When you’re recovering from a serious injury, illness or surgery, you’ll likely be referred to an occupational therapist. These therapists work with you to help improve your day-to-day functioning to get you back to doing the activities you love.

3 Benefits of Occupational Therapy

1. Overcome everyday challenges

Occupational therapists use education, exercise and rehabilitation techniques to help make daily tasks like getting dressed, eating, bathing, and using the restroom easier for patients. The goal of OT is for an individual to perform any desired task of their choice, whether it requires modifying the activity, environment, or persons abilities so they are able to live the way it was prior to their recent condition.

2. Recommend home modifications

One role of occupational therapists is to modify the patient’s layout around their home and make recommendations so they can return home safely. Common recommended modifications are removing throw rugs to avoid tripping, installing grab bars in the shower, measuring doorways to ensure wheelchairs and other assistive devices can pass through.

3. Provide support for memory loss

By providing engaging occupational tasks for patients, therapists can help simplify such tasks to help the patient become more successful in everyday tasks. For example, if the patient used to like to complete the newspaper’s daily crossword puzzle, the OT will provide them with simplified puzzles.

Who Can Benefit From Occupational Therapy?

In every stage of life, occupational therapy helps people develop, recover or maintain the skills they need to do meaningful and necessary daily activities. Specifically, occupational therapists can help older adults after a knee/hip/shoulder replacement, heart surgery, amputation, traumatic brain injury, stroke, respiratory problem, cancer, arthritis, or any debilitating diagnosis.

Coryell Health RehabLiving provides short-term occupational, physical and speech therapy. Come tour our beautiful campus and see our private rooms that are all under the same roof as the Coryell hospital and medical clinic. Call (254) 404-2500 or drop by for a tour.

You can choose where you get your medical therapy, so ask your doctor about your options and let him or her know you would like to receive your care close to home.

Pictured left to right: Maisie (dog);  Rachel Condon MS, OTR/L; Ryan Hyde, OTA/L Therapy Manager;   Victoria Teets, COTA/L, Teeny (dog)