Reasons Occupational Therapy Is So Important

 Have you ever been injured and faced problems with mobility? Has a relative found day-to-day activities challenging as a result of aging? Do you know of someone suffering from an issue who needed help beyond what a mental health professional routinely provides? These are all common examples of people that occupational therapists assist in the course of their duties. The common goal is to find ways for clients to function as normally as their current condition allows. This often involves examining the environmental, community, and psycho-social factors in their lives. occupational therapist assistant helping a patient with arm weights For clients dealing with an injury, illness, disability or mental health, a change in function, or barriers in the social or physical environment, occupational therapy seeks to enable them to function as normally as their current condition allows.

Home Safety Assessments: Occupational therapists love nothing more than supporting a person’s ability to remain in their own home when confronting a disability or growing in age. A key benefit of occupational therapy is the peace of mind gained from a home assessment conducted by an experienced and trained occupational therapist. These assessments address safety in the home including evaluating the amount of clutter obstructing walkways and other living spaces, the amount of adequate lighting, and assessing the need for adaptive equipment.

Improve Range of Motion & Strength Safely: Surgery, arthritis, or a stroke can create changes in the amount of available movement in joints such as the shoulder joint. Occupational therapists work with their clients to improve their range of motion through... The passive range of motion, where therapists stimulate the performance of motion for their clients assisting them in making small joint-related movements, is called the active assistive range of motion. Active range of motion is when a patient moves their arm or performs other joint-related movements on their own, without physical assistance. Proper body positionings, such as lying down on the back or side also support the return of independent function with a full range of motion. In a lying position, resistance caused by gravity is decreased, while increasing the ease of joint mobility. Pain can easily occur if a person pushes themselves too hard and/or too fast while being positioned poorly. 

Improve Visual Skills: Changes in vision can occur with eye disease and after a brain injury or a stroke. These changes create blind spots in our field of vision. Visual changes can affect a person’s ability to walk confidently or read. Occupational therapy can teach visual adaptive techniques such as scanning and pre-reading strategies to improve performance and overall experience when reading.

Decrease Pain, While Building Strength: Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion, a widely taught theory and physics lesson, states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, which applies to the movements of the human body. For example, when one muscle is weak, the opposite muscle might become too tight, causing pain. Compensatory techniques, such as hiking the shoulder to keep the arm close to the body in an effort to reduce pain, often cause muscle imbalance, and consequently, increased pain. With compensatory techniques, involving shoulder movement, the muscle at the chest (called the pectoralis major) often begins to tighten causing the muscles around the shoulder blade to become weak.

Get Adaptive Strategies & Equipment: Needing the help of another person to perform daily activities is not ideal. The ultimate job of an occupational therapist is to improve a person’s ability to independently perform activities of daily living. With the help of an experienced occupational therapist, participants will see an improved range of motion and, in most cases, naturally be able to perform important daily tasks again due to the positive effects resulting from the key benefits of occupational therapy. In some cases with severe limitations in range of motion, more aggressive adaptive strategies or adaptive equipment may be required... Jar openers and shower chairs are considered adaptive equipment. A jar opener increases the amount of torque a person can apply to open their favorite jar of salsa. Shower chairs can allow a person with the limited balance to sit and bathe independently vs. attempting to stand to bathe and risk falling.

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