In relation to Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapists are interested in getting people to do things, or being occupied. While mindfully participating in cooking over the last nine weeks I have also thought about the relevance it has on occupational therapy. Cooking is a good activity to get people involved in, as it can be done one on one or in a group. It is a life skill which needs to be learnt, and for the client, they get an end product - food! For them what could possibly be better?

It can be used by an occupational therapist in nearly any setting, as education, intervention and an assessment. By watching someone cook you are able to assess their motor and process skills, and also how safe they will be doing this independently in their own home. From here you can make recommendations on the equipment or adaptive methods they could use while cooking - an example of using cooking as an in intervention.  By cooking with someone you can simply to get them involved and interacting with you or a group. Cooking as education can again be done it a variety of settings, for example in a youth setting cooking may be taught when preparing people to be independent in a life skills sessions that are run in this setting.

Cooking is a great activity, and having thought about it in more depth over the last 9 weeks, there is not much chance it is an activity I will be giving up in the near future.

In relation to ambience, cooking comes under the umbrella of labour, as it is necessary for survival, and needs to continually be completed.