Learn More About - Occupational Therapy

What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational Therapy (OT) Is a client-centred health profession concerned with promoting health and wellbeing through occupation. It is the use of treatments to develop, recover, or maintain the daily living and work skills of people with a physical, mental or developmental condition.

Occupational therapy is a practice that places a premium on the progress towards the client’s goals.

Occupational therapy interventions focus on adapting the environment, modifying the task, teaching the skill, and educating the client/family in order to increase participation in and performance of daily activities, particularly those that are meaningful to the client.

What does an Occupational Therapist Do?

An OT creates individual treatment programmes to help people of all ages – babies, children, adults and older people to carry out activities they need or want to do, but are prevented from doing so as a result of physical or mental illness, disability, or the effects of ageing.

Activities can include the necessities of daily living such as getting dressed, preparing a meal and going to work, or simply continuing with a favourite hobby. Occupational therapists will work with individuals to help them to find alternative ways to carry on with activities to enable them to live in their way, more confident, more independent and productive lives.

Over one-third of occupational therapy practitioners work with older adults, when an elderly person is affected by illness, accident, injury, disability, or a mental health condition, providing advice on how to undertake daily activities such as bathing, dressing, eating and participating in a favourite hobby, This may incluide education, exercise, and rehabilitation techniques that encourage relearning of fine motor skills, improvement of basic motor skills, strength, and dexterity. Assessing and recommending equipment such as mobility aids, wheelchairs and artificial limbs and, if needed, advise on special devices to help around the home.

Occupational Therapy in Care at Home?

The role of an Occupational Therapist and personal assitants is to help service users to maintain independence in self-care and mobility, enhance their daily routine and enjoy an active life in their home.

The occupational tharapist provides:

·         Advice on use of space and equipment, such as seating.

·         Strategies to prevent falls and manage risk.

·         Help to manage unusual behaviours, such as restlessness and lack of inhibition.

·         To ensure a person-centred approach to care and outcomes that result in the improved wellbeing of service users.

Advice on Daily Activities.

Is important to remember to take a person-centred approach. This means listening to the service users, respecting their choices and preferences, and understanding their needs. we will work with them and their family members to find solutions to help with those everyday activities that have become difficult.

•          Helping to develop a routine that improves their quality of life.
•          Proposing ideas and using equipment to support service users to carry out activities that they enjoy or want to do.
•          Finding solutions to difficulties service users may have with communication, their memory or the environment.

  

Equipment and Mobility Aids

The type and amount of equipment needed will vary according to the specific needs of service users.  When providing equipment, providers should consider:

·         The needs of the individual – helping to maintain, wherever possible, independence.

·         The safety of the individual and staff.

Using the right, well-maintained equipment operated by trained staff can help prevent accidents and reduce the personal and financial costs.

Moving and Handling

Moving and Handling can be defined as any transporting or supporting of a load, including lifting, putting down, pushing and pulling, carrying or moving, by hand or bodily force.

It could involve one or more staff, with the service users we can make use of equipment as:

•          Hoists and slings
•          Slide Sheets
•          Turntables
•          Transfer boards

 It's essential that you know about safe moving and handling so you don't hurt yourself or them.

Continence Promotion and Personal Hygiene

Keeping clean is essential for good health. Poor hygiene can cause skin complaints, unpleasant smells and bacterial or parasitic infections. Some of the equipment we can use to help service users to have a save and comfortable personal hygiene are:

•            Commodes
•            Shower Commodes chair
•           Shower seats
•           Bath seats

Before starting make sure that:

 ·         The floor is not slippery (dry it if necessary),

 ·         The room is a comfortable temperature,

 ·         The water is comfortably warm (older people particularly feel the cold, so bear this in mind when adjusting the temperature),

·         The locks are removed from the door (the person you care for may want privacy, but in an emergency you will need to get into the bathroom), and

·         You look out for your own safety, for example by making sure you can manage if you have to lift the person in and out of the bath.

For most people, using the toilet and personal hygiene is a very private activity. When helping someone be sensitive and help maintain their dignity.

Mobility Aids

Mobility means different things to different people.  For some people, mobility is being able to go out when they want to and where they want to.  For others is being able to get from one place to another by any means to maintain their independence.

Some of the mobility aids used are:

•        Walking frames
•        Walking trolleys
•        Walking sticks
•        Crutches
•        Wheelchairs

Maintaining mobility is vital as people grow older, it can make the difference between an active old age and one spent sitting in a chair or shuffling around. It is important that you check with the service users what mobility means for them.

Maintaining mobility doesn’t have to means a specially designed exercise programme, just remaining active will help, moving around the house, preparing a meal with supervison, or taking a walk are all valid forms of exercises, as a personal care you must to encourage service users to try to maintain. Maintaining their mobility can also help people to maintain their independence.

Cushions and Pressure Relief

 Pressure ulcers are a complex health problem arising from many interrelated factors. There are a range of special mattresses and cushions that can relieve pressure on vulnerable parts of the body.

The care team will discuss the types of mattresses and cushions most suitable for the service users.

Those thought to be at risk of developing pressure ulcers, or who have pre-existing grade one or two pressure ulcers, usually benefit from a specially designed foam mattress, which relieves the pressure on their body.  People with a grade three or four pressure ulcer will require a more sophisticated mattress or bed system.  For example, there are mattresses that can be connected to a constant flow of air, which is automatically regulated to reduce pressure as and when required. These some of them:

•           Cushions
•      Pressure relief
•          Positioning aids
•          Mattresses and mattress overlays

It is important to avoid putting pressure on areas that are vulnerable to pressure ulcers or where pressure ulcers have already formed.  Moving and regularly changing service users position helps prevent pressure ulcers developing and relieves the pressure on the ulcers that have developed.

To draw up a "repositioning timetable", which states how often service users need to be moved helps to avoid putting any vulnerable areas of skin under pressure whenever possible.  For some people, this may be as often as once every 15 minutes.  Others may need to be moved only once every two hours.

Dealing with Challenging Behaviour

Challenging behaviour is often seen in people with conditions that affect communication and the brain, such as learning disabilities or dementia.

A person’s behaviour can be defined as “challenging” if it puts them or those around them, (such as their carer), at risk or leads to poorer quality of life.  It can also impact on their ability to join in everyday activities. Challenging behaviour can include aggression, self-harm, destructiveness and disruptiveness.

Communication is the main way we interact and express our needs, likes and dislikes.  If communication is a problem then it can be very frustrating for the person involved and may result in challenging behaviour.  If this behaviour leads to a desired outcome, it may be repeated again and again.

As a carer, try to understand why the service user you look after is behaving in this way.  For example, they might feel anxious or bored, or in pain.

If you can recognise the early warning signs, you may be able to prevent behavioural outbursts.  For example, if being in a large group of people makes the service user you care for feel anxious and makes them become agitated, you could arrange for them to be in a smaller group or have one-to-one support.

Try to find out what the person is aiming for in their challenging behaviour.  Do they crave one-to-one attention, or do they want to be removed from a situation they find difficult?  Keep a record of the person’s behaviour to see if there are any patterns.  This lets us know what situations or people trigger the behaviour, what the early warning signs are, and what happens after the event.

If a reason for the behaviour can be established then their needs could be met in an alternative way in order to prevent them resorting to challenging behaviour.

Any techniques you try must be followed consistently by all those involved in the care of the person you look after. If everyone does this, it will help the individual involved to understand what's expected of them.

Maintaining a Safe Work Environment

In our workplace, we have a responsibility to report any unsafe situation to our clients and managers.  It is important that you develop an awareness of health and safety risk and that you are always aware of any risk in any situation you are in. If you get into the habit of making a mental checklist, you will find that is helps.

An example of a safety checklist:

HAZARDS	CHECK
Environment:
Floors	Are they dry?
Carpets and rugs	Are they worn or curled at the edges?
Doorways and corridors	Are they clear of obstacles?
Electrical flexes	Are they trailing?
Equipment:
Beds	Are the brakes on and are they high enough?
Electrical or gas appliances	Are they worn and have they been serviced?
Lifting equipment	Is it worn or damaged?
Mobility aids	Are they worn or damaged?
Cleaning materials & chemicals.	Are they correctly labelled?
Containers	Are they leaking or damaged?
Waste disposal equipment	Is it faulty?
People:
Visitors to the building	Should they be there?
Handling procedures	Have they been assessed for risk?
Intruders	Have police been called?
Violent and aggressive behaviour	Has it been dealt with?

Getting more information

I hope you have found this introduction to Occupational Therapy useful.  You can find more information from the British Association of Occupational Therapists HERE.

General Healthcare Guidance can be found from the SCSWIS website here HERE

 Staff and service users can contact me for more advice or follow me on the Blog and Forum.

Johanna Garcia

Team Leader and Professional Advisor – Occupational