Each April we celebrate Occupational Therapy month. It is a time to celebrate all that our Occupational Therapists and Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants do to promote health, wellness, and recovery.
Promoted and celebrated by the AOTA
This year’s theme from the AOTA is “Occupational Therapy: Advancing Health, Well-being, and Quality of Life”. It is a way to demonstrate and celebrate all the aspects of life Occupational Therapy can impact.
Occupational Therapy is found in a multitude of settings and stages of life
Occupational therapy is practiced in settings such as schools, hospitals, outpatient clinics, day camps, and nursing homes.
The impacts can range from development assistance to the young, improvement of well being in schools and adult life, recovery from injuries, and recovery from strokes or illness and injuries after hospitalization in nursing homes.
Pediatric settings
Occupational therapy can make a profound impact on assisting the development of children in day care and school settings. They can help with developmental delays as well as disability from physical abnormalities and weaknesses.
They can help to assist with the child, their caregivers, and modify the environment to assist the child to achieve their best. It takes a very special type of therapist to be able to work in this setting.
Outpatient clinics
There are also significant aspects of daily life addressed in outpatient settings. There are also certain specialties that exist to make an even greater impact in the lives of those seeking help in an outpatient setting.
A couple of those specialties include certification in hand therapy or certification in treating lymphadema.
Hospital settings
Occupational therapy can make a huge impact in hospitals as they attempt to prepare for return to home or transition to another level of care which addressing needs such as bathing, dressing and toileting.
Home health care
Occupational therapists make significant impacts to those that are home bound. These patients may be only temporary home bound after discharge from a hospital or nursing setting and allow for safe transition and modification of the home environment to allow for safe maximum independence with activities of daily living.
Skilled Nursing settings
Occupational therapy is an important aspect in skilled nursing and assisted living settings. They are there to facilitate improvement in independence of activities of daily living to return to home or improve the quality of life in that setting.
No matter what stage of life or healthcare setting, Occupational Therapy is vital
So please remember this month our wonderful clinicians that decided to make this their life’s work. If not for the dedication and professionalism of our Occupational Therapists and Certified Occupational therapy Assistants, we could not achieve our best possible quality of life. So please if you know an Occupational Therapist or a Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant show them some gratitude and remind them of how important they are.
