Occupational Therapy: Helping patients get back to what matters most

“It’s a common misconception that occupational therapy helps people get jobs,” said Lindsay Crable, an occupational therapist at Meritus Medical Center.

While occupational therapy can help patients regain the skills to return to work after an illness or injury, the field is much more diverse. Occupational therapist Shana Weller said that daily occupations are the tasks that we do every day, such as bathing, dressing, and grooming.

Weller and Crable said the profession teaches those who are dealing with injury, illness or disability how to function independently in their daily living.

With April being Occupational Therapy Awareness Month, Crable, who has 18 years of experience in the field, and Weller, who has 20 years of experience, spoke about what patients might encounter when sent for occupational therapy and what settings an occupational therapist may work in.

Training to become an occupational therapist is a masters level degree and a certified occupational therapy assistant requires an associate degree. Both degrees require clinical fieldwork experience and passing the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy Exam.

Occupational therapists can be found working in multiple settings including hospitals, outpatient rehabilitation clinics, nursing homes, schools, mental health facilities and even in the home with home health care. A physician order is required to initiate occupational therapy services.

“Even within the different settings, the treatment will vary depending on the patient’s needs and personal goals,” Crable said.

It could involve exercise, cognitive treatments, activity retraining, teaching the patient adaptive strategies or educating the patient how to use equipment to promote independence in daily tasks.

“It’s not a cookie cutter approach,” Weller said. “We look at the patient’s needs and what’s important to them. We use functional and meaningful activity to help the patient reach their goals and get back to living their life to the fullest.”

Therapists can work together with the family to provide training and education of how to assist and safely care for the patient.

“Family support can be very helpful in recovery,” Crable said.

Crable and Weller work at Meritus Medical Center and provide therapy to patients in the hospital setting including acute care, the rehabilitation unit and joint center on the third floor as well as the critical care and neonatal intensive care unit.

Both said the profession is very rewarding. Occupational therapists get to collaborate with the patients, families, and other care providers to assist the patient with meeting their personal goals and maximizing the patient’s functional independence. It’s exciting to see patients meet their goals and get back to what matters most to them.

To learn more about Meritus’ various therapy programs, visit www.meritushealth.com/OccupationalTherapy.