“Knowledge fueled by emotion equals action”

As with every occupation, there comes lessons that need to be learnt, exams that need to written and practical’s that need to be attended and assessed. But before all this can happen, you need to learn the content, memorise it until it becomes knowledge that you can access at any point of the day.

As an OT student, most of this knowledge comes about through practice, but another part comes largely through expanding on the notes given in class by reading. Reading textbooks, reading articles, just READING. To say I enjoy this aspect would be a complete lie. Reading, yes, reading articles… not so much. So with today’s topic of critiquing an article that has added value to my OT journey, I really needed to search. Do I look for something knowledge based or emotion based? Something clinical or something motivational? Instead I found some more meaning to add to my OT journey and possibly even a new passion.

As I have come through the last 2 and a half years, I have become quite set in my belief that I am meant to be a physical occupational therapist. But with every experience so far in the psychosocial block, I find my passion to be all the degree encompasses and not just the physical component.

At my previous venues for psychosocial block, I was teaching my patients different activities so they could have constructive use of leisure time… or in other words, a fancier more drawn out way of saying I was an activities manager. This is what it felt like, and as a result, I felt like I was not really making a difference. Anyone can tell a person about different activities to do when they are bored. All I could think was: is this really all there is to psychosocial OT?

On Tuesday, at my current venue, I was able to experience what it is like to work with acute psychotic patients. “Acute psychosis is the presence of the mental state where appreciation of reality is impaired, as evidenced by the presence of psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, mood disturbance, and bizarre behaviour” (Keks & Bilashki, 2006) This was absolutely fascinating, as I was able to speak to 4 different patients each with their own delusions and take on life. The one patient believes himself to be 945 years old, and that in life we pass tests, and once we have passed all the tests given to us, we ascend and become God. Another patient was confused about all the voices he was hearing in his head and that he was unsure which one was the right one to listen to. Another patient believed he was the son of God, as in the sibling of Jesus.

I was completely enthralled by these patients and as such, my article that I found was about OT for psychiatric disorders. It informed me of all the different ways in which OTs are effective in a psychosocial setting and the different types of interventions used. When reading articles, so many results are inconclusive, or seeming like OT is a watered down psychologist, but with evidence supporting the results, this article gave me some of the meaning I have been searching for in the psychosocial side of OT.

“OT has been used along with other medical treatments in treating patients with psychiatric and cognitive disorders and proven to be useful and effective in managing symptoms and enhancing and/or maintaining functional performance for persons with mental health problems” (Sarsak, 2018) This statement has further fueled my passion for those with psychiatric disorders as I have noticed a lack in OT services for acute psychotic patients. If our intervention is effective in maintaining symptoms, surely OT should be an available service to those presenting with severe symptoms? These patients are starved for human contact and conversation. I feel as if I made a difference just by speaking to these patients. I can only imagine what a difference it would make if these patients had access to OT services every day. Unfortunately, this is not a venue problem but rather a national problem. There is a noticeable lack of psychiatric services available, let alone psychiatric services for those who are presenting with severe psychiatric disorders.

As an OT student, we are taught to be holistic in our intervention, yet we are not holistic in the patients we are seeing. We see those ready for discharge who are more or less stable on medication, when these people experiencing these severe symptoms are left until their medication dosage is strong enough for them to be deemed “stable.” So I am thankful for this article for highlighting my use as an OT in the mental health sector, but it has also made me question the gaps our health system has yet to address.

I have always been drawn to people that are pushed to the fringes of society, deemed too different, too dangerous, too dark, almost as if they are beyond the hope of therapeutic reform. They are no less human and are no less in need of help than a burn victim, a TB patient, a dementia patient, a CVA patient… After my experience on Tuesday, I am convinced that Occupational therapy has so much to offer these patients. I feel a desire pulling at me to confirm this belief.

I have discovered a new passion and I am excited and motivated to begin to pursue it.

References:

Naidoo, D., & Wyk, J. (2019). Fieldwork practice for learning: Lessons from occupational therapy students and their supervisors. Retrieved 9 August 2019, from http://www.ajhpe.org.za/index.php/ajhpe/article/view/536/358

PictureQuotes.com. (2019). Retrieved 9 August 2019, from http://www.picturequotes.com/knowledge-fueled-by-emotion-equals-action-quote-502870

Plato Quotes. (2019). Retrieved 9 August 2019, from https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/plato_384673

The process of evidence‐based practice in occupational therapy: Informing clinical decisions. (2001). Retrieved 9 August 2019, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328492145_Overview_Occupational_Therapy_for_Psychiatric_Disorders

Keks, N., & Bilashki, g. (2006). The acutely psychotic patient. Retrieved 9 August 2019, from https://www.racgp.org.au/afp/200603/200603keks

Sarsak, H. (2018). Overview: Occupational Therapy for psychiatric disorders. Retrieved 9 August 2019, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328492145_Overview_Occupational_Therapy_for_Psychiatric_Disorders