Comprehensive Essay: Occupational Health and Well-being Exploration

This essay delves into the critical relationship between occupation, health, and well-being, emphasizing the core belief of occupational therapy. It defines occupation and explores how engagement changes over time, referencing the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO). The essay examines the influence of volition, habituation, and performance capacity on occupational behavior across the lifespan. Furthermore, it highlights the impact of environmental factors—social, economic, cultural, and physical—on occupational participation. It also discusses the role of occupational therapists in promoting health and well-being by addressing environmental effects and increasing individual and community participation. The essay also focuses on the role of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the standards that occupational therapists must adhere to in their practice.

Running head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Occupational Health and Well-being
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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According to The American Occupational therapy Association (AOTA), occupational
therapy is the only professional that enables people across the life span to perform things that
they want to do via the therapeutic application of day-today activities (occupations). The duty
of occupational therapists is to help people across different age group to enjoy their life to
fullest via assisting them to promote health while preventing injury, disability and illness.
The following essay attempts to highlight the links between occupation, health and well
being. Upon establishment of the link, the essay will try to elucidate that how a person’s
engagement in occupation can change over time. Finally at the end, the end will discuss the
environmental effects on occupation participation and how an occupational therapist can help
to increase an individual or community level of participation.
There is a strong relationship between occupation, health and well being and the
occupation therapy is based on this belief (Bass-Haugen, Baum and Christiansen 2015).
Some occupational therapists are of the opinion that the term occupation, activity and
purposeful activity represents identical concept (Durocher, Gibson and Rappolt 2014). While
others have opined that those three terms highlight three different concepts however, they
claimed that the term activity represents a narrower meaning to that of occupation (Wagman,
Håkansson and Björklund 2012). According to the AOTA (2004) and Leclair (2010),
Occupation is defined as a set of activities that the people perform in their daily life that holds
their attention and have meaning as well as purpose and whose parameter are shaped by the
cultural and environmental context. Physical, temporal, social and cultural contexts influence
human feelings and thoughts and thereby influencing their choice of occupation. The main
aim of a prospective occupational therapist is to provide support for recovery along with
health and well being (Aiken et al. 2011). Here the health and well being is conceptualised by
the occupational therapist as an objectively measurable state (for example: absence of
disease, survival, absence of disability growth-development); as a subjective experience (a

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sense of wellness and well being along with absence of illness); or as a combination of both
(participation and adaption) (Creek and Hughes 2008).
According to the occupational therapists there lies a significant relationship between
the occupation, health and well being and different authors have defined this link with a
different approach however, keeping the core value same (Creek and Hughes 2008).
However, the main links between occupation and health are expenditure of energy, proper
social support and interaction, complexity & challenges and perceived competence &
achievement. These links between occupation and health are mediated by nature of activity or
occupation, social factors and other balance between activities related to occupation Creek
and Hughes 2008). The established links between occupation, health and well being highlight
certain health benefits of occupation like disease prevention, survival, managing chronic
illness and improved level of self-concept and self-satisfaction (Creek and Hughes 2008).
The main philosophy of the occupational therapy is to bring changes in the healthcare
system (Christiansen 2014) along with modification in the occupational identity.
Occupational identity helps enable a person to generate a sense of ability to perform certain
acts and how a person defines his or roles and perception. This perception helps in the
development of accumulative experiences, generating a sense of personal identification and
future prospects. The practitioners of the occupational therapists focus their concerns over the
long-term goals of the occupational identity and health requirement of people and thereby
helping them to develop healthy practice. Such healthy behaviour will not only help in
improving their health but also will help to reduce the expenditure of the health care which is
associated with health dysfunction (Christiansen 2014). Occupational therapy practitioners
must also take efforts within the community integrate a wide range of services that facilitates
safeguard and uplift he health status of the public. The philosophy of the occupational

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therapy also promotes the reframing of the sociomedical context via taking active role in
developing healthy communities (Christiansen 2014).
The primary role of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) is providing
protection to the public. An occupational therapist must enrol under the HCPC in order to
attain legal authority to practise within the UK and the professional practise must be carried
out in accordance with their practise standards (McLaughlin, Leigh and Worsley 2015). If a
formal complaint is lodged or certain concern is raised against the registrant’s fitness to
practise, the HCPC has the liberty to take account of whether their standards have been
satisfied. The practise set up of HCPC promotes the use of knowledge and skills of the
occupational therapists that they have learned through experience and education and
continuing professional development (HCPC 2017). A professional therapist also needs to
showcase behaviours that facilitate and safeguard the well being of the service uses along
with their carers, boarder mass and reputation of the profession. Maintenance of these
standards will help in practitioner to practise is safe and effective manner while abiding by
the quality and meeting the registration requirement of the HCPC (Health HCPC 2017).
According to human occupation concept, the term human is a dynamic system and the
elements of the system function in unison to produce the behaviour. This behaviour too is
dynamic and varies with context. Occupational behaviour is the main pillar of human
survival, satisfaction and experience. However, person’s engagement in occupation, driven
by the occupational behaviour can change across the lifespan, being and this can be explained
under the light of Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) therapy.
MOHO offers an integrative and broad view of human occupation. It explains how
occupation is patterned, motivated and performed. The main focus of the model is motivation
for occupation, the nature of the skilled performance, the impact of the environmental factors

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on occupation and patterning of occupational behaviour or performance into lifestyle and
routines. According to the MOHO, the term human is conceptualized as an amalgamation of
three inter-related components namely volition, habituation and performance capacity
(MOHO online web 2017). Here the term volition denotes to the motivation for occupation,
habituation signifies the process via which the occupation is organised into routines and
patterns. The performance capacity is mental and physical abilities the underline the skills of
the occupational performance. Thus MOHO attempts to analyse occupation and problems
associated with occupation under the light of volition, habituation and performance capacity
and other environmental contexts.
Over the years the parameters of the volitional change like, a person interest changes
along the change in the underlying beliefs and sense of obligation and commitments and
these change in perception gradually lead to change in the persons’ engagement in occupation
(Duncan 2011). Moreover, as a years passed the personal causation also lead a dramatic
change, leading to the change in the sense of own efficacy and effectiveness and this lead to
the alteration of the self-confidence leading the change in the direction or motivation in the
occupation (Duncan 2011). Habits along with roles generate the pattern of habituation. When
habituation is challenged, people lose their consistency and ease in work. In order to get back
to the previous mode of comfort, people need to reconstruct their habits and roles, leading to
further change in direction in the occupational role (Kielhofner 2008). The performance
capacity depends on the occupational performance, skills and participation (Kielhofner 2008).
As a person grows old, the motor skills, process skills changes driven by the physiological
aging and on the other hand, the communication and interaction skills also changes (driven
via experience in the occupational field) these change in the equilibrium in the occupational
skills lead to change in the direction of the person engagement in occupation across lifespan
(Turpin and Iwama 2011). The social and environmental context also change over time under

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the impact of economic, political and cultural scenario and these also has significant
influence over the change in the occupational engagement (Turpin and Iwama 2011).
The MOHO model is selected over PEOP (Person-Environment-Occupation
Perfroamnce) model because MOHO model gives the detailed insight about over a person’s
perspective and engagement in occupation change across life span. Whereas PEOP model
separates factors as intrinsic and extrinsic and which is further subdivided into personal,
social and population level. This model generally takes bio-physical approach and considers
broader categories (Désiron et al. 2013).
Application of occupational therapy via MOHO model is effective as this mode
represents human being as a system and describes human system under the reference of
systems theories. Occupational performance results in the positive yet dynamic change in the
health, well-being and development. On the other hand, human system is also constantly
changing via organisation and re-organisation and the concept of unison of these two
dynamic models is the main approach of MOHO model, making it more effective than PEOP
model (Turpin and Iwama 2011).
Occupational therapy acknowledges the importance of environment over the
occupational performance. Environment provides opportunity for occupational performance.
It has a significant impact on how occupation are being motivated, performed and organised.
Environmental factors that have influence over the occupational participation include social
economic, cultural and political factors (Kielhofner 2008).
Culture is an information-based system that helps in the generation of guidelines for
communication (Baumeister 2005). Although socialization helps in enriching these beliefs,
values and behavioural pattern, culture is also considered as a dynamic and interactional
factor behind shaping up these skills. Culture is not determined by ethnicity or inherited

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biologically (Bonder and Martin and Miracle 2004). However, the influence of culture on the
experience of a person is hard to explain but the rules of the culture can be learned, graded
and is flexible. For example the extent to which an immigrant has inherited the customs of
the new country is determined by how recently that person has emigrated, the degree of
contact with their homeland and primary language used at home.
Social context like personal social resources, preferences and roles influences the
pursuits of occupation, health, well being and satisfaction (Helliwell and Putnam 2004).
People choose activities and tasks that place them in direct communication with social
network and others select occupations that enable them to avoid social interactions. Thus
social network facilitate individual’s chosen occupations via providing emotional support,
assistance however, at times, social relationships interfere with person’s standard function.
Economic factors affect the occupational participation by helping to determine the age
at which a person is ready to end his or her formal tenure of education and enters into the job
market on full time basis (Durocher, Gibson and Rappolt 2014). The cycle of economy that is
moving from the time scale of prosperity to depression and then again back to prosperity,
helps to ascertain the nature and the number of employment opportunities that are available at
certain point of time to a person who is looking for a job. Potential and immediate future
incomes affect the tenure at which a contemplated occupation is expected to satisfy the
economic needs of the person (Durocher, Gibson and Rappolt 2014).
Physical environment is defined as the external surrounding under which the person
exists. When an individual with the surrounding environment, he or she is able to adapt and
then spontaneously participate with positive experience (Laliberte 2014). However, when an
individual experiences a stroke or other physical complications, he or she is less capable and
is considered to be more vulnerable. If an individual fails to adapt and subsequently

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demonstrate competency, a mode of imbalance generates in between the environment and
person (Watters et al. 2013). Environment also has a significant impact over an individual’s
ability to recover certain turmoil in the occupation (Cutchin 2013). For example while under
a safe and protective environment, a person feels more supportive, an extension of their home
and thereby promoting interactions and decreasing the level of confusion and anxiety. Thus
positive physical environment affects occupational participation (Gupta et al. 2012).
According to the AOTA, the virtual context refers to interactions that occur during
real-time and in stimulated form or in near-time situations and in the absence of the physical
contact. The virtual context is gradually gaining importance for the client as well as the
occupational therapist and other health care professionals. Client here at times require the
access and the ability to apply technology like cell phones, smart phones, computer and video
game consoles to carry out their day-to-day routine and occupation participation (American
Occupational Therapy Association 2014). The temporal context refers to different stages of
life, the time of the day or year and the duration or rhythm of activity and history. A person
who is facing difficulty in performing in one environment or context may attain success when
the context or environment has been changed. However, the context within which the
participation in occupation is occurring varies with each person (AOTA 2014). Virtual
context are external with respect to the client while personal context are internal while some
have both internal beliefs, values (cultural values) and external features (AOTA 2014).

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(Source: AOTA 2014)
(Source: AOTA 2014)
An occupational therapy practitioner understands that their lies a complex relationship
between people, the surrounding environment and the surrounding activities they need to
accomplish in their day-today living. Thus in order to fulfil the occupational needs, an
occupational therapist has to undertake modifications in the surrounding environment. For
example a person who was fond of gardening but was forced to sacrifice the same due to
back pain may experience upliftment in mental well being if they can continue their habit of

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gardening in certain changed environmental set-up like raised gardens or long handed
gardening tools (this will minimize their back pain) (Wagman, Håkansson and Björklund
2012). This change in the environmental set up is main role of the occupational therapists and
thereby promoting overall well being.
The core skills of the occupational therapists highlight the core professional values
that encompass three main areas: the client and the partnership between client therapists and
the client, the knowledge in the field of the occupational therapy, skills and selfless values
(Aguilar et al. 2012). An occupational therapist might employ these core skills to bring
change to an occupation. Change in occupation can be achieved via proper implementation of
occupation performance analysis. Occupation performance is defined as the process of
accomplishment of the target occupation arising out of the dynamic transaction between the
clients, the involving context, surrounding environment and the occupation or activity
(American Association of Occupational Therapy 2014). In order to analyse the occupation
performance, the assets and the potential problem of the client is specifically identified via
assessment tools that are designed to measure, observe and to inquire the factors that hinder
or support the occupational performance. The proper analysis of the occupational
performance deals with the synthesis of the information from the profile of occupation in
order to focus on specific occupations and the contexts that are required to be addressed
(AOTA 2014). This is followed by the observance of the performance of the client during
activities that is authentic to the required occupations and thereby noting the effectiveness of
performance skills and pattern of performance. After observing client’s performance,
selection and utilization of specific assessments to measure the performance skills and
performance pattern is employed. This leads to the identification and measurement of more
specific contexts or environmental factors that influence the performance (AOTA 2014).
Other activities of performance analysis include selection of measured outcomes,

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interpretation of the assessment data, identification of the supportive and hindering factors of
performance and then developing a proper hypothesis about the strengths and limitations of
the clients’ occupational performance. In order to improve more community participation, an
occupational therapist must create goals in association with client in order to address the
desired outcomes and then subsequent framing of the plans to measure the desired outcomes
(AOTA 2014). According to the AOTA (2014), several methods can be employed in order to
evaluate the occupational performance of client and one of the most common methods is
conducting interview.
Grading and adaptation are other two skills which an occupational therapist can
employ to bring change in community participation in occupation. Grading is the difference
between the able to work and not ware about the capability (Rodger et al. 2014). An
occupational therapist can grade an activity via modifying the needs over time and
performance (Rodger et al. 2014). The concept of gradation is applied to support to the older
adults who are suffering from cognitive and physical complications (AOTA 2014). An
occupational therapist can also deliver advice on adapting the environment or recommending
the proper equipment if required. Here adapting means making adjustments so that someone
can able to remain in the work-field (Arbesman et al. 2014). This change in adaption and
improvement in grading will help in the increase in the rate of community participation
(Arbesman et al. 2014). For example, helping children with disabilities to adopt with the
school atmosphere will help to increase in the rate of participation among these special
children. Occupational therapists are regarded as key rehabilitation professionals who are
nimble in assisting individuals with brain injury to integrate back into the community. Their
perspectives encompasses all the important aspects of individual like self-care, home
management, rest, sleep, work, play, leisure and social participation. They help the client to
learn to do these activities once again and to design innovative ways of accomplishing them.

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An occupational therapists work in real-life settings in order to help the client (person with
brain injury) to adapt and to regain competence in their occupational performance. The core
skills employed by the OT to assist the person with brain injury or other who are suffering
from memory loss include: teaching memory compensation techniques, assistance in
development of effective routines, proper practise of cognitive retraining exercises and
identification and development of healthy and fulfilling hobbies (AOTA 2014). Another core
skill of occupational therapists is to understand a person’s both mental and physical needs.
For example a diabetic person who loves to have sweet is now deprived of the same due to
medical complications. So it will be the role of the occupational therapists to encourage that
diabetic person to exercise so that his sugar level drops and in reward get some sweet to
satisfy his craving and thus promoting both mental and physical well being.
The common occupations explored by the occupational therapists are health,
emotional and psychological well being. An occupational therapists believe that health is
influenced by the liberty of choice to control everyday activities and this liberty of choice
promote emotional and psychological well being and thereby promoting goodness of health
in a global perspective. Effective promotion of mental and physical well being of the people
at the local scale will gradually help to attain the positive global perspective of health and
well being. For example helping the people with learning disability to fight with their low
self-esteem at the local scale will gradually lead to the uplifment of the global mindset of the
people who suffers from learning disability.
Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that, there is a significant link in
between occupation, health and well-being. However, the concept of occupation changes over
time, age and appearance of disability. Apart of the physical factors, environmental factors
also have a significant influence in shaping up the occupational needs. The main aim of an
occupational therapist is to employ their core skills for the process of individual evaluation,

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preparation of customised interventions to improve a person’s ability to perform day-to-day
activities and to achieve their target goals. Thus overall occupational therapists promote
health and well being among the population and creating a positive impact on health with a
global approach. Occupational therapists identify and address the hurdles existing between
client’s ability and demand in their day-to-day living while at work or at home and thereby
promoting a healthier lifestyle globally.

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