Med1Care Therapy Partner’s specialize in occupational therapy. If you are struggling with a task or suffering from an injury or condition that makes it difficult to function at home, at school or in your job, we can help you adapt to performing in each of these environments, sometimes with assistive devices.
Occupational therapy can support the ability to do tasks, including:
- Eating without assistance from others
- Engaging in leisure activities
- Completing office work
- Bathing and dressing
- Cleaning the house
- Doing laundry
Occupational therapy is for people of all ages who want to perform activities or tasks in an easier, less painful way.
What Does An Occupational Therapist Do
During the assessment phase, an occupational therapist (OT) can come to your home, school or workplace to watch the way you function in your environment and suggest changes that can make tasks and chores easier, such as moving furniture or using a grabber.
Next, your therapist can work with you to set up a treatment plan, individualized to your goals and capabilities. They can help you adapt the way you move, teach you to do tasks in new ways, improve motor skills and improve hand-eye coordination.
Benefits Of Occupational Therapy
- Assist with a child’s aggressive behavior
- Build hand-eye coordination, so you can hit a pickleball
- Help you acclimate to changes in speech or memory following a stroke
- Help you work on the computer
- Improve motor skills, so you can grasp a pen
- Organize your household items or medications
- Recommend assistive devices and teach you how to use them, such as a wheelchair or raised toilet seat
- Teach you clever ways to button a shirt, lace your shoes, safely get in and out of the shower
- Work with you to improve balance, adapt your home to prevent injuries and build muscle strength
Occupational therapy can enhance your independence and make it easier to engage in purposeful activities, so you can perform routine tasks at home, at school and at work.
Read more about it here.
How do you get an OT assessment – How We Can Help
If you need assistance engaging in purposeful activities with less resistance, our experienced therapists can help you adapt to limitations, modify your environment, and improve your motor skills to decrease your pain and improve your quality of life.
Med1Care Therapy Partner’s experienced therapists are trained in providing personalized care. We will partner with your physician to help you build a unique treatment plan that improves your ability to function with specialized exercises and education on easier ways to manage daily living.
Occupational Therapy Activities and Interventions
Activities therapists use during sessions include writing, drawing and using other arts and crafts. They may also work with physical activities such as running, jumping, hopping or sports drills to improve coordination, balance and strength. Therapists may also help their clients learn how to use adaptive equipment, including wheelchairs and walkers. In addition to physical activities, therapists may also help patients develop social, communication and problem-solving skills. Through their work with activities, therapists can help patients become more independent and confident in their daily living tasks. Therapists may also provide emotional support to clients struggling with depression or anxiety. By supporting the patient’s emotional well-being, it can help the patient make progress in their physical goals
Intervention methods may include cognitive and physical exercises, sensory integration techniques, leisure fun, self-care training, and more. The goal of these interventions is to improve patients’ quality of life by helping them manage their symptoms and become more independent in their daily lives. Depending on the patient’s needs and preferences, therapists may offer individualized therapy plans, rehabilitation or group participation. Therapy interventions can also help reduce the risk of injury by teaching patients how to perform everyday tasks in a safe and efficient manner.
By supporting people’s physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being, occupational therapy helps them maintain their independence while living with chronic illness or disability. In addition, therapists may provide counseling and rehabilitation support to help folks cope with their condition, improve self-care skills, and develop strategies to manage their symptoms. Therapists also work with caregivers to encourage collaboration in managing daily activities.
Pediatric Interventions
A special subset of occupational therapy is geared towards children. Pediatric occupational therapists work to help children with developmental delays, sensory processing disorders, communication delays, fine deficits and more. Through various conditioning and exercises they can help these young folks gain functional skills such as potty training, grooming tasks, socialization and school-related tasks. We discuss this in more detail in this article relating to pediatric occupational therapy evaluation. Read more on pediatric occupational therapy here.
Bathing Interventions
Bathing is a key task for self-care and independence. Therapists help them develop the skills, cognitive abilities, and psychological readiness to complete this activity with minimal assistance from caregivers or family members. Therapists may use equipment such as grab bars and other adaptive devices to allow greater safety and confidence when bathing. They also work on body posture, coordination, and proprioceptive awareness to increase success in the bathing task.
Dressing Interventions
Dressing is another key self-care task that many people with physical or developmental disabilities need support with completing. Therapists may help patients develop fine skills to button clothing and tie shoes, as well as build up strength and coordination needed to put on clothing, socks, and shoes. They may also help the patient develop an awareness of each item of clothing, their sequence in dressing, and strategies for overcoming any barriers they encounter while getting dressed.
Balance Activities
Balance is a key component of mobility. Therapists may assess a person’s coordination and design intervention activities to improve it. This may include practicing standing on one foot, using assistive devices for support, and even participating in sports such as basketball or tennis to help them learn how to maintain their balance while moving through space.
Read here on considerations around occupational therapy costs: evaluation and treatment.
Call us at 419.866.0555 to schedule a consultation.
Our specialists will help you chart a course forward.
Any person struggling to do an activity can benefit with occupational therapy.
Common health problems benefited by occupational therapy include:
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Amputations
- Arthritis
- Autism
- Balance difficulties
- Birth defects
- Burns
- Cancer
- Cerebral palsy
- Developmental delays
- Diabetes
- Head trauma
- Joint injury
- Learning problems
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Poor eyesight
- Sensory processing disorders
- Severe injuries
- Spinal injury
- Stroke
The primary difference between the two fields is that physical therapy helps patients cope with pain, increase range of motion, improve endurance, and develop gross motor skills; occupational therapy focuses more on how clients perform activities and roles that are most important to their daily lives, including assessing and treating physical, psychosocial, behavioral, cognitive, or sensory skills.
- PT focuses on helping improve movement, mobility and function by a variety of exercises, stretches or physical activities.
- OT focuses on assisting with performing day to day activities as well as making environment more optimal for everyday life.
- “Two sides of the same coin.”
Occupational therapy can help kids across their life: at home, at school and at play. It helps boost a child’s sense of achievement and well-being.
Occupational therapy can assist a child with tasks like:
- Copying notes from a whiteboard
- Developing computer skills
- Grasping and releasing toys
- Hitting a tennis ball
- Learning positive ways to manage frustration and anger
- Obtaining equipment that helps build independence, like wheelchairs, splints, bathing equipment, dressing tools and communication helpers
- Self-care, such as bathing, dressing, brushing teeth and unassisted eating
- Working on legible handwriting
Your child may need screening or evaluation if they are having difficulty with anything they encounter while getting dressed, such as buttoning or zipping clothing items, tying shoes, or putting on a jacket. Specific assessments can help identify areas of difficulty and provide guidance for treatment and intervention. We can also assess the need for any adaptive equipment that may be needed to help your child complete everyday tasks independently.
Occupational therapy is not used solely for the diagnosis of ADHD, but rather to help manage the symptoms associated with it. ADHD is a medical diagnosis that is made by a physician. However, a therapist can assess the impact of ADHD on your child’s daily activities and make recommendations for interventions to help them manage the symptoms. The assessment may look at how well a child’s motor skills and sensory processing are functioning, as well as their attention and executive functioning. Based on their assessment, an OT may recommend strategies to improve these areas and can work with parents and other professionals in creating a treatment plan.