Advocating for occupational therapy

And for the school’s management and experts in the medical line, there could not have been a better time to launch advocacy for a field of study that appears to have been relegated from the scheme of things.Either by act of omission or commission, many Nigerians and those in position of power do not appreciate […]

And for the school’s management and experts in the medical line, there could not have been a better time to launch advocacy for a field of study that appears to have been relegated from the scheme of things.
Either by act of omission or commission, many Nigerians and those in position of power do not appreciate the essence of occupational therapy as its functions have been reduced to a few small number of hospitals within the country.
“It’s been an age-long challenge. For more than ten years, the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba is placing vacancy adverts in the news paper, requesting for the employment of occupational therapist, you won’t believe that there was no response. That was before this school was established. These apathy didn’t start today, but things are gradually changing now,” Lanre Akeredolu, Director of Administration/Registrar, FSOT, said.
Dr Ibrahim Abolore, Lawal, the Medical Director Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba said it is even unfortunate that some Nigerians are still equating occupational therapy with physiotherapy.
He said while physiotherapy is concerned with remediation of impairment and disabilities, occupational therapy is a profession in the allied health industry that involves the treatment and evaluation of people with physical and/or psychiatric illness or disability or developmental delay, whose performance of everyday activities (at home, school, work and leisure areas) have been impaired, and are unable to reach the maximum level of functioning or the maintenance of function when complete recovery is not possible.
“I give you an example, in psychiatric there are patients who lack vocational skills. When they are treated, they are fit and when they go back to society they need to be functional in their vocations.
For such people occupational therapists are the ones who would know how to train them to help them get back to their works,” Lawal said.
The medical director said for an occupational therapist to function effectively, special therapeutic techniques and procedures are needed just as splints, assistive devices and adaptive aids must be at hand.
He added that this must be complemented with maximum use of the patients’ abilities as well as modification of the environment to support these patients.
“Nigeria needs more occupational therapists,” Lawal said. “What happened is that most of the qualified occupational therapists in Nigeria in the past got their training outside Nigeria, in Britain specifically. And as time went by, they aged and retired and it became difficult to get replacement for them”.
“Today, 29 students graduated, that is good for the Nigerian nation and because we actually need them to function in all Nigerian General Hospitals, we still need more,” Lawal said.
The medical director said it is in government quest to groom more professionals that led to the establishment of FSOT.
“The Federal Government has taken the initial and giant step by allowing the establishment of this school and ensuring that the school is able to stand. Prior to the establishment of this school, there was no Occupational Therapy School in Nigeria. It was the management of Yaba Neuropsychiatric Hospital who consistently made representation to the Federal Government on this that eventually yielded result when an approval was given on March 15, 2002 and first set of students were brought in for admission in 2003,” the medical director said.
Lawal added that because of the competence of the lecturers taking the students, its certificate is recognized both within and outside Nigeria.
“We have institutions of higher learning in United States of America and India who are willing to take our students through undergraduate degree programme. And when our students get there, they find the courses easy to cope with because they have background knowledge of what occupational therapy is all about.
“You cannot take away the importance of this course because it prepares professionals for their Bachelor Degree, Masters Degree, among others. And for those who graduate from our courses here, they can function in hospital without necessarily bagging their bachelor degree, although university degree can help them much better,” he said.
Akeredolu, the FSOT Registrar on the other hand noted that the United States Bureau of Labour Statistic recently calls occupational therapy one of the today’s fastest growing careers.
He said this may not be unconnected with the fact that there is growing number of older adults and young children who need occupational therapy services.
“With the increasing number of disabled people all over the world and awareness about their rights and benefits, scope of rehabilitation is increasing. This predicts greater employment opportunities for Occupational Therapists. Already, the demand for Occupational Therapist is huge globally and it only makes sense that we have more people coming for it,” Akeredolu said.
One of the graduating students, Latifat Adebola who said her passion for anything medical actually drove her into studying the course said, in the last three years of her programme, she had come to love it and was even prepared to acquire further knowledge in that area.
“Since childhood, I have always wanted to be in medical line and occupational therapy is in medical line so I decided to ask about it, discuss it and eventually go for it because I actually love it. We have spent three years in all and we now have a diploma certificate at the end.  With my certificate, I can work with any hospital, pediatric, psychiatric, orthopedic or neurological centres, among others.
“I also know that I can work with a wide range of people suffering from cerebral palsy, mental retardation, behavior disorder, autism, stroke, head injury, spinal injuries, amputation, paralysis, burns trauma and fractures addictions as well as aging, among others.
But for now, I am not going to start work immediately but go to university to acquire further studies,” Adebola said.