Scope of Practice
General Scope of Practice: Kaiwhakaora Ngangahau Occupational Therapist
The core aim of occupational therapy is to support people and whānau to have a life they value through enabling occupation and inclusion in society. Occupational therapists assess, diagnose and work together with people and whānau to engage in the meaningful activities they need, want and are expected to do in their everyday life. They work with people at all stages of life who have health conditions, disabilities, injuries or risks to health and/or are encountering social or environmental barriers to carrying out meaningful occupation.
Engaging in meaningful occupation is essential for strengthening mana, whānau health, wellbeing and prosperity, and the wellbeing of communities. This denotes the concept of occupation being used therapeutically to promote and support health and wellbeing.
Occupational therapists advocate for the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of all people and whānau to engage in occupations. Human rights, occupational and social justice, equity and sustainability are core principles of the profession. Practice is responsive to social, cultural, historical, economic and environmental influences on occupation, including discrimination, systemic disadvantage, poverty, conflict and natural disasters.
Occupational therapy practice, education and research in Aotearoa New Zealand is conducted in a manner that enables and advances the equal and respectful partnership between tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti as laid out in te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Occupational therapists work collaboratively, safely and skillfully with the aim of enhancing tino rangatiratanga. They work in leadership and in emerging roles including policy, governance, management and education to lead self, others and/or organisations to enable health and wellbeing of people. They apply professional reasoning, research evidence and practical knowledge, coupled with the experience of people and whānau receiving services.
Occupational therapists practise as generalists and specialists, autonomously and within teams and in public, Māori, private, virtual, civic, community and corporate contexts, in accordance with the Occupational Therapy Board of New Zealand Code of Ethics and Competencies for Registration and Continuing Practice.
Click here to view The Occupational Therapy Board of New Zealand's Scope of Practice and an official glossary.
The Occupational Therapy Board of NZ defines the practice of occupational therapy as the following:
1. Using process/es of enabling occupation to promote health and well-being by working with individuals, whanau, groups, organisations, communities and society to optimise activity and participation across the lifespan and in all life domains.
2. Establishing relationships with clients/Tangata Whaiora and people associated with clients, based on an understanding of their occupational history, participation preferences, and the personal, spiritual, family, whanau, social, and cultural meanings of what they do.
3. Using interactive, observational and interpretive methods of enquiry to explore and understand the subjective meanings of occupation.
4. Assessing aspects of people, occupations and places relevant to the things people want, need and are expected to do, including:
- Personal factors, body structures and functions, activity limitations and occupational performance skills relative to the requirements for participation and developmental stage.
- Past and present participation in occupation including the effectiveness of and satisfaction with that participation.
- Routines and patterns of participation, and their consequences for health and well-being.
- The components of occupation, and the capacities, skills and resources required to participate in them.
- Contexts of participation, including facilitators and barriers to participation in occupation, and culturally defined roles and meanings.
5. Working collaboratively with clients to:
- Identify and prioritise activity and participation goals at an occupational performance level, in current and future environments.
- Develop, preserve and restore capacity for participation, including body structures and functions, and personal factors as these relate to skillful, effective and satisfying occupational performance.
- Prevent or retard predictable deformity of body structures and/or disruption of body functions that might affect participation, through educational approaches and by recommending and educating people in the use and care of assistive devices, garments and technologies.
- Review participation choices, in relation to enabling occupational performance.
- Modify how, when, where and with whom activities and occupations are performed.
- Modify physical, social and attitudinal environments to remove barriers to participation in occupation and strengthen facilitators of participation in occupation.
- Develop a group, organisation or community’s purpose, resources, structure, functioning and/or skills to enable participation in occupation.
6. ‘Practice’ may be paid or voluntary. Practice goes wider than clinical occupational therapy to include teaching/tutoring, professional and/or team leadership or health management and advisory roles where the person influences the practice of occupational therapy, in hospitals, clinics, private practices and community and institutional contexts.
7. Engaging in processes to ensure competence in the above.
The Scope of Practice was refreshed and updated in 2022. Click here to view the General Scope of Practice Gazette.
(The previous gazette from 2004 can be viewed here.)