"Occupational therapy is a growing profession worldwide, and occupational therapists' subjects are extremely diverse. The guiding light is to protect and promote occupation, participation, health and well-being of individuals, groups and communities. Occupational therapists work with people of all ages who, for some reason, struggle with occupational problems that hinder them in their everyday life and prevent participation. Occupational therapists are one of the key professions within prevention, occupational health and rehabilitation. Their services and work methods are based on evidence-based knowledge and approved procedures. The field of work is wide and includes health and social services, schools, non-profit organizations, administration and all kinds of companies," is written on the website of the Icelandic Occupational Therapy Association, which today celebrates the International Day of Occupational Therapy with a seminar.

About 14 occupational therapists work within the Akureyri Hospital

The tasks of occupational therapists in emergency wards and at Kristnes are quite different. The hospital does a lot of ADL (Activities of Daily Living) assessment and training as well as cognitive ability assessment. An occupational therapist conducts pre-interviews for planned procedures and those cases are followed up on inpatient wards. Home inspection is also a major part of the job, as is assessment, teaching and the provision of various aids.

At Kristnes, a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team works towards the client's goals. The occupational therapist uses various activities to assess and train skills, for example daily activities such as eating or training fine motor skills and coordination when sewing with a sewing machine. A home inspection is carried out, a driving assessment is carried out, the need for assistive devices is assessed and various advice is given, such as on exercise or balance in everyday life.

Report writing and meetings take up quite a large part of an occupational therapist's working time, but it is very important to do so.

Five occupational therapists work with adults in the psychiatric ward, while one is in the BUG - children's and youth team

The main tasks of occupational therapists within the adult psychiatric ward are to organize individual, group and multidisciplinary treatments with a treatment team and to refer to other professionals or to appropriate services upon discharge. Individual treatments are mostly done on the basis of case management, where occupational therapists together with other professionals manage the person's case in consultation with the team. This work is mainly in the form of interviews or activities that can take place within the hospital or outside the community.

Occupational therapists also manage the day service at the psychiatric ward and have built up that work together with support from other professions. There, they take care of the admission of individuals to day care and evaluate each case individually with regard to a person's situation and their direction and formulate treatment plans with patients, take care of day care programs that are either in-house or out in the community.

In the BUG team, an occupational therapist works in a multidisciplinary team. There, an occupational therapist mainly plays the role of a case manager who, among other things, consists of therapeutic work and integrating the service with other systems that deal with the individual's issues in cooperation with families. He also performs emergency services together with other professionals on the team.

The main "occupational therapist" is a dog

The psychiatric ward also has a working four-legged "occupational therapist", which is the mental training dog Leo. His strength lies in mindfulness and he doesn't settle between people so that with him everyone gets the same treatment. Leo has become widely famous and maintains his own Facebook page. See here.

"Occupational therapy is a varied and fun job, and it's really not possible to describe it all in short!"

Name: Linda Aðalsteinsdóttir

Year of birth: 1973

Where are you from: Ólafsfjörður

Education: Completed studies in occupational therapy from Halsohögskolan in Jönköping in Sweden in 1997 and a master's degree from the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Akureyri in 2016.

Hobbies: Travelling, reading books, exercise.

What were you in a previous life: This is probably my first

Fun fact: Went abroad for the first time at the age of 20.

What does a day look like in the life of an occupational therapist at Kristnes and SAk's emergency wards:
I work at Kristnes and we often meet there first with a morning cup of coffee and go over the day's tasks or just talk about life if there is nothing else to do. Some go up to the unit for ADL training (Activities of Daily Living), where the patient is practicing in real situations to get dressed, wash and groom themselves and go for breakfast. The days are then very varied: carry out assessment and training through various occupations, home inspection, road driving assessment, family meetings, assessing the need for and providing assistive devices, assessing cognitive and physical abilities with various assessment tools, screening tests, checklists and observation.

Education is a large part of the job and it takes place in groups as well as on an individual basis. It is common for occupational therapists to guide occupational therapists in vocational training.

What's the most fun at work: The wonderful colleagues and the varied projects. No day is the similar.

What is the most challenging thing at work? When things go badly, people go home e.g. due to illness or obstacles in the environment.

If you could change anything at work, what would it be:

That the community would be better prepared to welcome our patients after rehabilitation and more resources would be available to enable people to live at home if they choose.

We wish all occupational therapists a happy day!