Occupational therapists evaluate and treat impairments in ADL, IADL, cognition, and functional performance of everyday tasks, which may have been brought about by brain injury, stroke, tumors, or other neurological conditions. Brain injury often results in physical and cognitive changes that affect a person’s ability to recall, sequence, and perform a variety of daily life activities, from very basic to quite complex. Through purposeful activity, occupational therapists help people to regain the roles that bring meaning to their lives – roles such as being a parent, volunteering at the local animal shelter, continuing with college studies, and being mobile and independent within one’s community.
EVALUATION AND TREATMENT
Assessments include cognitive and physical status, functional performance of daily activities, community independence, vision screening, pre-drivers evaluation, and home safety evaluation. Evaluation of the need for assistive devices and adaptive equipment is also considered.
TREATMENT
Treatment focuses on client and family education regarding compensatory strategies to increase memory, safety awareness, attention skills, self-monitoring, sequencing, reading comprehension, and problem solving, to name just a few. Review and practice of these skills translates into engagement in activities such as reading a bus schedule, performing simple meal preparation, balancing a checkbook, and managing medications. Through client-centered treatment, persons receiving occupational therapy are taught the skills and strategies to become as independent as possible and to “live life to its fullest.”
BENEFITS
Benefits of occupational therapy intervention include: