You Make a Difference Every. Single. Day. Most of us went into Occupational Therapy to help people, but we get sucked into the politics, the insurance companies, the pressures of corporation and the barriers that prevent us from doing the job we want to do. I challenge you today to remind yourself that what we do as a profession MATTERS. It matters …
I am always looking for new fine motor skills ideas, specifically when working with adults. I tend to resort to my “old favorites” that I know work well, along with specific activities that are important to my patients. But when I am working with a patient long term, where I need to grade the activity or trying to look for activities that …
When you’re a student or new occupational therapist practicing on your own, it can be hard to decide which Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL) geriatric assessment tool to use to track your patient’s self-care progress. There are so many to choose from, so it can be overwhelming trying to comb Google trying to figure out which assessments will be best for …
Retropulsion has been a teensy-weensy thorn in my side. As in, “I am not exactly sure how to train or treatment ideas” for my patients pushing back or losing their balance backwards when I am specifically working on functional transfers. It is a big factor in falls with my patients that have Parkinson’s Disease and limits transfer performance. So I set …
I can honestly say I am a “jack of all trades” in the occupational therapy world. I am not an assistive technology guru or even have easy access to someone that is, since I live in a rural community. But I DO complete a lot of home assessments and make recommendations on home modifications. I am going to review what to …
Working with low level patients that have dementia can be a challenge when your goal is to find treatment activities that are both purposeful and fun. Dominos are not only familiar, but they provide smooth tactile input, are visually stimulating and you can easily grade this activity. This domino match game can used as an independent activity with intermittent cuing or even …
I don’t know about you, but I am always looking for great resources to use in my occupational therapy practice. I have a love for researching and staying up-to-date, so I am always digging around to see what I can find. So, due to popular request, I thought it would be helpful to make a list of the resources that I have …
Patient refusals can be very frustrating! What do we do? There are supervisors to appease, RUG levels to adhere to, patients to help and ethical dilemmas to resolve. Here are a few tips to help ease the woes of patient refusals. 1. Split Your Minutes If you are an occupational therapist working in a SNF, sometimes having minute minimums are …
Occupation Based Kits are a great way to integrate more real-to-life activities in your hospital or SNF facility when it can be a challenge to replicate these task in the typical healthcare environment . They can easily be graded up or down based on the patient’s cognition, sensory integration, social participation or physical ability. Just grab a container, throw in your …
As an occupational therapist helping older adults with dementia, we come into contact with many family’s caring for their parents. These caregivers are also known as the “sandwich generation,” because they are not only taking care of their parents, but also raising their own kids. Our role as Occupational Therapists are to #1. provide services for our patients, but also #2. provide caregiver education, …
