‘Nigeria needs occupational therapists’

Occupation Therapy (OT) is a part of medical care services which aids the re-integration of people into society after suffering from illness, natural or artificial disasters.In this interview, the Registrar, Federal Institute of Occupation Therapy, Oshodi, Lagos, Barr. Akeredolu Peters Lanre speaks on how occupational therapy can help internally displaced persons, and the health sector […]

Occupation Therapy (OT) is a part of medical care services which aids the re-integration of people into society after suffering from illness, natural or artificial disasters.In this interview, the Registrar, Federal Institute of Occupation Therapy, Oshodi, Lagos, Barr. Akeredolu Peters Lanre speaks on how occupational therapy can help internally displaced persons, and the health sector of the country among others.

What is occupation therapy?
Occupation therapy is an arm of rehabilitation. It is concerned majorly with re-integrating people back to their normal lives. As occupational therapists, we treat people from different categories of life be it orthopaedic, psycharatic, paediatric, people with congenital abnormalities, displaced people, people with psychological problems for instance victims of boko haram insurgency, victims of natural disasters, breakdown relationships and so many other cases.
People from all these need an occupational therapist because apart from the devastating effect they are going thorough, the question is how do you handle the problem? And how can you jump start your life again? Another example is fracture which is the discontinuity in the uniformity of a bone. After the fracture must have been attended to by people in orthopaedic care we now look at how the impact of the fracture has affected the client in other areas of his life with focus on his occupation which is what he or she does every day.
Also, impact of accident on somebody may require the attention of an occupational therapist because the accident might have affected him or her in all areas of  life. So, we focus on the occupation the client is doing and help to perform his  role depending on what he does , and that is why we are a crucial member of the rehabilitation team and we are seen as the last bus stop when everybody has done whatever they can, we will now take over to ensure that the can back into communal.
Hospital is not the home of anybody and the slogan in the health sector now is that people should be admitted for as short period of time as possible so that they can go back into the communities and that transition from the hospital to the community is the area occupation therapy focuses on being able to go back to the community and function well, by getting back the normal rhythm of your life which is the sole aim of occupation therapy.
What is the relevance of occupational therapists’ activities to the country?
The nation is made up of people from different strata of life and you discover that people with illness will not be able to go back to the community. That means you are depleting the population consciously or unconsciously because the fact that you have an accident does not mean that you cannot go back to the society. So, this is what we ensure, people can go back to normal life, they see their self worth, self value and there can be continuation in whatever rhythm they have been living their lives or business pursuits.
With millions of people being displaced by insurgency in the country, how can occupational therapy help address the emotional and psychological problems of IDPs?
For instance like the Boko Haram issue, the first awareness is the fact that we had quite a number of children kidnapped who are supposed to be school children. Their major occupation is schooling which has been distorted. The major effect will be psychological impact because they have been moved away from their natural habitat to wherever they had been taken to.
If you look critically, you will also discover that these people are victims of rape which means it will have impact on cultivating a normal relationship because they are young people and they might have problems in the future about what relationship is all about.
So the occupation therapist is going to come into this in conjunction with other members of the rehabilitation team , in this particular case we are citing working with people like psychologists and for sure, some of them may not be able to go back to school .
We are going to help them learn vocational skills for them to have means of sustainability and be economically independent because nobody will continue to depend on others for life. For those that can still go back to school, we work on them to facilitate it so that they can pursue their dreams.
Are there enough occupational therapists in Nigeria to address these problems?
Judging by the Medical Rehabilitation Therapy Board, Nigeria presently has less than 20 certified occupational therapists so one can imagine that number in a nation of about 160 million according to the 2006 census. Our service is needed in all works of life and if we are yet to serve hospitals, how much more occupational therapist in schools and other places.
Ordinarily, a therapist is supposed to be for about 10 patients. If you look at the entire medical line in the country, occupation therapy is the most challenged and affected in terms of inadequate capacity.