Positively Healthy: Stroke
Would you recognize the warning signs of a stroke?
Behind The Headlines Staff
- Occupational therapy (OT) helps people of all ages regain the ability to perform daily activities and pursue meaningful hobbies after illness or injury.
- OTs work with patients in various settings, addressing needs ranging from basic self-care to complex job functions.
- Adaptive techniques and equipment may be used to aid patients in regaining independence.
April is National Occupational Therapy Month, a time to celebrate and learn more about the occupational therapy profession and the dedicated health care professionals who have been supporting a unique patient population for more than 100 years.
What is Occupational Therapy? Occupational therapy (OT) helps people of all ages return to the activities that are most important to them after an illness or injury. Those activities include basic movements associated with daily living and hobbies that bring meaning and joy to a person’s life.
Occupational therapists work with people in all phases of life. Everyone has different needs and interests, and must be treated with those unique sets of needs and interests in mind. OTs work with patients in a variety of settings, including acute care, inpatient rehab, outpatient clinics, and adults in skilled nursing facilities.
Therapy generally starts with ADLs (activities of daily living) such as bathing, grooming and dressing, and IADLs (instrumental activities of daily living) such as preparing meals, cleaning, childcare, and laundry. Therapies progress and broaden in scope based on the patient’s diagnosis.
Some patients’ needs go beyond daily activities; they may need help performing their job functions and leisure interests. For example, if a person is a carpenter and loses a finger in a job-related injury, an OT will work with this person on wound care, controlling swelling, range of motion, sensory retraining and functional strengthening so that he or she may be able to return to work.
Adaptive techniques and/or equipment may be needed based on the injury site. OTs can teach adaptive techniques such as using a non-dominant hand for performing daily activities like showering, dressing and preparing meals. Adaptive equipment such as a long-handle shoehorn, sock aid, reaching tools, button hooks and long-handle shower sponges are a few examples.
Occupational therapists make recommendations for grab bars in the shower, or the use of a shower chair to make the bathroom safe. OTs also fabricate custom orthotics for appropriate healing and functional use of a limb. Examples include a resting hand orthotic for a stroke, wrist support for carpal tunnel and thumb spica for De Quervain’s wrist/ thumb tendonitis
When might you or a loved one need an occupational therapist? OTs help individuals with work-related injuries, those with chronic pain, and for individuals with serious illnesses like stroke, Parkinson’s disease and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). They also help individuals with orthopedic injuries from the shoulder to the hand, such as fractures, tendonitis, rotator cuff repairs, shoulder replacements, elbow tendonitis, carpal tunnel, arthritis and tendon repairs.
The Brown University Health system has occupational therapists across multiple locations and geographical areas. The Vanderbilt Rehabilitation Center (VRC) at Newport Hospital has both inpatient and outpatient services and is home to Brown University Health’s only acute inpatient rehabilitation unit. VRC has built a reputation, since 1979, as one of the region’s premier programs focusing on patient care and outcomes, and it shows in our extremely high patient satisfaction scores, which mean the most to those of us doing the work.
For all of us, the activities that bring joy to our lives are an important part of who we are. OTs help people identify those interests and develop strategies so they can continue to take part in those activities, despite their physical, psychological, cognitive, social or emotional limitations.
Joanne St. Laurent is a Senior Occupational Therapist and a member of the Vanderbilt outpatient rehabilitation care team, at Newport Hospital. Health Matters appears monthly in The Newport Daily News and on newportri.com.
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