What is Occupational Therapy Rehabilitation?

Occupational therapy rehabilitation can involve one of several types of therapy, used together or separately, to help patients enter or re-enter the workforce. This can include physical therapy, counseling, and job training. The overall goal of these therapies is to remedy any situation that may cause a patient to fail to perform in both personal and professional environments.

Physical occupational therapy rehabilitation may be needed if a patient has been either injured or born with a physical handicap which interferes with everyday living. This can include the re-training of certain major muscle groups as well as education in using a wheelchair or other mobility aid to perform simple and complex tasks. In some more severe cases, employment may never be a possibility due to extreme physical limitations. For these patients, occupational therapy rehabilitation may act to teach them tasks as basic as eating with a fork and spoon or bathing themselves.

Counseling for mentally ill, aggressive or depressed patients is also a type of occupational therapy rehabilitation. Often, an employer will require specific workers to undergo this type of treatment to help them interact more efficiently with coworkers, stay motivated on the job, or to fully rehabilitate them after a traumatic experience or depressive episode. This helps patients overcome emotional issues that may hinder job performance or social development, and allows them to effectively express issues and interact with customers or clients.

Sometimes occupational therapy rehabilitation involves specific job training courses. This method may be used for mentally handicapped or brain damaged individuals, or those who have lost employment due to emotional or mental issues. Job training helps patients learn specific job related skills including how to perform basic job duties like lifting or typing, as well as how to interact with coworkers and customers.

In some cases, an occupational therapist or counselor may be hired to settle a dispute or problem between colleagues or groups within a workplace. This may include argumentative coworkers who are aggressive to the point of hindered job performance. In these situations, the therapist will teach proper coping methods for dealing with anger and jealously in the workforce in the form of individual counseling sessions, seminars, or group therapy meetings.

Therapists and doctors often work together in occupational therapy rehabilitation for their patients. A combination of therapies and medications may be used in order to obtain full rehabilitative results. The primary goal of these tactics is to allow patients to live and work as normal as possible in society.