Check out the Spring 2013 issue of Rehab Matters for a piece I wrote about my personal experiences with occupational therapy and my suggestions to optimize the practice. This magazine is for members of VRA Canada, vocational rehabilitation professionals, so I am thrilled that my insight may influence their practices.
In this piece, I wrote about the potential of occupational therapy to empower patients, and writing this for the VRA audience also empowered me. I used to blog about my health in this blog to empower myself by educating my readers.
Occupational therapy has been a positive experience for me, but the intermittent, often invisible nature of my symptoms, and their variability based on activity, environment and my health status, has proven to be quite a barrier for me to get effective treatment and respect. The piece in this issue about invisible disability and employment illustrates how stigma and preconceived notions hurt affected people.
Congratulations Ashley. I'm currently having OT and Physio in th e home and it has been great. I so agree they need to see you in your regular environment. I know when I was still working in rehab the OT would go out to the home with the patient to work out what they needed in situ. That was done before they went home and often redirected therapy in hospital. Made a huge difference to outcome.
ReplyDeleteRusty Hoe - Thank you! It makes so much sense to have OT and PT in the home and it sounds like it could really help you! How has it affected you so far? I'm not at all surprised that at your work, patients with in-home therapy had a better outcome.
ReplyDeleteCongrats! And thanks for those words!
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