Occupational therapy helps clients participate in valued roles
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News from Providence Saint Joseph Rehab Department
POLSON — Long-term health conditions are common in adults. Research shows 75 percent of the population older than 25 years in age will have at least one long-term medical condition. Occupational choices, or behaviors, can contribute directly to their risk of developing chronic health conditions. Occupational Therapy aims to improve overall quality of life, self-care tasks, productivity and leisure. Occupational Therapy can include coping strategies, adaptive changes to the environment and modifying the task to increase participation and performance of daily activities that are meaningful to the client.
Human occupation has a broad definition including all activities people do in their daily lives. People often equate health with the ability to do the things they want to do. Occupational therapists work with clients to get them participating in the roles they value, the things they want to do, by incorporating occupation as a goal of therapy and as a tool in the rehabilitative process.
The top six disabling long-term conditions in adults 60 years of age or older that occupational therapy can impact are cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, osteoarthritis, and cerebrovascular disease. Other examples of long-term health conditions that can benefit from occupational therapy intervention include diabetes, dementia, complex regional pain syndrome, chronic pain, myocardial infarction, cancer, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
Come in and see what an occupational therapist can do for you.