The Profession

Occupational therapy uses meaningful activities or” occupations” to promote health and wellness to help individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives. It gives people “skills for the job of living” which are necessary for leading full, productive, satisfying lives. Service areas typically include:

• Customized evaluation and treatment to improve performance of daily activities
• Comprehensive home and job site evaluations with environmental adaptations
• Assessment and treatment of performance skills daptive equipment recommendations and training
• Education of family members and caregivers Occupational therapists are health professional who use activities to help people of all ages prevent, lessen, or adapt to disabilities.The activities may be as basic as bathing or dressing, or as complex as operating a computer or driving with modified controls.

ASSISTIVE & ENABLING DEVICES (AED) QUESTIONNAIREs

Ministry of Science & Technology (Govt. of India) is currently pursuing a programme called "Technology Interventions for Elderly (TIE)", which supports projects on development of technology and support services for benefit of the elderly people. TIE includes an initiative under which development of assistive & enabling technologies is supported. In the continuation of this project Dr. V. C. Goyal,1 Dr. Usha Dixit2 and Mr. Prakash Kumar3 developed a questionnaire named as “ASSISTIVE & ENABLING DEVICES (AED) QUESTIONNAIRE”. This questionnaire was used at 8th National Conference of the All India Senior Citizens' Confederation on December 23-24, 2008 at the Chatarpur Temple Complex, New Delhi.

The questionnaire comprised of three sections- the first section asked for general description like name, qualification, occupation, income, marital status, etc. Second section explored the person’s felt difficulties in the activities of daily living and the third section sought specific information on the AEDs needs for assistance in key life functions and about the awareness of these devices. The section on AED contained a list of devices under each category, followed by a set of questions. First, it asks whether there is a difficulty or problem with this category of task/activity. Then it asks if the respondent is aware of the potential AED listed under that category. If the respondent is aware and using the device, whether there is a difficulty in use. In case the respondent is aware but not presently using the device, whether he/she would like to use in future.

If you need an AED questionnaire for research or educational purpose, please contact Dr. A.B Dey Professor and Head Department of Geriatric Medicine AIIMS New Delhi E-mail: abdey@oldagesolutions.orgs