The Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment Team - The Occupational Therapist
An important member of the brain injury treatment team is going to be an occupational therapist. Occupational therapists help patients improve their capability to perform tasks in living and working environments. This type therapy targets enabling individuals who have problems with mental, physical, developmental, or emotionally disabling conditions to do, and manage, the actions of daily life [ADL]. ADL range from, just by example, using a computer, dressing, cooking, eating, bathing and also job-related tasks.
Occupational therapists are highly educated. A master's degree, or more, in occupational therapy may be the minimum requirement of entry in to the field. Coursework in occupational therapy programs are the physical, biological, and behavioral sciences and also the application of occupational therapy theory and skills. Programs also require the completion of 6 months of supervised fieldwork.
Occupational therapy works with individuals no matter their age. As well as traditional medical settings, occupational therapists can easily see people recovering from brain injury in birth-to-three early intervention programs, in public school settings, as job coaches, and as part of community mental health.
An occupational therapist is really a health professional. In accordance with an Ohio State University website, "Occupational therapy is a healthcare profession that uses "occupation," or purposeful activity, to help persons with physical, developmental, or emotional disabilities lead independent, productive, and satisfying lives." This occupational therapist evaluates the self-care, work and leisure skills of an individual and plans and implements social and interpersonal activities to build up, restore, and/or keep up with the person's ability to accomplish ADL. The therapist helps to improve basic motor functions and reasoning abilities, but also to pay for permanent loss of function. The best goal is to return the individual to an independent, productive and satisfying life.
Occupational therapists treatments range from the physical to the mental. Physical exercises may be used to increase strength and dexterity, while other activities may be chosen to boost visual acuity or the capability to discern patterns. For example, an individual with short-term memory loss might be encouraged to make lists to aid recall while a person with coordination problems may be assigned exercises to improve hand-eye coordination. autism fitness use computer programs to greatly help improve decision-making, abstract-reasoning, problem-solving, and perceptual skills, together with memory, sequencing, and coordination-all of which are important for independent living.
Other treatments range from the usage of adaptive equipment, including wheelchairs, eating aids, dressing aids, design or build special equipment needed in the home or at the job, including computer-aided adaptive equipment. Teaching may be used on how to utilize the equipment to boost communication and control various situations within their environment
Occupational therapy is used in treating traumatic brain injury [TBI] during many phases of recovery and rehabilitation. Such therapy could be involved in providing sensory, motor, and positioning supports during periods of coma. As the patient improves and regains skills, occupational therapy eases the process and re-teaches skills which range from basic self-care, to complex cognitive skills such as memory and problem solving.
WHAT SHOULD I SEARCH FOR WITHIN AN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST?
The following is in no way designed to be an exhaustive list of the questions or concerns you should have whenever choosing an occupational therapist nor may be the following designed to disqualify any occupational therapist you are thinking about, these are meant to enable you to begin a discussion with the occupational therapist.
1. Search for licensing as, typically, such therapists should be licensed, requiring a master's degree in occupational therapy, six months of supervised fieldwork, and passing scores on national and State examinations.
2. Do they work full-time within their profession? Greater than a quarter of occupational therapists work in your free time.
3. How often will the therapist assess and record your activities? Progress is an important part of an occupational therapist's job. Accurate records are essential for evaluating clients, for billing, and for reporting to physicians and other health care providers.
4. Does the therapist specialize. Some occupational therapists may work exclusively with individuals in a specific generation or with a specific disability. In a school setting, a therapist may work with children individually. Some therapists provide early intervention therapy to infants and toddlers who've, or are at risk of having, developmental delays. Some occupational therapists work only with elderly patients.
5. Will the therapist make home visits? It is crucial, once you begin to re-establish your independence that you look at the role TBI will play in dealing with your lifestyle. An occupational therapist could make recommendations for adaptive equipment, training to prolong driving independence, assess homes for hazards and identify environmental factors that could donate to further injury and injury prevention.
6. Will the therapist visit, and assess, your projects environment?