Description of Organization:
Total Care Nursing Home’s (TCNH) rehabilitation therapy program is designed to produce positive outcomes in the restoration of patients’ lives by providing Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy. TCNH provides treatment specifically tailored to patients’ needs and capabilities. During the admission process TCNH designs a personalized treatment plan by conducting a rehabilitation therapy screening that takes into consideration each patient’s medical condition and their ability to undertake rehabilitation therapy. The facilities rehabilitation therapy program is designed to produce positive outcomes, including but not limited to:
•Improving patients’ mobility
•Assisting in the ability to do self-care tasks
•Tools needed to prevent further/future complications
•Assisting patients’ in managing pain
•Most importantly providing hope and encouragement to those patients in the facility
Types of Rehabilitation Therapy
Physical Therapy:
Probably the most commonly known form of rehabilitation therapy, physical therapy is the treatment of disease or disability through therapy and exercise. The programs include assistance with gait training, bed mobility, wound care, restraint reduction and wheelchair positioning.
Occupational Therapy:
Occupational therapy is designed to help patients regain skills related to activities of daily living. Individuals may require this therapy if, as the result of an illness or injury, they have
Occupational therapy is much more than enhancing activities of daily living to me. I see occupational therapy as helping people achieve daily freedom and making attainable goals to improve their physical and mental health while providing a professional relationship to encourage trust and reliability throughout treatment. Something as simple as tying shoes or being able to grab a fork to eat can make all the difference in the world to the patients an occupational therapist will treat. I have been working at a hand clinic since September and have seen that the small achievements like the tying of the shoes of the ability to bend the finger 10 more degrees puts a big smile on the faces of the patients and improves their outlook and demeanor towards their injury. Encouraging home exercise, helping with self cares, teaching writing skills and helping provide custom splints are all aspects that I have seen with my job and observation of occupational therapy as a whole. When I started my job at the hand clinic a therapist told me that the most basic occupational therapy explanation she could provide me is that occupational therapy is a way of helping others achieve a better level of daily living for things that they want and or need to do in life than when they sought help from therapy.
Occupational Therapy is a health, wellness, and rehabilitation profession devoted to the development of performance and function across their lifetime so that individuals can live their life to the fullest. The holistic approach taken by occupational therapy practitioners is particularly effective in the areas of wellness, health promotion, and prevention. The practice of occupational therapy can take place in health care and education settings, and in community based agencies and organizations. The timing is excellent for occupational therapy in the area of wellness and prevention. Occupational Therapy practitioners administer habilitation and rehabilitation services, which are among the fundamentals health benefits of the
Occupational Therapy, as defined by WFOT is “a client-centered health profession concerned with promoting health and well-being through occupation. The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. Occupational therapists achieve this outcome by working with people and communities to enhance their ability to engage in the occupations they want to, need to, or are expected to do, or by modifying the occupation or the environment to better support their occupational engagement”. Knowing the definition of Occupational Therapy is vital to understanding the history of it, and how far this field has evolved over the years.
The hope of occupational therapy was to help those who were not industrial fit (Pringle, 1922). Occupational therapy was essentially filling a gap between hospital and civilian life for the many men after recovering from injury had new disabilities and aid those who had become despondent who were unable to face life (Pringle, 1922).
The scope of practice and responsibilities of an occupational therapist include many aspects of helping someone recover from a variety of health issues. As an occupational therapist you treat injured, ill, and disabled patients through the therapeutic use of everyday activities. The activities help patients recover and improve to be able to function for daily living. Therapists show patients how to use adaptive equipment such as leg braces, wheelchairs, and eating aids (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2015). As an occupational therapist there are a variety of fields you can be certified in. This can include pediatrics, geriatrics, acute care, home health, and rehabilitation. The qualities one must have in order to be a successful occupational therapist include but are not limited to having communication skills, compassion, flexibility, interpersonal skills, patience, and writing skills
Many times when a people think of an occupational therapist, they might think of a career counselor and personality tests. They might think of a therapist telling that this job would be “the perfect fit with their personality”. But that is far from what occupational therapy is. Occupational Therapist work with people recover and learn skills that are valuable to be part of society. Occupational therapists work with all age groups of people. They work with people who need assistance due to serious health problems (stroke heart attack amputation), delay in growth (mainly in children), or pyschological problems (Alzhemier’s, PTSD) (“Modern occupational thereapy”). They teach patients the
Occupational therapists help people of all ages recovering from physical or mental illnesses participate and perform what they want or need to accomplish through works of therapeutic rehabilitation with use of everyday activities in daily life; hence, giving it the name Occupational Therapy. An occupational therapist must look at their patients holistically, not just the part that is causing them problems. Occupational therapists are important as they help people regain their independence in daily activities. This field is projected to be the fastest in growth in upcoming years.
An occupational therapist helps people who struggles to do their day to day activities. It can range from kids to elderly. They help kids to improve on their skills that they are developing like motor, physical, sensory, cognitive, and more. They also help elders who can't do their normal activities due to their conditions. It takes a lot of time and effort to become an occupational therapist. Their goal for the patient is to reach the patient’s goal and become more independent when it comes to their daily activities.
The American Occupational Therapy Associations states that “rehabilitation is at the core of occupational therapy and addresses the needs of persons with injuries, illnesses, or deficits in occupational performance due to other causes.” The goal of occupational therapy is to help return the patient to their original participation in sports and to improve their ability to complete their everyday tasks that they perform throughout their day.
At the providence hospital I observed at the two different setting. First I observed at the St. Catherine's rehabilitation center which provide long-term rehabilitation care. The physical therapist at the sub-acute care provide treatment to the chronic ill patient and geriatric patients. The goal of the sub-acute physical therapist is to restore basic mobility and movements.
While there are many ways that a person can specialize in the field of occupational therapy, one of the profession’s draws exists in the potential for variety and diversity. The goal of occupational therapy is to provide therapies and alternatives that allow clients to return to the things that they need to be able to do, and the things they want to be able to do. This is obviously a broad definition, and one that can be achieved in various groups, and through various methods. Occupational therapists can specialize in hand therapy, stroke rehabilitation, driving, community mobility, low vision patients, pediatrics, or geriatrics. In any of these specialties, a therapist can address their patient’s daily living activities, leisure, work, education, or social participation. An increased ability to participate in any of these activities can be facilitated through a variety of treatments: splinting, modalities, adaptive equipment, task modification, environmental modification, or activities centered on desired occupations.
Occupational therapy has been in the process of continued development since the 1900’s. With several contributors helping to build the groundwork for creating the awareness needed to bring occupational therapy into the field of health care. Continued research is contributing to the ongoing significance of how occupational therapy is a vital aspect in promoting increased independences in all aspects of healthcare. (Willard, Schell, 2014) With the incorporation of “Occupational Therapy Practice Framework Domain and Process (3rd ed.)” helps creates the foundation for occupational therapy clinicians as well as other health care providers in facilitating the core believe of occupational and the relationship of health and occupation. (AOTA 2014) Therefore, providing a uniform outline of the various aspects of each individual and how they are interconnected to create the foundation of each individual. With a greater understanding of the foundations of that induvial, the clinician can then facilitate the best therapeutic treatment plan for that individual to achieve their personal goals with unified foundations of care.
An occupational therapist is a trained and licensed health care professional who can make a complete evaluation of the impact of disease on the activities of the patient at home and in work situations. Hobbies and recreational activities are considered when an assessment is made. The most generally accepted definition of occupational therapy is that it is an activity, physical or mental, that aids in a patient’s recovery from disease or injury.
Occupational therapy is defined by Bezerra & Santos (2008) as “the art and science of helping people perform daily activities that are important to them despite the inabilities or deficiencies” (p. 688). Occupations are the foundation of OT. They include ADLs, instrumental activities of daily living, rest and sleep, education, work, play, leisure, and social participation. Activities of daily living are tasks completed to take care of one’s own body; whereas, instrumental activities of daily living are more complex, supporting daily living in both home and community environments (AOTA, 2014). Occupational therapy is unique because the focus is on the therapeutic use of occupation to promote and maintain health and well-being (Law, Steinwender,
Physical therapy is the scientific physical procedures used in the treatment of patients with a disability, disease, or injury to achieve and maintain function and to prevent malfunction or deformity. One of the most important tasks that physical therapists perform is the various forms of therapeutic exercise that are used to increase strength and endurance to improve coordination and functional movement for activities of daily living and to increase and maintain range of motion (APTA History).