What Can Occupational Therapy Do For You?
Originally published in Saint George Wellness.
From a premature infant with feeding difficulties to a senior citizen having difficulty retrieving a golf ball out of the hole, the realm of occupational therapy (OT) spans the life cycle.
Occupational therapists work with a variety of clients in multiple settings. Their primary goal is to understand a person’s needs and develop an individualized treatment plan with strategies that allow them to function at their maximum.
Understanding a client’s motivations and values is a key component in the process of achieving success in an OT program. Treating clients with pain, injury, and illness, assessing and maximizing strengths ahead of deficits, enables a person to live a higher quality of life and meet their goals. The client’s mental, psychosocial, and physical needs are also central to this process.
So, what can OT do for you? OT can help you in almost all areas of life ending in “ing,” such as dressing, walking, cooking, or golfing.
The primary goal of OT is to assist people in accomplishing whatever it is they want to achieve. Areas of focus can include such things as relieving pain from musculoskeletal/orthopedic injuries or improving function in order to successfully complete daily self-care activities.
Tools in an occupational therapist’s belt include modalites to assist in pain management, strategies for compensation, and education to prevent complications and assist with the management of injuries. OT can enable someone to drive a car, brush their teeth, or get a golf ball out of the hole after sinking that birdie putt.
OT also focuses on client mobility, helping individuals learn how to safely and effectively get around in their space.
Interventions include safety assessments, effective use of adaptive equipment, energy conservation recommendations, and home evaluations.
Clients benefit from therapies for fall prevention and mobility independence. Improvement in the areas of dynamic balance and education on safety during functional tasks can allow a client to stay in their home, get out to their car, or enjoy that back patio sunset that they were afraid to access for a fear of falling.
Occupational therapy specializes in training family members and caregivers on how to safely take care of a loved one needing assistance. Whether someone is at home, living in an assisted living center, or in hospice care, we can educate and support family members by providing strategies for increasing safety and completing tasks in an effective manner.
Functional training tasks assist caregivers in utilizing therapeutic techniques, such as transferring a person with back precautions or assisting a loved one with the use of their walker. Collaboration is another key to helping clients maximize their potential.
As with most professions, there is a vast array of specialty training and credentials that allow an OT to assist you within numerous niche areas. Specialties such as lactation, pelvic floor disorders, lymphedema management, and hippotherapy (incorporating equine movement into therapy) require significant continuing education.