As a Home Health Occupational Therapist, the work I do on a daily basis varies tremendously. My individual treatment sessions can be so divergent that I may go from assisting a patient in improving their balance and reaching ability in one treatment, to seeing another patient a few miles away who is recovering from a stroke, and unable to transfer independently to his toilet. I might be duct taping throw rugs down one moment and performing shoulder mobility exercises the next. All this variety leads to a great deal of confusion about what I do.
On paper, my job is to evaluate a person's functional status and provide therapy to remediate any physical, environmental, or activity specific barriers to a person's individual function (boy is that ever vague). So here's my nutshell version of what I do. I'm a barrier buster. I view my job title as an Occupational Therapist as more of a Functional Therapist since I see my role in a person's life as problem solving the highly specific issues that prevent a person from accomplishing whatever it is that they need to--or would just enjoy--accomplishing. Oftentimes this looks like me providing suggestions to caregivers on how to ease their strain in assisting their aging parent/uncle/cousin/sister/brother/mother etc. in normal daily functions. Things as simple as getting dressed, brushing teeth, getting into the shower, eating. They're the million little things you and I take for granted each and every day, yet have MASSIVE implications on our quality of life.
Putting on pants is tremendously challenging when you're paralyzed on the right side of your body. That being said, it is possible for a person with said impairment to dress independently. In most cases, all it takes is some specific strategies and techniques. And that, ladies and gentlemen is where I come in. You might call me the "painfully specific part specialist" or the "director of annoying little details" or "conductor of caretaking" because my role is to look at the intricate steps to performing any task and break it down into steps. If--as in our example--a person is unable to lift their right foot and simply place it in their right pant leg, my determination of said challenge provides an instant experience based solution: "Using your left arm, reach down and lift your right leg to come rest over your left knee so that you can easily reach your foot in order to put your pant leg on."
This is the best job in the world. Providing tips and tricks for dressing, bathing, grooming, feeding, transferring, toileting, and nearly anything else you can think of is unbelievably rewarding. The smiles my patients have after re-learning how to do their own self-care tasks is worth more than any paycheck i've received to date. It's why I do what I do. So while I haven't found anyone a job despite my title, I have helped them find their independence again and improved the quality of their lives too. All in a day’s work!
On paper, my job is to evaluate a person's functional status and provide therapy to remediate any physical, environmental, or activity specific barriers to a person's individual function (boy is that ever vague). So here's my nutshell version of what I do. I'm a barrier buster. I view my job title as an Occupational Therapist as more of a Functional Therapist since I see my role in a person's life as problem solving the highly specific issues that prevent a person from accomplishing whatever it is that they need to--or would just enjoy--accomplishing. Oftentimes this looks like me providing suggestions to caregivers on how to ease their strain in assisting their aging parent/uncle/cousin/sister/brother/mother etc. in normal daily functions. Things as simple as getting dressed, brushing teeth, getting into the shower, eating. They're the million little things you and I take for granted each and every day, yet have MASSIVE implications on our quality of life.
Putting on pants is tremendously challenging when you're paralyzed on the right side of your body. That being said, it is possible for a person with said impairment to dress independently. In most cases, all it takes is some specific strategies and techniques. And that, ladies and gentlemen is where I come in. You might call me the "painfully specific part specialist" or the "director of annoying little details" or "conductor of caretaking" because my role is to look at the intricate steps to performing any task and break it down into steps. If--as in our example--a person is unable to lift their right foot and simply place it in their right pant leg, my determination of said challenge provides an instant experience based solution: "Using your left arm, reach down and lift your right leg to come rest over your left knee so that you can easily reach your foot in order to put your pant leg on."
This is the best job in the world. Providing tips and tricks for dressing, bathing, grooming, feeding, transferring, toileting, and nearly anything else you can think of is unbelievably rewarding. The smiles my patients have after re-learning how to do their own self-care tasks is worth more than any paycheck i've received to date. It's why I do what I do. So while I haven't found anyone a job despite my title, I have helped them find their independence again and improved the quality of their lives too. All in a day’s work!