Addressing Sustainable Goals in Occupational Therapy.
In a country like South Africa, there is a huge need for development implementation. People from all walks of life, and professions must work together towards achieving the goal of getting the country more developed. This includes the occupational therapy profession. This blog will explore how I, an occupational therapy student, have been, and plan to continue addressing some of the Sustainable Development Goals in a community like Cator Manor, a community facing a lot of socio-economic challenges such as unemployment, poverty, crime, substance use, and poor infrastructures.
As an occupational therapy student currently in the community blog, my colleagues and I have been doing our part in the movement of implementing some of the Sustainable Developmental Goals in the community we are currently serving. For the sake of this blog, I am only going to mention 5 of the SDGs, namely; No poverty, Zero Hunger, Quality Education, Good Health and Well-being, and Gender Equality United Nations (2023).
For the past 3 weeks, I have had the pleasure and the privilege of serving the community through services I provide in the community clinic, local creches, the primary, and secondary school. Through these services, as minuscule as they may seem, I would personally like to believe that I have been doing my part in bringing positive change in the community, promoting occupational engagement to some of the community members, and somehow enhancing life in the community as a whole.
According to the United Nations (2003), the Sustainable Development Goal of No Poverty aims to alleviate Poverty in all shapes and forms. As an occupational therapist, I have a duty that includes encouraging and enabling community members to develop job skills, rehabilitate the injured, and prepare them for job integration, and encourage the community to consider exploring sustainable incomes through self-employment, such as starting vegetable gardens, all in the name of trying to improve economic independence (Durocher et al.,2016).
The idea of the vegetable garden can ultimately work on another Sustainable Goal, which is Zero Hunger. And in the interest of the sustainable goal, of Zere Hunger, we, as Occupational Therapy students have had the pleasure of helping in the community feeding scheme that serves food outside the community hall.
In a community facing socio-economic challenges, quality education is of significant importance for all willing to receive it. This would ultimately offer the community more opportunities such as getting more people into higher education and bettering their chances of getting more jobs. In a community like Cator Manor, schoolers were reported to be abusing and selling drugs, having behavioral issues, and also facing hardships in their school and personal lives. We, as occupational therapists, have an important role in helping teachers and social workers address the needs of students with learning disabilities to enhance engagement in education (Durocher et al.,2016). We also run groups and individual interventions for psychosocial challenges such as peer pressure and substance use.
While working in the Clinic, I also have the opportunity to address the Sustainable Development Goal of Good Health and Well-Being. My colleagues and I have been doing health promotions almost every day, aimed at informing the public about services Occupational Therapy and other medical professionals in the clinic offer. We worked on raising awareness on Mental Health (anxiety and depression, substance abuse, traumas), and addressing the often-overlooked Maternal Mental Health (Wednesdays at the Philamntwana Clinic). We also looked at barriers the community members face that prevent them from engaging in meaningful occupations, all to promote Good health and Well-being.
In a school with social workers, there were a lot of reports of scholars witnessing and experiencing Gender-based Violence, at home and the school, I had the pleasure of doing a group session that included promoting Gender equality. This was aimed to address social and cultural norms that are unfair to women and provide psychosocial assistance to those experiencing these inequalities.
As many of our academics say, as occupational therapists, we are agents of change in communities. Through advocation and promotion, we can address Sustainable Developmental Goals. As much as we cannot address these with every single individual in the community, I believe through engaging with some of the members, we can create a ripple effect that benefits the community. Still, until then, we are going to do what we can, one step at a time.
REFERENCES
Durocher, E., Gibson, B. E., & Rappolt, S. (2016). Occupational justice: A conceptual review. Journal of Occupational Science, 21(4), 418–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2013.775692
United Nations. (2023). Sustainable Development Goals. https://sdgs.un.org/goals