Hippocratic Oath.” Our professor introduced this as a membership document that essentially guaranteed the long term success of Medicine. If you read the writings of Hippocrates you will find an ancient marketing plan. Look around at its success, almost 2500 years later and it is well established.

It is with the utmost respect for the profession and the professionals who practice OT that we at the American League of Functional Therapists are attempting this change. It is with a desire to help more patients, clients and consumers find purpose in their lives that we seek to expand OT.

Lets work together to see this revival for the gifts of the Occupational Therapists. Please join us in the effort to popularize OT under the term “Functional Therapy.”

Sincerely,

Ed Kaine
President of the American League of Functional Therapists

http://www.functionaltherapist.org/
Comments?: Contact us at RegisteredFunctionalTherapist@gmail.com

Functional Therapy... the Next Generation of Occupational Therapy