Disrupted Occupations Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Disrupted Occupations - Assignment Example Most elderly people are accustomed to the spatial orientation of buildings, corridors, and transport systems like outdoor pavements. Most elderly residents of nursing homes have limited mobility. In addition, the warmth of friendships and companionships of fellow residents within a nursing home give meaning to the lives of elderly clients under nursing care. Physical movements, social interactions, and mental composures of nursing home residents are defined within the realms of their built environment. Any attempt to re-design the built environment will significantly impact on the lives of accustomed nursing home residents. For example, renewing concrete pavements may make them slippery, thus endangering the physical health of residents. Re-painting social interaction halls will with distinct paints affect the aesthetic appearance and fragrance of a local interaction space. In addition, building a new room for each resident instead of allowing residents to share rooms will severely a ffect the psychological well-being of residents, specifically when they are separated from their roommates. Consequently, re-designing a nursing home will invariably necessitate a re-establishment of a sense of being for the affected residents. Residents will have to; find new friends, learn to accept new fragrances and appearances of painted spaces, and adjust their mobility in order to avoid slippage on the new pavements. Such re-orientation of one’s sense of place and being is of a particular interest in current occupational therapy research.