Occupation: Is It Just A Fancy Name For Function?
Introduction
It should come as no surprise that there is some confusion about defining occupation, there seems to be even more confusion about delineating differences between occupation and function.
The term function and occupation are frequently used interchangeably by occupational therapists.(Law, et al, 1998) There is, however, little reason for this to occur. If there is confusion about occupation, both among OTs and among non-OTs, interchanging occupation with function only contributes to this situation. This is a situation analogous to using occupation when one means vocation or using occupation when one means activity.
Occupation, while similar to all of these, is not the same. In fact using non-occupation terms to define occupation only serves to water-down the breadth of both occupation and the profession founded on therapeutic use of occupation. This article is a brief look at function and occupation: both similarities and differences.
Definitions
- Function:
The action for which a person or thing is particularly fitted or employed. [Source: Dictionary.com]
Something closely related to another thing and dependent on it for its existence, value, or significance. [Source: Dictionary.com]
- Occupation:
An activity engaged in especially as a means of passing time; an avocation. [Source: Dictionary.com]
Any activity in which a person is engaged. [Source: Webster's Collegiate Dictionary]
An activity in which one engages. [Source: Merriam-Webster online]
When a clinician uses the term 'function', without further clarification, it is impossible to understand how the term is being applied. Is the person using the term referring to human function, elbow function, cardiovascular function, and environmental function. When one speaks of function, there is little way of knowing the context in which the term is being applied. Many professions claim to be about function, and most of them are but only within the limited repertoire of their clinical focus. For example, a neuro-surgeon is an obvious expert on the functioning of the central nervous system. A physical therapist is an expert in the domain of the body's physical functioning. Well then, occupational therapists should be the expert in the realm of occupational functioning.
As stated in previous editions of this newsletter, no one claims to be experts in occupation. So, if 'everyone' is claiming expertise in function what is OT claiming expertise in?
Function is a reductionsitic way of looking at human beings. It's a way of seeing people as functional components. This model sees humans as functioning like machines in that the sum or our being exists as a function of our components. Within this framework, it's assumed that dysfunction in the whole is because of dysfunction in the pieces. This being the case, finding and fixing the pieces, fixes the whole. While this process may be true for pieces such as joints, muscles, organs, etc. it is non-functional when applied to the whole..
On the other hand, occupation refers, not to the pieces, but to the whole. Occupation is indeed about function but it's about human function as it relates to some environment and some activity. Occupation subsumes that the whole functions as its own entity, separate and distinct from its pieces. This being the case, occupation must be seen as more vastly complex. Truly, nothing is independent of everything else. Everything living organism and organism system is dependent to some degree on some other system. Even an individual is not truly independent. All of us depend on others for knowing our place in world and for being able to function in the world. Even those reading this newsletter are not truly independent. You are only able to read this information because of many, many factors coming together in a recognizable and meaningful way. A term better used to desirable the human condition, is interdependent. In reality, we all exist as a sometime cohesive sometimes non-cohesive, collection of individuals who are greatly dependent on each other.