What is Occupational Therapy?
The term Occupational Therapy can often be misleading as individuals tend to assume that the target is to provide vocational counseling or training. However, this is not the case. The goal of Occupational Therapy is to enable individuals to engage in their day-to-day activities that they need to do, want to do and are expected to do.
Occupational Therapists are regulated health care professionals who assist individuals of various ages and abilities with resuming or maintaining participation in a variety of tasks associated to self-care, productivity and leisure. Occupational Therapists can assist their clients with:
- Learning new ways of doing things
- Regaining skills and/or developing new ones
- Using equipment or devices to make tasks easier
- Adapting one’s environment to promote independence
With the tools listed above Occupational Therapists support individuals in optimizing their day-to-day activities – safely and effectively – at home, school, work and a variety of other settings.
Who can benefit from our Occupational Therapy Services
Adults/Older Adults who are presenting with difficulties in the areas of:
- Mobility/balance
- Increased fall related incidents
- Completion of self-care tasks (ex: bathing, grooming, dressing etc.)
- Home accessibility
- Low Energy affecting ability to complete day-to-day tasks
Paediatrics who are presenting with difficulties in the area of:
- Fine motor:
- Strength, coordination, manipulation
- Pre-Printing, writing, and letter formation
- Scissor use and pencil grasp development
- Self-care activities (ex: shoe tying, dressing, ect.) and life skills
- Visual Motor Skills
- Attention, Focus and Organizational skills
What to expect during your first visit:
During your first visit the Occupational Therapist will complete a thorough assessment which may include:
- the collection of personal information (ex: health history)
- discussions regarding the occupational performance issue and goals associated to same
- The completion of any informal/formalized assessment that is deemed approriate or required
Based on the results of the initial assessment the Occupational therapist will discuss the findings with the individual. Following which, the therapist and client will collectively develop individualized goals. A treatment plan that is best suited to the client’s needs will then be recommended and next steps will be discussed.