Occupational therapists are a key part of our rehabilitation team at King Street Rehab. Our occupational therapy team doesn’t ask “What’s wrong with you?” but rather, “What’s important to you?” By focusing on helping patients overcome challenges in completing daily tasks, occupational therapists work with patients to improve their daily functioning and their ability to handle tasks on their own.
What Is the Purpose of Occupational Therapy?
Many people are familiar with physical therapy and its purpose to enhance a patient’s physical ability, but occupational therapy can be a bit of a mystery. Whereas physical therapy focuses on increasing strength and balance, reducing pain, and helping a patient to be more physically capable, occupational therapy focuses on their ability to complete daily tasks.
Occupational therapy works to not only strengthen a patient’s body, but also to help them learn to adapt tasks to meet their abilities. Using customized interventions, occupational therapists improve a patient’s ability to perform their daily tasks, including bathing, grooming, feeding themselves, completing tasks at their job, and much more.
Typically, occupational therapists work with those who have suffered a severe injury or a debilitating condition, especially accident victims and stroke survivors. Occupational therapists can also help aging people combat the issues they are facing with growing older, as well as young children who need additional support to reach developmental goals.
How Does Occupational Therapy Work?
Occupational therapists will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the client’s most common environments, such as home, their workplace, or their school, to determine what the best approaches may be. The can provide recommendations for adaptive equipment and train patients or caretakers to use the recommended equipment. Occupational therapists also connect with the family and caretakers of a patient and provide education and guidance to help them support the patient.
Generally, occupational therapy services include:
- Individualized evaluations to determine therapy goals with the patient
- Personalized interventions to improve the patient’s ability to perform everyday tasks and reach their goals
- Outcome evaluations to ensure goals are being met and to make change to the therapy plan as needed
Occupational therapists take a holistic approach to recovery, and look at adapting the patient’s environment to suit their needs, rather than stretching the patient’s abilities to meet the environment. They are a critical part of a therapy team, since occupational therapy compliments other forms of therapy to help patients reach an optimal recovery.
At King Street Rehab, we believe in recovery. That is why our experienced Westchester County rehabilitation team incorporates the benefits of occupational therapy, physical therapy, recreational therapy, and many other hands-on treatments to help patients recover fully. Our luxurious facilities are ready to meet all of your loved one’s needs during their recovery, whether they are recovering from an injury, surgery, stroke, or other severe condition. Schedule a free tour to learn more about our services.
Contact our rehab team online, or by calling (914) 937-5800. We’re here for you!