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What is Occupational, Physical & Speech Therapy?
Occupational Therapy improves a person's cognitive, physical, and/or emotional deficits by strengthening and
training their skills and abilities. It may offer the person adaptive equipment to assist in modifying their environment to acchieve greater independence.
OT aims to improve a person's quality of life through purposeful activities.
Occupational therapists examine a task (like teeth brushing) and determine the specific skills needed to
complete the task. For example, brushing one's teeth requires fine motor ability, hand strength, hand-eye
coordination and arm movement.
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Sparrow Specialty Hospital
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Occupational therapists can help the patient enhance their independence with:
- Activities of Daily Living: bathing, dressing, toileting, resindence cleaning, meals and personal/home safety
- Work and leisure activities by providing upper body strengthening, endurance exercises, balance activities
and patient/family education and training.
Physical Therapy provides services designed to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement
and functional ability in circumstances where there abilities are threatened by injury, the process of disease or aging.
Goals may include bed mobility, ambulatory training, functional transfers, endurance, strength training and
balance re-education in order to improve your independence and safety with functional activities.
Speach-Language Pathology (speech therapy) evaluates and treats patients with discorders of
swallowing, speaking, reading, writing, memory, problem solving, reasoning, judgment, social interaction, hearing
and understanding. These disorders are usually the result of injury, illness, or post-surgery complications.
Communication is key to quality care and recovery because it is critical for patietns to express their needs
and wants and to be able to understand staff direction.
The speech therapist may help the patient improve their communication ability by speaking, writing, or using a
picture/word board. The speech therapist may treat patients with swallowing disorders by starting with a soft diet
in small portions and advancing their diet as the patient's swallow becomes stronger.
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