Occupational therapists work in a range of areas and each one defines their role it. Olivia Kelly reports

It's often said of occupational therapists, sometimes by people who work in the next room, that nobody really knows what they do. Snide mutterings about basket weaving and frankly incomprehensible descriptions in college prospectuses do nothing to clarify the matter. The problem of definition may be due to the diverse range of applications occupational therapy has and the wide variety of different forms the therapy can take.

According to the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland, occupational therapists "provide services, within healthcare rehabilitation and preventative programmes, to people whose ability to cope with everyday activities is threatened or impaired by physical, psychological or developmental problems."

To put it simply, occupational therapists work with people who usually have some disability, physical or psychological and through occupation and activity, re-learning or learning new skills, they help them rebuild or maintain quality of life.

"Occupational therapy is a very practical kind of job," Siobhan MacCobb, lecturer at the TCD school of occupational therapy, says. "It's learning by doing, teaching people practical or social skills they might need to manage their lives - from learning how to manage money, hold down a job, managing their environment or learning to take care of themselves."

The methods used by occupational therapists vary, depending on the particular issue the client or patient has, but they they all centre on the principle of activity. "People who need to acquire social skills might do it through learning drama. Others might make things to sell so they can learn how to manage money. A child with severe cerebral palsy could need to learn how to play and with them we'd need to devise a structure to enable them do that."

As well as managing issues within themselves, people may also need help dealing with their external environment. Some occupational therapists specialise in adapting patients homes or their work environments to help them manage their lives more efficiently. "You see the environment as deficient, not the person. You help them adapt things so they can be more satisfied in their environment," MacCobb says.

People of all ages can benefit from occupational therapy, she says. "Most people with a disability are elderly and so they make up a large proportion of clients, but you could also be working with children with development disabilities, or in very early development with premature babies who need sensory stimulation."

The therapist can be involved at any stage of the disability, she says. After an acute stroke or head injury they are involved in identifying the immediate issues that were a problem for the person. They could also work with someone five years after the event to see how their quality of life may be improved. In some situations they will work directly with patients. In others they might be devising a programme for them to use.

Depending on the person they are working with, occupational therapists will find themselves in a variety of settings. Only a small number work in hospitals. The majority work in community services or rehabilitation centres such as the Central Remedial Clinic. In the private sector they might have their own practice, perhaps specialising in home visits. In some cases large companies employ occupational therapists in areas such as ergonomics (the physical layout of a building) or integrating people back into the workforce and reassessing their strengths.

"We work as part of a team with speech therapists, physiotherapists or even architects," says MacCobb. They also study many of the same subjects as other health professionals such as anatomy, medicine, orthopedics and psychology. However, says MacCobb, in all cases, their interest is practical. "It's very straightforward. We're not interested in treating the condition, but in what the patients want in life and finding opportunities for them to succeed."