April is Occupational Therapy month. It’s the perfect time to familiarize yourself with what Occupational Therapy is and how we incorporate ourselves into the Pelvic Floor Therapy setting.
Occupational therapy is a client-centered health profession concerned with promoting health and wellbeing through occupation. Our primary goal is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life (occupations). According to the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF): Domain and Process, 3rd ed., (Framework-III], AOTA, 2014) “Occupational Therapists (OTs) can be involved in numerous aspects of pelvic floor rehabilitation that impact our activities of daily living such as toileting, rest, sleep, and sexual activity.” As OT’s we achieve this outcome by using biomechanical and psychosocial approaches to enhance our patient’s ability to engage in the activities/occupations they want to, need to, or are expected to do.
Motivate will continue to explore how OT’s promote pelvic health rehabilitation through their 4 pillars: behavioral awareness, tissue pliability, stability/strengthening and functional mobility.