Date of Award

5-2022

Document Type

Oral Presentation/Poster

Degree Name

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD)

Department

Health Science

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Mackenzie Feldhacker

Keywords

occupation, occupational therapy, end of life, hospice care, palliative care

Subject Categories

Occupational Therapy

Abstract

The end of life is a difficult stage of life to manage, but people who are dying still desire to participate in meaningful occupations. This participation can be negatively affected by the challenges faced at the end of life. Occupational therapy is a profession perfectly fitted to facilitate occupational participation for patients at the end of their lives. However, occupational therapy is underutilized in end-of-life care, and many knowledge gaps exist surrounding its use. Much work needs to be done to solve these problems which this Capstone project begins to address. The theoretical framework underlying this project is the Occupational Perspective of Health. This project also contained three objectives with respective activities and deliverables to achieve outcomes primarily focused on advocacy and education regarding occupational therapy’s involvement in end-of-life care. All objectives were met, except the success of one objective cannot be fully determined due to lack of participation. However, this project is just one of many efforts that must be put forth to improve the outlook of end-of-life occupational therapy.

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