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What can occupational therapists do to help people to adapt to their present or new normal?


This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

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Occupational Therapist

For occupational therapy we do a lot of things, but we work on modifications and compensatory strategies. So really thinking about if your loved one has difficulty with dressing, we can help you figure out new ways of how to do things or techniques to make it easier for you to dress. We provide adaptive equipment which is really great, techniques to make it easier to do tasks such as getting your socks on. You can use a socket or use a reacher if you can't bend down. We have a lot of tools that we use in our sessions too to get people more independent. We also have techniques for energy conservation as maybe someone after a brain injury and being in the hospital for so long might have their energy level depleted. These techniques make it a little bit easier for you to be able to do the activities that you want to do at home without feeling extremely tired. We also do home evaluations to come up with the solutions for the houses or thinking about adaptive equipment that is needed or durable medical equipment. Maybe the person might need a raised toilet seat because they can't get off the toilet effectively and safely or a tub bench because they can't get over the edge of the tub. We can also recommend durable medical equipment and make recommendations. We have a lot of tools and can make adaptations for people who have visual deficits. For accessibility, using your cell phone is awesome because there are so many accessibility tools on your cell phone to help with vision or dexterity. If you have fine motor control or sensory deficits, we can really help patients get back to their activities, but it might be in a different way. At least they can be able to do it effectively.