Benefits of Occupational Therapy
If you have pain, injury, illness, or a disability that makes it difficult for you to do your job or schoolwork, care for yourself, complete household chores, move around, or participate in activities, Occupational Therapy treatment may be beneficial.
Occupational therapy (OT) tries to teach you how to adapt to your surroundings. It can assist you with any task at school, at work, or at home. You’ll learn how to use tools (also known as assistive devices) if you require them.
You’ll meet with an occupational therapist, who can help you change your movements so you can complete your jobs, take care of yourself or your home, play sports, or keep active.
Benefits of Occupational Therapy
Overcome the difficulties of everyday life
Participating in everyday activities (like walking, eating, and so on) can be a huge, exhausting task for many older adults. They frequently become upset and give it up midway.
When people cannot perform basic daily tasks, they are less likely to try to take part in other aspects of their life, including social events, family outings, and hobbies. This can rapidly result in feelings of loneliness and depression.
This is why an occupational therapist’s role is so critical. Occupational therapists work with elderly patients to train their exercise and rehabilitation techniques that enable them to complete daily tasks like dressing, eating, and bathing.
Patients’ fine and essential motor function, strength, skill, and range of motion are all improved by occupational therapists. Even minor improvements can make a significant difference when completing a routine task.
Preventing Falls
Did you know that one in every four people over the age of 65 falls each year? And that an elderly adult is addressed in the emergency room for a fall every 11 seconds? And that individual dies from a fall every 19 minutes?
While falls may appear to be a minor concern, these statistics demonstrate how dangerous it can be for an older adult to fall.
The considered of your parent collapsing without anyone to help them is terrifying.
Fortunately, enlisting your parent in occupational therapy can put your mind at ease. The pervasiveness of falls among many elderly patients is well-known to occupational therapists.
As a result, therapists teach their patients to fall prevention techniques. They also instruct them on balancing and muscle-building exercises to keep their bodies solid and alert for many years.
Rehabilitation of Memory
When most people think of occupational therapy, they focus on its physical benefits. However, occupational therapy has several mental advantages.
When occupational therapists first encounter their patients, they assess their cognitive and physical abilities.
For example, suppose your elderly parent has dementia. In that case, an occupational therapist will assess their areas of strength and weakness and then develop a care plan that focuses on maintaining the vital areas while strengthening the weak.
Memory loss affects everyone over the age of 65. Occupational therapists can assist elderly patients in regaining memory skills in a variety of ways, including:
1. Playing memory-boosting games, including such puzzles, crossword puzzles, or matching games
2. Putting stop indications on front doors or gates for elderly patients who become disoriented quickly and wander
3. Teaching caregivers non-defensive techniques to assist them in dealing with patients who exhibit abrupt personality changes.
4. Teach caregivers techniques that will not further muddle the patient’s memory, such as leaving a limited amount of clothing options out in case their patient forgets what season it is.
These are just a few examples of how an occupational therapist can help patients improve their memory and cope with memory loss.
Better Prospects
Aside from memory restoration, another significant mental advantage of occupational therapy is that it can improve your elderly parent’s outlook on life.
When an elderly parent’s abilities begin to deteriorate, they frequently wonder, “How am I going to spend the remainder of my life living this way?”
Your parent will realize that, even though their body and mind are evolving, they can still live a very fulfilling life by participating in occupational therapy. Occupational therapists help patients gain the confidence and determination they require to make the most of their golden years.
Home Improvements
Many senior citizens reside in homes that are no longer suitable for them. Stairs, slippery floors, bathtubs, and showers may all be dangerous to the elderly.
An occupational therapist will examine the layout of your parent’s home and suggest changes. These changes will make your parents’ home safer and encourage independent living. Changes could include:
1. Bathtubs or walk-in showers
2. Handrails and grab bars in the shower and elsewhere in the house
3. Ramps for wheelchairs
4. Recliners with power lifts
5. Nonslip flooring
6. Medical alert or home monitoring systems
The occupational therapist will also teach your parent how to use all of these devices and modifications. They will, for example, teach them how to enter a shower safely using handrails. Alternatively, they will teach them how to use their medical alert system in the case of a fall.
Transitions in Life
While we go through many transitions throughout our lives, most of the difficult ones occur as we get older. Retirement, widowhood, and relocation are all difficult transitions for the elderly. Many older adults must also say farewell to friends who die before them.
Each of these transitions can be difficult to manage. And, if your parent is without a partner, these changes can make them feel incredibly isolated. Occupational therapy can assist elderly parents in dealing with these significant life changes by teaching them healthy coping skills.
Assist With Vision Loss
While correcting vision impairment when you’re younger is often as simple as going to the eye specialist for glasses or contacts, this is not always the case with elderly patients. Elderly patients with vision loss or eye diseases have difficulty performing daily activities. As a result, they are more vulnerable to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.
Fortunately, occupational therapists can assist elderly patients who are experiencing vision loss.
Occupational therapists work with elderly patients to improve their perception, vision, pattern detection, and visual awareness. Occupational therapists will frequently recommend changes in the home or workplace to ensure that their vision loss does not interfere with daily life.
An occupational therapist, for example, may recommend the following:
1. Getting rid of clutter in the home that is a tripping hazard
2. Using color-coded tags to aid in the identification of objects
3. Increasing the home’s lighting and contrast
4. Keeping magnifiers around the house
5. Putting bright stickers on important buttons on appliances like dishwashers, washing machines, and microwaves
6. Paint the walls a light color, then paint the outlets dark to make them easy to find.
7. Medication labels in large print
8. Medication classification by color
Recommendations for Dementia Patients
It is estimated that one in every ten men and one in every six women over the age of 55 will grow dementia during their lifetime. Unfortunately, once dementia has begun, very little can be done to stop it.
That doesn’t mean occupational therapists can’t help dementia patients live better lives. If your elderly parent has dementia, their OT can make recommendations to make their life a little easier.
If eating becomes problematic, they may recommend consuming foods with pleasing textures. They may also recommend listening to soothing music or stretching exercises to help relieve pain.
Who needs Occupational Therapy?
Anyone who has difficulty performing any task may require it. If you have one of the following health issues, discuss with your doctor if Occupational Therapy can help you:
1. Chronic pain
2. Arthritis
3. Brain injury
4. Joint replacement
5. Spinal cord injury
6. Low vision
7. Poor balance
8. Cancer
9. Diabetes
10. Multiples sclerosis
11. Mental health
12. Cerebral palsy
Occupational Therapy treatment in Michigan
As you can see, occupational therapy for elderly parents has numerous advantages. All you have to do now is find an excellent occupational therapist who can assist your parent. This is where we step in. Back2health provides excellent occupational therapy care for your loved ones. To learn more about our occupational therapy services, please get in touch with us.
