Career option: Occupational therapy

Occupational therapy is an allied health science, which involves helping people with physical or mental disorders / disabilities to attain maximum level of functioning.

The lowdownOccupational therapy is an allied health science, which involves helping people with physical or mental disorders/disabilities to attain maximum level of functioning. Occupational therapists enable patients/subjects achieve this through a variety of purposeful and adaptive occupations (read tasks or activities). The caseload of occupational therapists is dominated by paediatric cases, including cerebral palsy, autism, learning disabilities, behavioural and emotional problems. And in adults, the common conditions are paralysis, hand, head and spinal cord injuries and other orthopaedic, neurological and psychiatric conditions

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ClockworkThe average day of an occupational therapist depends on the place s/he works in. In a large hospital 9am: Deal with OPD patients 2pm: Visit patients in the in-patient department and the ICU5pm: Call it a day

The payoffThe starting (basic) salary of an occupational therapist is around Rs9300 to Rs38,600 a month in a government hospital. If a practitioner is independent, he or she can usually earn about Rs30,000 to Rs50,000 a month

Skills/TRAITS* Good diagnostic abilities – a therapist has to have complete knowledge of the disorder his or her patient suffers from to offer the correct treatment* Strong inter-personal skills* Ability communicate well with patients of all ages * An occupational therapist needs oodles of patience as many take a long time to respond

Institutes and URLs* Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Institute for the Physically Handicapped, New Delhiwww.iphnewdelhi.in* Jamia Hamdard www.jamiahamdard.edu* National Institute for the Orthopaedically Handicapped, Kolkata; www.nioh.in* GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi, www.ipu.ac.in

Pros and cons* Multi-dimensional areas to work* Frustrating if patients don’t respond to treatment