Date of Award

4-2025

Degree Type

Capstone Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Kim Ganzevoort, M.A., COTAL

Second Advisor

Holly Grieves, OTD, OTRL

Abstract

“Sex is the most common behavior among humans after birth, breathing, sleeping, and death” (Brown, 2019, as cited in Ellis & Ungco, 2023). The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF) states that sexual activity is an activity of daily living (ADL) and managing intimate partner relationships is considered an instrumental activity of daily living (IADL), however, Occupational Therapy (OT) practitioners are not addressing sex and intimacy in practice. This could be due to reasons such as; uncomfortability, lack of knowledge and training, or fears of being professionally discredited. OT’s are experiencing a gap on the topic of sex and intimacy beginning in the classroom, where very limited information and training regarding sex and intimacy is being taught. Avoiding the topic of sex, sexuality and intimacy threatens the client-centered and holistic care that make up Occupational Therapy. The purpose of this capstone was to increase Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) student’s overall knowledge and comfortability with the topic of sex and intimacy in OT through an educational module. This was completed using objectives such as developing competency of the topic, presenting the content on sexual health and intimacy to OTA students to prepare them to address this topic in the field, while also addressing curriculum design principle and organizing the information to support engagement and retrieval of information.

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