Celebrating Occupational Therapy (OT) Month: Inspiring Hope, Changing Lives
April is Occupational Therapy (OT) Month. (But we know OT is a profession that deserves year-round celebration for its life-changing impact on patient’s lives. Here’s everything you need to know about Occupational Therapy and its uses. This month we are celebrating Occupational Therapy Month: Inspiring Hope, changing lives.
What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational Therapy promotes health, well-being, and participation in a person’s life. OTs focus on helping their patients return to important activities, such as caring for themselves, work, hobbies, or caring for others. Occupational therapists evaluate each patient and set up an individualized treatment plan unique to each patient’s needs and goals. Throughout the treatments, the therapist will reevaluate and make adjustments to better meet the patient’s needs.
Why We Might Need Occupational Therapy?
As we age, we often begin to notice changes in our body such as arthritis. Arthritis can cause increased pain in our joints and prevent us from being able to continue with daily tasks. We often see arthritis in our thumbs affecting our ability to hold and manipulate items in our hand. Patients who come in with thumb arthritis often complain of pain when having to pinch items such as when turning a key, opening bottle tops, knitting, or manipulating utensils. Patients are instructed on joint protection techniques, adaptive tools, and re-alignment of the thumb joint to help decrease pain and restore independence.
It is common to see former high school and/or college athletes come in for shoulder pain. Throughout their athletic career, they often overused their rotator cuff muscles, causing damage that was not evident until later in life. It is very common for people over the age of 40 to have a rotator cuff tear, which could have been from a past sports injury. Occupational therapists can take patients through conservative treatment to help avoid surgery or help rehab them after shoulder surgery.
Kids are using computers and tablets more with increased school work being moved onto these devices. We are starting to see kids have an increase in shoulder, neck, and back pain from poor posture while working on these devices. An occupational therapist can help kids decrease this pain by helping increase the core and scapular strength needed to maintain good posture. Occupational therapists can also help educate them on what good posture looks like and how to have a better study or homework desk setup at home.
How to Ask for Occupational Therapy
While the state of Wisconsin is a direct access state, meaning you do not need a script to see an occupational therapist, it is important to check with your insurance to see if they require a script from your doctor. If you feel that you need help from an occupational therapist, you can reach out to your doctor to ask for a script. We also offer free 15-minute screens to help you determine if occupational therapy would be the right fit for you.
Impact of Occupational Therapy on Quality of Life
Occupational therapists have the unique quality of making sure they focus their treatments on the patient’s goals. This means that when they are taking the patients through the rehabilitation process, they focus their treatments on what the patient wants and need. By helping their patients return to their normal daily tasks and hobbies, they are helping improve their patient’s quality of life. Help us in celebrating Occupational Therapy (OT) Month: Inspiring Hope, Changing Lives.
Thank you, OTs!
If you would benefit from OT, schedule a consultation today.