Occupational Therapy Commons^™

Exploration Of Occupational Therapy’S Role Within The Lgbtq+ Population, Crystal Garcia, Pam Kasyan-Howe, Kristin Domville, Lisa Schubert

Fall 2021 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

There are an estimated 11 million individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ in the United States (Rosendale et al., 2019). With this number steadily increasing, it is important that occupational therapists continue to become culturally competent and educated on different strategies to transform the way individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ are given and receive treatment. The problem is that there is a gap in the literature supporting occupational therapist cultural competence to integrate occupational roles of the LGBTQ+ population into their evaluation and intervention. Without culturally competent educational opportunities, the health care system is inadequately prepared to provide responsive health care …

Occupational Therapy’S Role In Addressing Sexuality And Intimacy For Individuals With Progressive Neuromuscular Disorders, Lindsay N. Richards

Student Capstone Papers

Individuals with progressive neuromuscular disorders (PND); specifically, Parkinson’s disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Huntington’s Disease (HD), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) often face physical, psychological, and social challenges related to sex and intimacy. Occupational therapy (OT) practitioners are experts in activity analysis and are equipped with unique knowledge of performance skills and client factors to address deficits in occupational performance.

Though there is literature presenting the effects of PND on sexual occupations, a gap exists as it relates to qualitative data from the perspective of the individual and their partners. A mixed-methods survey was conducted examining the lived experience of …