HEALTH POLICY PERSPECTIVES Occupational Therapy in Primary Health Care: We Should Be There

Sherry Muir, MOT, OTR/L, is Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, St. Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63103; [email protected] For me, the concept that occupational therapy belongs in primary care began to form slowly, with those brief, casual conversations that practitioners have every day in their personal lives, such as at a school or community event, offering small pieces of advice about how to adapt an activity, explaining a medical diagnosis or clarifying a physician’s recommendations, and suggesting how those recommendations can be reasonably incorporated into daily life. So often the person would respond, “Why didn’t someone explain this to me at the doctor’s office? I would have done it if I had just understood better.” During intervention sessions across a variety of settings, occupational therapy professionals working with a client with a specific injury or diagnosis naturally expand the occupational profile to gain a complete picture of the client, to understand his or her roles and responsibilities, and to determine what challenges limit his or her full participation in important and valued occupations. As professionals, we treat the problems for which our clients were referred, and we also address many other issues that are causing them difficulty, often resulting in changes across multiple areas of occupation and performance patterns. Over more than 20 yr of practice, as I have observed numerous occupational therapy professionals in a variety of settings, I have begun to believe that occupational therapy has a unique approach to patient care. This holistic approach, delivered with respect and caring, results in the development of a strong client–therapist alliance. According to Morris (2011),