You've just gone through surgery, or you're being treated for a cervical or spinal injury. Physical therapy is helping but the brace makes it difficult to dress yourself. The cane is a cumbersome nuisance.

You lay on the floor most of the day to avoid back spasms. You're incapable of sitting for longer than five minutes at a time. Shopping for groceries or going out to dinner - once simple activities - are, if not impossible, painful and frustrating.

It's bad enough that you can barely function at home without depending on someone to take care of you. How, you wonder, will you ever manage going back to work?

Occupational therapy as part of your treatment program

Perhaps it's time for a combined treatment approach to managing your pain. You're not limited to any one kind of treatment. Occupational therapy can help to get you back on your feet again.

An occupational therapist can work with you to improve and restore your ability to perform the routine activities of daily living. Help you overcome the awkwardness and frustration of using a cane or brace, or other adaptive devices. Teach you to modify routines for personal care, home management and leisure activities…or going back to the workplace.

Occupational therapy can help you to overcome barriers at home and at work. Enable you to become independent again. And go back to living your life.

What happens during occupational therapy?

With structured, goal-oriented activities, a certified, trained occupational therapist will teach you to overcome or navigate disability and perform daily activities as independently as possible. Occupational therapy will be closely coordinated with other pain management approaches, when appropriate, such as physical therapy and social work.

Therapeutic activities may include exercise, simulated work tasks, or skilled use of special devices, such as a walking aid. Adaptations to the home or work environment may include handrails, ergonomically designed furniture, or simple tools to make opening a jar or reaching a high shelf easier.

Methods are structured and customized to meet your individual needs. Whether it's dressing, bathing, food preparation, or preparing to return to work, occupational therapy can help you to enhance your quality of life.

How will the therapist customize treatment to meet my needs?

The occupational therapist will work closely with your physicians and surgeons to design a treatment program to facilitate your recovery from surgery or injury. By collaborating with and educating you and facilitating an adaptive environment, a therapist will work with you in any of the following areas:

  • goal setting and activity planning appropriate to your condition
  • monitoring activity to ensure your health and safety
  • developing pain management skills
  • improving posture, body mechanics and ergonomics
  • reducing reliance on equipment
  • communicating your needs at home and in the workplace
  • adapting to the demands of home, recreation and work

Overall, occupational therapy will help you to identify limitations and apply and modify skills to suit the demands of everyday life at home and work. The methodical, goal-focused approach will help you to recover your health and independence as fully as possible.

Demands are endless. And so are solutions. You can learn how to be independent again. Let us help you.