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Occupational Therapy change
Occupational Therapy is a type of therapy that uses activities to help a physically, or developmentally disabled person. The activities were also known as occupation.
Early History change
Back in the 1700s, those who were mentally ill were treated badly in the hospitals they were staying in. People thought that the mentally ill were either possessed by the devil or were crazy. Doctors tried to cure them by draining their blood, making them vomit, or waiting for the craziness to go away. If the town was small, the lunatic (crazy person) would be allowed to walk around the town as long as they did not hurt any townsfolk or the lunatic’s family would keep them safe at home. Sometimes the town was very big and the people did not know how to deal with these crazy people. So, the townsfolk stuck the lunatics in a hospital.
Later though, more people were becoming to be seen as insane (crazy). As the towns grew bigger, people began to lock up the lunatics in jail. This started to become a regular habit. Of the town was really big, special buildings called institutions were built and crazy people were housed there. In these institutions the mentally ill were seen as animals. People would pay money to the hospitals and jails to see the mentally ill. Just like at a zoo, where you would pay to see the animals[1]. In order to “cure” the mentally ill, doctors continued to drain blood, starve, beat, and chain their “prisoners.” They would tie the prisoner to a chair and leave them in a room for hours. People started to notice how these mentally ill patients were being treated. In 1786, French doctor Philippe Pinel saw how the mentally ill were being treated like animals. He believed that the mentally ill should be treated as humans. Dr. Pinel said that the mentally ill could be cured through moral treatment. Moral treatment means treating the patient in an decent manner. If the patients were treated with kindness, exercised, worked, and had daily routines, they can be cured to a certain point. In the early 1800s, Samuel Tuke and his father William, established an asylum (a place especially for people who are mentally ill, crazy, or insane) in England. This asylum also believed in moral treatment.
Back in America, Doctor Benjamin Rush supported the mentally ill to be treated like humans. He suggested that using kindness was the best way to help a patient. If the patient did not react well to kindness, then the patents were punished. They were punished by draining blood, starving, dunking the patient in water, or kept them by themselves [2]. Even though this sounds like Dr. Rush did not help the mentally ill, he did. He improved the understanding of why people were mentally ill and he improved the cleanliness of the asylums [3]. In the 1840s, a woman named Dorothea Dix was trying and succeeding to get states to open more asylums for anyone who needs help. Also in the 1840s, a Swiss-American psychiatrist named Adolf Meyer made a discovery: using time wisely while doing an activity helps heal patients. Dr. Meyer’s wife who worked in an institution introduced activities to patients, the patient’s family, and the patient’s doctor. Dr. Meyer also said that the treatment of the mentally ill “…was a mix of work and pleasure that included both [fun] and [everyday] activity” [4]. This became the whole idea of occupational therapy.
Founders of the Profession change
Susan Tracy change
In 1905, Susan Tracy became the first unofficial occupational therapist. While she was studying to be a nurse, Tracy noticed that giving a patient something to do, like a puzzle, make the patient less nervous and the patients did not mind staying in bed. In 1906 when Tracy became the head nurse trainer, she “…developed a training course in occupation to prepare instructors for teaching patient activities” [4]. These occupations/activities were usually wood working, or working with metals, painting, and other activities we see as hobbies today. Before, it was only people who worked with wood or metal could teach patients to work with wood or metal. But because some people were really sick, only doctors and nurses could see the patient. So, doctors and nurses learned how to teach a patient how to carve wood and could tell if that patient was getting too tired. Tracy also felt that kindergarten teachers could also teach patients activities but they needed to become a nurse first. There needed to be a lot of different kinds of activities though, because every patient was different—some patients were missing a finger, some patients missing their whole arm, and other patients were mentally ill. In 1910, she published a book which explained how these activities helped patients.
Eleanor Clarke Slagle change
Around 1908 Jane Addams and Julia Lanthrop developed courses to teach hospital attendants (these are NOT nurses) games, arts and crafts, and hobbies that could help patients. A social worker named Eleanor Clarke Slagle took this course and finished it in 1911. She then went to teach a similar course at the psychiatric clinic in the Johns Hopkins hospital, where Slagle became head of the occupational therapy department for two years. In 1915, Slagle created the first school where people could learn occupational therapy. There were special courses about patients being mentally ill and about people who were disabled, or hurt. She wanted patients to learn a treatment called “habit training.” Habit training is balancing work, play, rest, sleep, and taking care of oneself for 24 hours in order to get rid of bad habits. This treatment was used for mentally ill patients in occupational therapy until the 1950s.
William Rush Dunton Jr. change
William Rush Dunton Jr. is considered the “Father of Occupational Therapy.” Dunton was involved with occupational therapy since 1895. When Dunton was a psychiatrist in Baltimore, Maryland, a metalwork shop was created for the asylum he worked in. The metalwork shop was created to help patients. Other types of crafts were added and in 1908 a teacher of arts and crafts came to instruct patients. Dunton noticed how important it was for someone to tell his patients what to do and saw how important it was to place a patient with the right activity for them. After reading Susan Tracy’s book, he started to teach the nurses at the asylum about activities and play. In 1915, he published the first textbook about occupational therapy. In the textbook, he tells the rules about occupational therapy. The book also tells a lot about the simple activities that the nurse could use for treatments.
George Edward Barton change
There were a lot of different names being used for occupational therapy. In 1915, George Edward Barton decided that occupational therapy will be called occupational therapy. Mr. Barton was sick with tuberculosis and a nurse helped treat him using occupational therapy. After he left the hospital, he created an institution where by using occupational therapy, people who were sick or injured could re-learn or get regulated to everyday life again.
American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) change
Occupational therapy became a national society in March 1917, right before the United States entered World War I. Its members were made up of medical doctors, social workers, teachers, nurses and artists. They all agreed that occupational therapy was the best way to treat the sick, injured, and mentally ill. At the first official meeting in September, Dunton suggested that the sick, injured, or mentally ill person still in the hospital be taught occupations that they can use in the hospital. While in the hospital, patients should also learn occupations for when they get better and go home. In 1923, the name of the society was changed to American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA).