Good morning everyone and once again happy OT week! Kadeisha today shares her perspectives of OT’s working within the Neurological Rehabilitation sector and the impact in which can be made through OT engagement.
OT’s hold a pivotal role in the evaluation and treatment of an individual who has sustained a brain injury or experienced a prolonged neurological illness. The focus of the OT approach is to consider rehabilitation in a holistic manner. OT’S must be proficient in assessing how the physical, cognitive, and the behavioural impairments primarily affect an individual’s engagement within their daily living activities. From this information, OTs provide relevant, customised and goal orientated programs to individuals within hospital, home, or community settings.
Within Alliance Rehabilitation, Neurological Rehabilitation is a large portion of the OT caseload, with participants engaging in individual and group rehabilitation each day. Our team continue to develop goal orientated exercise programs and therapy plans to support improving the functional capacity of participants to increase their task performance.
We as a team have seen many achievements within this space through various funding streams. Some examples include:
- Participants opening their hands to allow for manipulation of items i.e., cutlery, stationary, kettles
- Improvements to upper limb strength supporting lifting and transference of items i.e., laundry baskets, pots/pans
- Independent recall of daily activities and tasks (i.e., sequencing) through the implementation of memory strategies (internal, external, and environmental)
- Increase to upper limb ROM following longstanding spasticity
- Ability to utilise assistive technology to support daily living activities through education and support
These are just a few things that we have experienced as a team and are driving our passion in making a continued difference in our participants lives.
If you have the time, I have attached a brief video below of a young girl named Dina who had experienced a stroke during early childhood and the story behind her engagement with OT.
#OTWEEKK2022 #WHATOTMEANSTOME
Click here for more information on Occupational Therapy services at Alliance Rehabilitation.