Occupation and Leisure

Ocupation

Occupation encompasses a wide range of doing that occurs within the context of time, space, society and culture. Temporal, physical, social and cultural contexts pose conditions that invite, shape and inform our doing.
The temporal and physical worlds provide conditions that give doing it's fundamental character. Society and culture provide and assign us things to do. They give us instructions, reasons and meaning for our doing. The kinds of things we do, why and how we do them, and what we think and feel about them, all derive from the intersecting conditions and influences of time, space, society and culture.

Occupation is a vital part of the human condition and includes work, play/leisure and activities of daily living within a temporal, physical and sociocultural context.

Work refers to activities that provide services or commodities to others; such as ideas, knowledge, help, information sharing, entertainment, utilitarian or artistic objects and protection. Play/leisure refers to activities undertaken for their own sake, such as exploring, pretending, celebrating, and engaging in games or sports, and pursuing hobbies. Activities of daily living are the typical life tasks required for self-care and self maintenance, such as grooming, bathing, eating, cleaning the house, doing laundry and so on.

Activities of daily living, play and work interweave and sometimes overlap in the course of everyday life (Kielhofner, 2002).


Studies in occupational therapy are focusing on developing tools to evaluate varied occupations and one's participation in every day life activities.
 

Leisure

Leisure or play usually occur outside of the obligations of one's work and provide opportunities for enjoyment, relaxation, recreation, personal growth and goal achievement. Leisure is driven by internal motivation, implies freedom of choice, and is not usually done within time constraints. It is of central importance in many people’s lives. Moreover, using leisure has many benefits, including alleviation of anxiety and increased wellbeing.
Studies about leisure in occupational therapy focus on developing tools for evaluating the characteristics of leisure activities among populations of individuals of various ages and from different cultures. Moreover, the studies focus on the varied needs for pleasurable activities among individuals in populations with special needs, such as children with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, people after strokes(CVA) or women following breast surgery.
Published articles:


Published articles

Gilboa, Y., Rosenblum, S., Fattal – Valevski, A., & Josman, N. (in press). The Application of International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Model for Children with Neurofibromatosis type 1: a Review. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology .

Rosenblum, S., & Weiss, P. L. (in press). Evaluating functional decline in patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Research in Developmental Disabilities.

Zlotnik, S., Sachs, D., Rosenblum, S., Shpasser R., & Josman, N. (2009). The use of the Dynamic Interactional Model in Self-Care and Motor Intervention Following Traumatic Brain Injury: Explanatory Case Studies. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63(5), 549-58.

Rosenblum, S., Sachs, D., & Schreuer, N. (in press). Reliability and Validity of the Children’s Leisure Assessment Scale (CLASS). American Journal of Occupational Therapy. (23 pp).

Rosenblum, S., Yurman, G., Gotfrid, Z., Wolpart, M., & Binyamin, N. (2005). Changes in leisure activity participation of women after undergoing surgical intervention for breast cancer. The Israel Journal of Occupational Therapy, 14 (3), H 109-H126 (In Hebrew).

Arama, K., Pinsky, M., Koren, G., & Rosenblum, S. (2002). The hand skills and dexterity in 5-6 year old children of Israeli Ethiopian immigrant parents versus children of Israeli born parents. Israel Journal of Occupational Therapy (IJOT), 11,3-4, H129- H146. (In Hebrew).