Occupational therapy is the branch of the healthcare profession that strives to offer support to people with physical, psychological, and social problems so that they can carry on with their life activities and live to the fullest.
The goal of an occupational therapist is to facilitate the people in conducting their daily activities as well as to help them to face and proceed with illness, disability, or challenging life events.
All the activities that we perform to take care of ourselves and other people; socializing, having fun, and working to contribute our part in the community/ society, are referred to as the term ‘Occupation’ by the society.
Goals of Occupational Therapy
The prime goals of Occupational therapy are listed as follow:
- Facilitate in conducting daily life activities like showering, cooking, and dressing up.
- Teaching skills for stress management.
- Teaching proper use of adaptive equipment such as orthotics, braces, or wheelchairs.
- Recommendation of relevant assistive devices to be used at home, school, or work.
- Recommendation of exercises that strengthen fine motor skills, coordination, and mental alertness.
- To teach or help in budgeting, scheduling, and daily planning.
What is Multiple Sclerosis?
Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune disease that is known to potentially disable the central nervous system (i.e., brain and spinal cord). In this disease, the protective sheath ‘Myelin’ (that covers nerve fibers) is being attacked by the nervous system due to which communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body start occurring. Eventually, permanent damage or deterioration of the nerves is being caused. When the disease gets severe, people lose their ability to walk either independently or in some cases walking ability even with help is lost! Besides, there are other signs and symptoms of MS too, the severity of which depends upon the extent of damage caused to the myelin sheath.
How does Occupational Therapy Provide Support to the Patients of MS?
Since there is no cure for MS so managing symptoms and coping up with day-to-day activities are the ways to deal with it. Occupational therapy provides vital support to patients dealing with Multiple Sclerosis, it helps them to achieve independence in performing their daily life activities. Every patient suffers from different and varying symptoms of MS and thus the occupational therapist has to rule out the problems that an individual is facing and to set individualized therapy goals.
The active support of an occupational therapist enables the MS patients to carry on with their regular activities and lead their lives as fully as possible! If you want to get quality therapy, you need to contact https://www.everestrehab.com.
Listed below are the major ways by which occupational therapy aims to provide support to the patients battling with Multiple Sclerosis and to make their life better!
Provide Aid with Day-to-day Activities
The major goal of Occupational therapy is to help the individual in leading an independent life. When a person encounters MS, it becomes challenging to perform even routine activities. An occupational therapist mostly provides tools to conduct daily life activities efficiently. The tasks for which tools are given mostly include:
- Showering
- Using Bathroom
- Doing work
- Taking medicines
- Driving
- Cleaning
- Dressing up
- Self-grooming
- Preparing meal
- Performing house chores like cleaning, laundry, etc.
- Hobbies
The tools to perform regular activities are significant especially when the patient’s memory, concentration, and or organization gets affected and the patient suffers from constant fatigue.
Conducting Different Exercises
Since the focus of Occupational therapy is to aid individuals in achieving their goals independently, different exercise regimens are also prescribed as part of the therapy plan. The exercise aims to improve the physical functioning of individuals. But, the exercise plans of a patient differ from another depending upon the intensity of symptoms.
Teaching Strategies for Energy Conservation
Energy conservation is the biggest challenge that people suffering from Multiple Sclerosis have to face! Self-exertion or physical exertion leads to disability in patients with MS. These aspects can become the cause that the MS to flare up or the flare gets worse. This is a serious concern because the damage caused by the flare is not always possible.
Occupational therapy teaches people the ways by which they can use their energy and abilities for benefits and not harm. During the therapy, the patient also gets to identify tools and techniques to simplify tasks and lower the burden on one’s body.
Set-Up Adaptive Devices at Work, School and Home
Another important task of an occupational therapist is to evaluate a patient’s interaction with its work, school, and home environment. After evaluating the interaction, the therapist identifies and suggests ways to refine the interactions as per the person’s needs.
Fortunately, various adaptive or assistive technologies and gadgets are available that promote independence. The gadgets are recommended as per the intensity of requirement by the patient. Some examples are listed below:
- Wheelchairs, canes, and walkers
- Bathroom equipment like grab bars to prevent from falling
- Safety and comfort refining devices
- Jar openers
- Visual aids (Magnifying glass)
- Weighted utensils that counteract tremors
- Reacher tool to pick up items from the floor
- Digital screen reading software
- Aids like pencil or pen grips to facilitate reading and writing
Cognitive Rehabilitation
Occupational therapy also tends to evaluate the patient with memory, concentration, or problem-solving, the evaluation is then followed by figuring out ways to compensate for the issues.
The occupational therapist often suggests computerized cognitive training. Besides, the use of smartphone apps is also being taught to remember important events or to manage finances.
It is very important for people battling with Multiple Sclerosis to seek the help of an occupational therapist. Initially, the therapist evaluates the patient’s major struggles, weaknesses, and symptoms that can be managed. The therapy suggests the ways and tools that help MS patients to manage their disabilities without having to compromise the conduction of routine tasks. The goal is to make the person independent and lead his life in a better way. Even if an individual has been suffering from MS for many years and has also developed some disabilities, occupational therapy is still necessary! Since, with the progression of the disease, energy conservation becomes more necessary and the patient starts getting dependent in more aspects; if left unmanaged, it keeps getting more worse.