Title: Role of Occupational therapy in Assessing Functional Cognition - AOTA
Headings: Role of Occupational therapy in Assessing Functional Cognition
Role of Occupational therapy in Assessing Functional Cognition
What is functional cognition?
Why is it important to assess functional cognition?
Why are occupational therapists central to cognitive assessment?
What methods of testing do occupational therapists use?
Why is the occupational therapy assessment of functional cognition necessary?
How can outcome data inform health care policy and reimbursement?

Content: By evaluating individuals’ cognitive strengths and limitations in the context of performing everyday life activities, occupational therapists can help individuals identify strategies to compensate for cognitive loss when possible and to adapt the environment to improve their independence in participating in ADLs and IADLs. Why is the occupational therapy assessment of functional cognition necessary? Assessment of functional cognition is necessary to identify cognitive impairments that challenge a patient’s ability to accomplish real world tasks. The many everyday tasks that must be performed for optimal and independent living include managing medication, ensuring home safety, cooking, maintaining healthy lifestyle behaviors, and facilitating positive social interactions. Traditional neuropsychological evaluative measures were developed to localize individual cognitive abilities, such as selective attention, verbal memory, inhibition, and processing. In contrast, PBT reports how a person interacts with the environment to accomplish an activity. Occupational therapists use everyday activities that have high potential to engage the clients because these tasks inherently prime clients due to familiar contextual cues. Functional cognition is used to plan for post-discharge level of functioning, including self-care and personally valued roles, routines, and activities. The occupational therapy assessment contributes to identifying appropriate levels of care and appropriate resources to reduce caregiver burden, and it contributes to reduced hospital readmissions and increased safety at discharge. How can outcome data inform health care policy and reimbursement?