Unsexy, effective therapy

Brintnell speaks on a different form of social rehabilitation

Wednesday, July 03, 2013 - 15:32

by Sophia Halim

IN today’s ageing society, Malaysians are living longer but as they live longer they live with activity limitations. “There was one time if you have a spinal cord injury, you die very quickly. If you survived, you ended up with bed sores or in an unpleasant longterm hospital setting,” according to Professor Sharon Brintnell, president of the World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT).

“When people acquire a disability, there is no reason for them to be dependent or isolated which are two key things that affect their health. “Through cognitive-based rehabilitation and with adaptive equipment, you can regain your independence and ability to go back to work,” she said.

Professor Brintnell from the University of Alberta, Canada, has earned an international reputation in her more than 40 years in occupational therapy and recently became the inaugural winner of the prestigious WFOT Lectureship Award, honouring her international work in the research, teaching and practice of occupational therapy.

Brintnell was in Kuala Lumpur recently to speak on occupational therapy (OT) in Malaysia which she claimed doesn’t sound very sexy. “But it’s very effective,” she said.

In an interview with The Malay Mail, Brintnell, together with Prof. Nathan Vytialingam, president of Asia Pacific Regional Group of Occupational Therapists and Professor in Occupational Therapy from Perdana University, speak about the development of OT in Malaysia and worldwide.

What exactly is OT?

Often, rehabilitation is thought of as physical but it’s a combination of physical and mental.

“With OT, you get two for one,” said Brintnell. OT is the use of treatments to develop, recover, or maintain the daily living of patients with a physical, mental or developmental condition.

“Although you are different, you’re out in community and continuing with your life. The strengths that you have are the assets that motivate you to meet the challenge of participating in a different way,” she explained.

The aim of OT is ‘de-medicalise’ — to enable those with disabilities to re-engage and participate in the activities of everyday life by working with people and communities by modifying the occupation or the environment to better support their occupational engagement. It may sound invasive but it is not your stereotypical closeted therapy session.

“We could be having a cup o f tea and at the same time, having a therapy session to, for example, help you get through your social anxiety. It doesn’t look like therapy but this is the therapy session,” according to Brintnell.

“There’s a high level of interaction with the patient. It’s not by doing a workbook, it’s doing it. If you’re suffering from anxiety and perhaps not thinking clearly, the therapist will help you go through the procedures of things you need to do.”

Additionally OT involves making changes to the environment to help you adapt to your surroundings. “We work that system in getting you to reengage or participate in what you have to do and we do it by practicing the actual skill,” said Brintnell.

OT in Malaysia Looking at statistics, mental health will be the largest burden on health care.

“Currently depression and anxiety is the third largest burden worldwide. Mental health is going to replace some of the cardiovascular issues,” according to Britnell.

In Malaysia and regionally, there is a big demand for professionals in OT.

“Malaysia has an ageing population. People are living longer and becoming aware of health disabilities. There is a need for mental health daycare centres and community day centres for the elderly” said Prof. Nathan.

Currently, there are over 1,200 professionals in the field while only two universities — Universiti Teknologi Mara and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia — offer a degree programme in OT.

“We started a diploma programme by the MOH in 1970. Today, we are looking into upgrading it to a degree status to move on with the rest of the world,” said Nathan.

“If you keep the programmes at a diploma level, you will not attract the brightest students. You want to have a career that is recognised and a diploma is a dead-end,” added Brintnell.

According to Brintnell, the current diploma educational model is very passive learning. “Our healthcare system has change radically that you are now not just teaching students the answers but teaching them how to problem solve, to deal with critical thinking.

This is reflective of the reality in a knowledge-based world,” she said. “Providing these services will cut down a tremendous cost for the government and take out a huge burden off the family,” added Nathan.

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