Occupational Therapy

What Is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational therapy (OT) is a kind of rehabilitation treatment method which targets the dysfunction of patients. It is a task-oriented rehab method that involves patients to actively participates in occupational activities such as ADL, production, leisure games and social interaction. What’s more, it trains and evaluates patients to help them recover their independent living ability. It focuses on the reciprocity of functions, activities, obstacles, participation, and their background factors, and is an important part of modern rehabilitation treatment.

The content of operation treatment should be consistent with the treatment goal. Select the suitable occupational activities, enable patients to complete more than 80% of the treatment content, and let them make full use their dysfunction limbs. In addition, when considering the effect of local treatment, the influence on the whole-body function should also be considered to maximize the potential of patients.

The role of occupational therapy is to improve the physical function and mental state of patients, improve ADL, provide patients with adaptive living and working environment, cultivate patients’ perception and cognition, and prepare them for returning to normal life as soon as possible.

Occupational training also has a wide range of applications, and it is suitable for those who need to improve limb motor function, improve body perception ability, improve cognitive function, and improve mental state. Specifically, it includes nervous system diseases, such as stroke, brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, peripheral nerve injury, brain injury, etc.; geriatric diseases, such as geriatric cognitive dysfunction, etc.; osteoarticular diseases, such as osteoarticular injury, osteoarthritis, hand injury, amputation, joint replacement, tendon transplantation, burn, etc.; medical diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, chronic disease, etc.; obstructive pulmonary disease,such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, etc.; pediatric diseases, such as cerebral palsy, congenital malformation, stunting, etc.; psychiatric diseases, such as depression, schizophrenia recovery period, etc. However, it is not suitable for patients with unclear consciousness and severe cognitive impairment, critical patients, and patients with severe cardiopulmonary, hepatorenal dysfunction.

The Classification of Occupational Therapy

(1) Classification according to the purpose of OT

1. OT for dyskinesias, such as those used to enhance muscle strength, improve joint range of motion, and increase coordination.

2. OT for perceptual impairments: mainly for patients with sensory disturbances such as pain, proprioception, vision, touch and other obstacles in attention, memory, thinking, etc. This type of OT training is for improving patients’ perception ability, such as unilateral neglect training method.

3. OT for speech dysfunction, such as aphasia and articulation disorder in hemiplegic patients.

4. OT for emotional and psychological disorders for regulating mental function and mental state.

5. OT for disorders of activity and social participation for improving patients’ ability to adapt to society and live independently. This is the main problem that occupational therapy needs to solve.

(2) Classification according to the name of OT
1. ADL: To achieve self-care, patients need to repeat daily activities such as daily dressing, eating, self-cleaning and walking. Patients overcome their obstacles and improve their self-care ability through OT.

   a, Maintain ideal postures: Different patients have different requirements on lying positions and postures, but the general principle is to maintain good functional positions, prevent contracture deformities, and prevent the adverse effects of bad postures on diseases.

   b, Turn over training: Generally, patients in bed need to turn over regularly. If the condition permits, let patients try to turn over by themselves.

   c, Sitting up training: With the help of therapists, let patients to sit up from lying position, and then from sitting position to lying position.

   d, Transfer training: Transfer between bed and wheelchair, wheelchair and seat, wheelchair and toilet.

   e, Diet training: Eating and drinking are comprehensive and complex processes. When eating, control the amount of food and the speed of eating. In addition, control the amount of water consumption and the speed of drinking.

   f, Dressing training: Dressing and undressing training requires many skills to complete, including muscle strength, balance ability, joint range of motion, perception and cognitive ability. Depending on the level of difficulty, practice from taking off to putting on, from upper to lower dresses.

   g, Toilet training: It requires patients’ basic movement skills, and patients should be able to achieve balanced sitting and standing postures, body transfer, etc.

2. Therapeutic activities: Activities that are carefully selected to improve the patient’s dysfunction through specific activities or tools. For example, hemiplegic patients with upper limb movement disorder can knead the plasticine, screw the nut, etc. to train their lifting, rotating, and grasping ability to improve upper limb motor functions.

3. Productive labor activities: This kind of activity is suitable for patients who have recovered to a certain degree, or patients whose dysfunction is not particularly serious. While performing occupational activity treatment, they can also create economic value, such as some manual activities like carpentry.

4. Psychological and social activities: Patients’ psychological state will change somewhat after surgery or in the recovery period of disease. This type of OT helps patients adjust their psychological state, maintains the harmony between patients and the society, and enables them to have a positive mental state.

Assessment of Occupational Therapy

The focus of the assessment of OT effect is to assess the degree of dysfunction. Through the assessment results, we can understand the limitations and problems of patients. From the perspective of occupational therapy, we can determine the training goals and formulate the training plan based on assessment results. And let patients to take rehabilitation training through constant dynamic evaluation (motor function, sensory function, ADL ability, etc.) and appropriate occupational activities.

To Sum Up
Occupational therapists are professionals who implement occupational therapy in rehabilitation. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, etc. belong to the category of rehabilitation medicine. OT has been evolving as it continues to develop, and it has gradually been recognized and accepted. OT can help patients in more fields, and more and more patients receive and recognize it in treatment. It can maximumly help patients recover their ability to participate in society and return to their families.

“Occupational therapy is a highly specialized technique with its own theoretical and practical basis. Its purpose is to allow the sick and disabled to apply selective occupational activities to improve and restore their physical, psychological, and social functions maximumly. It encourages the sick and disabled to actively participate in rehabilitation and enhance their confidence in living independently. “

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