Occupations

Occupations are the basis for the profession of occupational therapy and they are what practice revolves around. However, defining the term occupation is challenging due to the fact that there can be several meanings for occupation. Some definitions for occupations are:

• "Properly using time that includes work, and worklike activities and recreational activities."
• "Specific chunks of activity within the ongoing stream of human behavior which are named in the lexicon of culture. These daily pursuits are self-initiated, goal directed, and socially sanctioned."
• "Groups of activities and tasks of everyday life, named, organized, and given value and meaning by individuals and culture."
• "The activities that comprise our life experience and can be named in the culture (Crepeau, Cohn, & Schell, 2009)."

The broad range of occupations are be sorted into categories that are called areas of occupation.

• Activities of daily living
• Bathing, dressing, eating
• Instrumental activities of daily living
• Care of others, pets, shopping
• Rest and Sleep
• Education
• Formal and informal educational participation
• Work
• Paid employment and volunteer activities
• Play
• Activity that provide enjoyment, entertainment, amusement, or diversion
• Leisure
• Nonobligatory activity during discretionary time
• Social Participation
• Community, family, peer, friend (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2008)