Meaningful Occupations are “chosen, performed and engaged in to generate experiences of personal meaning and satisfaction by individuals, groups, or communities” (CAOT, 1997a, 2002, p 181). If we so choose, these ‘meaningful occupations’ may revolve around us trying to be more environmentally friendly. For example, I enjoy preserving, gardening and keeping a compost bin to get rid of all my biodegradable kitchen waste.
We are constantly encouraged through the media to alter the way we go about our everyday occupations in order to reduce our carbon footprint, but this is our personal choice as to how we go about this. Some choose to be vegetarian, use a bike as transport, grow their own produce or recycle furniture or appliances. While such activities are considered very important to the future of the planet should we as novice Occupational Therapists seek occupations for our clients that are environmentally friendly as a way to keep them occupied in their phase of recovery.
Is perhaps our advancement of this cause reflective of our training and the nature of our industry? Are we promoting these activities because they are cost effective and we are working within tight budgets? After all, as a student we have been taught many activities that can be done on a shoestring budget that are effective and meaningful.
As a caring and proactive profession maybe we feel we should be passing on our sustainable ideas to our clients and when they are in our care we see this as opportunistic to introduce these activities as a “meaningful” way to be occupied?
The four “R’s”, yes there are now four instead of three (reduce, reuse, recycle and repair) are steadily edging their way into our daily routines with the expectation of them becoming habits of all households. As novice Occupational Therapists do we employ such sustainable activities as part of our clients’ recovery plan. Are they really beneficial to our clients or are they just benefiting the environment?
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