Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy (OT) promotes health by enabling people to perform “day-to-day activities that are important to them”.  Occupation is a just term meaning the way one spends one’s time.

Thus, our time is divided into three categories of activities in which we take part daily:

• Self Care: sleeping, eating, grooming, dressing, and toileting
• Work: effort that is exerted to do or make something, or perform a task
• Leisure: free, unoccupied time in which one chooses to do something they enjoy (i.e., hobby, tv, socializing, sports, “chill out”, read, write, listen to music, travel, etc)

An occupational therapist will evaluate the factors that are interfering with the ability of a person to complete these tasks.  The overall goal of therapy is to facilitate the patient’s return to their pre-injury lifestyle.  This may be accomplished by developing, remediating or restoring sensorimotor, cognitive or psychosocial components of performance.

In an outpatient setting such as Bristow Physical Therapy and Chiropractic, OT focuses on identifying limitations in range of motion, strength, flexibility, and motor control which impede functioning in self care, functional mobility, activities of daily living, as well as vocational and leisure pursuits.  This is accomplished through the use of physical modalities (heat, ultrasound, TENS) as well as therapeutic activities and therapeutic exercise.  Treatment may also include “hands on” therapy such as joint mobilization, transverse friction massage, neuromuscular facilitation and relaxation techniques.  These techniques are effective in reducing pain and improving movement.  Equally integral to treatment is educating the patient on the various factors that contribute to healing or exacerbation of symptoms.  Clients are instructed on the role of posture, body mechanics and joint protection as it pertains to their lifestyle and their specific injury.  Patients may also be educated on stress management and pain control.

Your evaluation and treatment may also include the use of surface electromyography.  This is a non-invasive state of the art therapeutic tool used for assessing and training muscle function.  Simply stated it objectively answers the following questions:

Does the right muscle complete the movement?

DO the muscles work when they should?

Do they rest when they should? Do they maintain excessive tension at rest?

DO they “fire” in the right sequence?

Respiratory biofeedback may also be used in treatment.  Persons in pain or under stress tend to “chest breathe” which is an inefficient breathing pattern.  Proper breathing improves circulation and oxygen to the tissues which reduces spasm and muscle guarding and facilitating normal muscular tension and movement.

 

* June 2011: We do not have an OT currently on staff.