Occupational therapy refers to the process of evaluating, treating, and training the patients who lose the ability of self-care and labor in varying degrees due to physical, mental, and developmental dysfunction or disability through purposeful and selected occupational activities. It is a kind of rehabilitation treatment method.
The main goal is to help people participate in activities of daily living. Occupational therapists can improve the participation ability of patients through cooperation with individuals and communities, or through activity adjustment or environmental modification, and support them to better participate in the work activities they want, must or expect to do, so as to achieve the treatment goals.
Seen from the definition, occupational therapy pursues not only the recovery of patients’ limb function, but also the recovery of patients’ living ability and the return of health and happiness. However, many of the existing occupational therapy methods do not integrate cognition, speech, movement, and mental health organically. In addition, there is a bottleneck in the rehabilitation effect of brain dysfunction, and the non-internet rehabilitation technology also limits the rehabilitation treatment to a fixed time and space.
The Difference between Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy
Many people cannot tell the difference between physical therapy and occupational therapy: physical therapy focuses on how to treat the disease itself, while occupational therapy focuses on how to coordinate the disease or disability with life.
Taking orthopedic injury as an example, PT attempts to improve the injury itself by increasing mobility, correcting bones and joints or reducing pain. OT helps patients to complete the necessary daily tasks. This may involve the application of new tools and technologies.
Occupational therapy mainly focuses on the functional recovery of patients with physical, mental, and social participation disorders, while physical therapy mainly focuses on the improvement of patients’ muscle strength, activity, and balance.
Although there are many differences between them, there are also many intersections between OT and PT. Occupational therapy and physical therapy complement each other and promote each other. On the one hand, physical therapy provides the cornerstone for occupational therapy, occupational therapy can be based on physical therapy on the existing functions of patients engaged in practical work and activities; on the other hand, activities after occupational therapy can further improve the function of patients.
Both OT and PT are indispensable to promote patients to better and faster return to family and society. For example, occupational therapists are often involved in teaching people how to prevent and avoid injuries, and in teaching people about healing processes, just like physical therapists. In turn, physiotherapists often help people improve their ability to do daily activities through education and training. Although there is this kind of cross between professions, they all play very important roles and good at something.
Most rehabilitation workers generally believe that OT starts after PT. However, it has been proved that applying occupational therapy in the early stage is important to the later rehabilitation of patients.
What Does Occupational Therapy Include?
1. Functional occupational activity training (upper limb hand function training)
According to the different conditions of patients, therapists skillfully integrate training into rich and colorful activities to improve the joint range of motion, enhance muscle strength and endurance, normalize muscle tension, improve balance and coordination ability, and enhance the overall functional level of the body.
2. Virtual game training
Patients can get rid of the boring routine rehabilitation training and get the rehabilitation of body function and cognitive function in entertainment games with arm and hand rehabilitation robot.
3. Group therapy
Group therapy refers to the treatment of a group of patients at the same time. Through the interpersonal interaction within the group, the individual can observe, learn, and experience in the interaction, thus developing a good life adaptation.
4. Mirror therapy
to replace the affected limb with the mirror image of the normal limb based on the same object image reflected by the mirror and treat it through visual feedback to achieve the purpose of eliminating abnormal feelings or restoring movement. Now it is used in stroke, peripheral nerve injury, neurogenic pain, and sensory disorders rehabilitation treatment, and has achieved significant results.
5. ADL training
It includes eating, changing clothes, personal hygiene (washing face, brushing teeth, washing hair), transferring or transfer movement, etc. The purpose is to make patients re-practice the ability of self-care or use compensatory way to maintain the basic needs of daily life.
6. Cognitive training
According to the results of cognitive function assessment, we can find the field in which patients have cognitive impairment, so as to adopt corresponding specific intervention measures in different aspects, including attention, orientation, memory, and problem-solving ability training.
7. Auxiliary devices
Assistive devices are simple and practical devices developed for patients to make up for their lost ability in daily life, entertainment, and work, such as eating, dressing, going to the toilet, writing, and phone call.
8. Vocational skill assessment and rehabilitation training
Through occupational rehabilitation training and standardized evaluation system, therapists can measure and evaluate the physical and mental abilities of patients. In terms of obstacles, therapists can improve the ability of patients to adapt to society through practical training, create conditions for patients’ reinstatement.
9. Environmental transformation consultation
According to the functional level of patients, the environment they are about to return to should be investigated and analyzed on the spot to find out the factors that affect their activities of daily living. Furthermore, it is still necessary to put forward the modification scheme to improve patients’ ability of independent living to the greatest extent.
Read more:
Can Stroke Patients Restore Self-Care Ability?
Rehab Robotics Bring Us Another Way to Upper Limb Function Rehab
Post time: Feb-07-2021