Living Life to Its' Fullest

Many of us have visions and goals about what our retirement will be like... perhaps you dream of a winter home on the beach or a hiking a trail in a national park.  As senior adults age, often illness and disability quickly influence those retirement dreams, on a different path then desired or expected.   Here’s where Occupational Therapy can help…enabling each individual to live life to its’ fullest! 

Occupational therapy is the only profession that helps people across the lifespan to do the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of daily activities (occupations). Occupational therapy practitioners enable people of all ages to live life to its fullest by helping them promote health, and prevent—or live better with—injury, illness, or disability. 

Common occupational therapy interventions include helping children with disabilities to participate fully in school and social situations, helping people recovering from injury to regain skills, and providing supports for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes. Occupational therapy services typically include:

• an individualized evaluation, during which the client/family and occupational therapist determine the person’s goals;
• customized intervention to improve the person’s ability to perform daily activities and reach the goals; and
• an outcomes evaluation to ensure that the goals are being met and/or make changes to the intervention plan. 

Occupational therapy practitioners have a holistic perspective, in which the focus is on adapting the environment and/or task to fit the person, and the person is an integral part of the therapy team. It is an evidence-based practice deeply rooted in science.  Occupational therapists help individuals determine what they can do, not identify what they can’t do!

Source:  AOTA.org