Occupational therapy: The key to unlocking locked-up occupations during the COVID-19 pandemic

Kamalakannan, Sureshkumar and Chakraborty, Stuti (2020) Occupational therapy: The key to unlocking locked-up occupations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wellcome Open Research, 5. p. 153. ISSN 2398-502X

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16089.1

Abstract

Occupations refer to the everyday activities that people do as individuals, in families and with communities to occupy time and bring meaning and purpose to life. It is not always limited to just paid employment. Occupations of the global population have been adversely affected in one way or the other because of this COVID-19 pandemic. Four different key sects of occupations were majorly affected. These are the occupations of those who are or were COVID-positive, occupations of healthy individuals affected by COVID-19/lockdown, occupations of the population highly susceptible and vulnerable of contracting COVID-19 and occupations having a direct impact on global market, supply chain or economy. These occupations were locked up due to the pandemic lockdown.

Occupational therapists can scientifically analyse occupations and help formulate exit strategies for the lockdown. They are experts who understand and study the different ways of measuring participation in occupation to develop innovative strategies and therapeutic interventions to facilitate individuals’ engagement in occupations. They can unravel the pragmatic strategies for preventing transmission (physical distancing, hand hygiene, personal protective equipment usage and decontamination) despite engaging in occupations safely and effectively. Nourishing this niche and essential science is pertinent, not just in this pandemic context but also against a backdrop of health and social care research, policy, practice and education for the future.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding information: This work was supported by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Fellowship [grant IA/CPHE/16/1/502650], awarded to Dr Sureshkumar Kamalakannan.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Occupational Science, Occupational Therapy, Covid-19, Pandemic, Lockdown Coronavirus, Activity Analysis, Occupations
Subjects: A300 Clinical Medicine
B900 Others in Subjects allied to Medicine
L900 Others in Social studies
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Depositing User: Rachel Branson
Date Deposited: 25 Feb 2022 10:31
Last Modified: 25 Feb 2022 10:45
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/48554

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