What Is Occupational Therapy?

In your role as a family caregiver your goal is to help your senior to live the highest quality of life possible. This goes beyond just helping them to address their needs, such as health conditions and chronic disease. It also includes assisting with their personal care tasks and taking steps to support physical health and mobility. One way that you can do this is through occupational therapy. This form of therapy can not only help your parent to make the most of the care that they receive, but also encourage them to handle more of their own tasks in a way that is healthy, safe, and effective.

While the term “occupational therapy” might make you think of a job or career, this is not the case. While occupational therapy can help people to handle the tasks of their job more effectively if they are dealing with a particular health concern or limitation, or who have been injured, this type of therapy has a much further reach as well. In the context of this type of therapy, “occupations” refers to the tasks that your aging parent wants or needs to do on a daily or regular basis.

Occupational therapy can help your parent to fully engage in their life, learn to compensate for limitations or injuries, and modify tasks so that they can handle them effectively while minimizing risks. In your role as a family caregiver, occupational therapy can also be beneficial for you. These therapists can help you to identify meaningful modifications that you can make in your parent’s home to help them further the adaptations and skills that they are working on in their occupational therapy, as well as support you in utilizing these skills in your regular routine.
If you feel that occupational therapy might be helpful for your aging parent, do not hesitate to get in touch with your parent’s doctor to discuss this opportunity and get recommendations for how to make OT a part of their lives as they age in place.

Starting elder care can be one of the most effective, nurturing, and beneficial decisions that you can make for your senior throughout the course of your caregiver journey with them. An elderly home care services provider can be with your aging parent on a customized schedule that is specifically designed to ensure that your loved one gets everything that they need, when they need it, while also supporting independence, activity, and engagement. This includes creating a highly personalized set of services tailored to your loved one’s challenges, limitations, and needs, but also their personality, goals, preferences, and lifestyle. This enables your parent to live the highest quality of life possible as they are aging in place. For you as their caregiver, this can give you confidence that they are receiving the support, nurturing, care, assistance, and encouragement that they need to handle their individual conditions and challenges, keep them active and engaged, and help the maintain a lifestyle that is fulfilling throughout their later years.

Source
http://www.ascseniorcare.com/occupational-therapy-for-seniors/
http://www.mychildwithoutlimits.org/plan/common-treatments-and-therapies/occupational-therapy/benefits-outcomes-and-drawbacks-of-occupational-therapy/
http://www.aota.org/About-Occupational-Therapy.aspx

If you or an aging loved one are considering elder care in New Brunswick, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Care Street Home Care of New Brunswick today. Call (732) 607-8870.