This type of treatment can help if you have eye coordination, or do tasks in new ways.
Your OT may:
- Prescribe and train you to use assistive devices like raised toilet seats or wheelchairs
- Teach you new ways to button a shirt, tie your shoes, get in and out of the shower, or work on your computer
- Help older adults prevent falls in their home or in public areas
- Treat adults who’ve had a to improve balance, change their home to prevent injuries, build muscle strength, or adapt to their memory or speech problems
- Organize your medications or household tools
- Address behavior problems in kids who act out or hit others
- Build hand-eye coordination so you can hit a tennis ball
- Work on motor skills so you can grasp a pencil
Who Needs Occupational Therapy?
Just about anyone who struggles to do any kind of task may need it.
If you have one of these health problems, ask your doctor if OT could help you:
- and chronic pain
- Stroke
- injury
- Joint replacement
- Spinal cord injury
- Low vision
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Poor balance
- Diabetes
- Cerebral palsy
- or behavior issues
It can also help kids with birth defects, , juvenile arthritis, autism, or severe injuries or burns.
Where Do You Get It?
Your therapist may come to your home, workplace, or school to create a treatment plan. OTs also work in many places like these:
- Hospitals
- Rehab centers
- Outpatient clinics
- Nursing or assisted living homes
- Schools
- Private practice offices
- Prisons
- Corporate offices
- Industrial workplaces