A Look into Different Era's

This week, I have had the opportunity to learn about the 1940's through 2010's, with an occupational therapy spin on things. Each group had a decade and for me that group was the 1990's.
However, I learned so much through each decade that was presented. I want to start off with three pieces of information that stood out to me the most, those include: the first successful kidney transplant that happened in 1952, the first artificial heart made out of titanium and plastic was implanted in 2001, and the first ever black hole was pictured in space during the 2010's.

Now, throughout our presentations as a whole, we wanted to make sure we touched on the changes that were happening in our field of occupational therapy. In the middle of the 2000's, the bionic arm was created for a man, that just wanted to get back to living like he did before he lost both of his arms. He wanted it to provide
hope for soldier amputees. With the bionic arm it has helped him with activities of daily living, proper range of motion, and being more involved with his family again.
Another similar story related to occupational therapy, is based on the rewalk exoskeleton invented in 2013. This fancy assistance system, was for those individuals with spinal cord injuries, that could not walk on their own. This bionic walking device helped the individual sit up/stand up tall, walk, and even climb. Both of these devices I feel really impacted the occupational therapy community, because it helped answer research and took therapy and adapting to a whole new level!

Next, I want to mention how the work force and women changed over the decades. Starting out in the 1940's the war made it to where the aviation industry grew the most in female workers. That really helped kick-start women having jobs. A fun fact I learned about occupational therapy in the 1940's, was that it only took 2 weeks to become an occupational therapist. Those over the war stated 18 months would be too long for schooling and they needed as much help as they could get. Over the decades, there grew to be more women in the office settings, educational settings, and medical settings. Now, women can be seen in any work setting! (Lets Go Girls!)

Lastly, I want to share what I learned about the profession of occupational therapy as a whole! Over the past several decades, occupational therapy has grown. Some rough times were had in the field, don't get me wrong, however those so called bumps in the road did not stop our community from growing bigger and better. So many AOTA Presidents and occupational therapists created better legislation in order for our field to be more client based, rather than biomedical. Those men/women are the ones who will help shape and mold me into an occupational therapist, so I can go out into the community just like they did and help advocate.