The Occupational Therapy, Essay Example

In the first frames of the video, the man is pictured lying down in his bed reading a book.  His main symptoms are not apparent.  The man appears to be a Caucasian in his early to mid-20s; he has sandy brown hair and brown eyes.  The patient is at home. After roughly 20 seconds, he is addressed by a friend, stops reading, and gets up from the bed.  He then starts to introduce his daily routine: He shows how he gets out of bed each morning through pulling himself out of the bed via extending his arms and flies onto an accompany mattress using momentum.  The patient then shows how he gets around including swaying back and forth on the floor in order to get through the house.  Stairs are a difficulty: the patient heaves himself up the stairs through leveraging his strength; he also uses a mixture of jumping and extension to get down the stairs.  A similar method is used to get on top of chairs in the kitchen in order to eat.  Moving from counter to counter, the man is able to make his lunch and procure the dishes necessary to eat the food on.

In order to eat, the individual opens the freezer and pulls himself onto the table in order to prepare the food. To access the cupboards, he shifts his weight and swings over in order to grab plates and other utensils; he then jumps down to resume his daily routine.  The patient then moves to his room in order to show how he attaches his prosthetic including silicon layers and cups. In order to attach his legs, he puts the cup over his upper thigh, and then he puts the other cup onto his legs.  Once he has put the lining on his legs, he then grabs the prosthetics, puts on the legs, and begins to move forward.  He then walks around his room from left to right. In order to bend his legs, there is a pivot on the prosthetic in which the individual can bend the prosthetic in order to move forward and backward.

The primary symptoms of the patient are quite evident: The patient is missing both legs below the knee; the patient is not using prosthetics when he is resting or even moving around the house.  However, the patient puts on prosthetics at the end.  The main problems the patient encounters are movement limitations emanating from using upper body strength to get around the house.

An occupational therapist can play a key role helping an upper-limb amputee.  According to the American Occupational Therapy Association, there are five main ways that occupational therapists can help amputees (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2005)..  First, occupational therapists can help identify the client’s goals that can range on a continuum from self-care to work and leisure activities- the therapist helps the patient to understand  the range of options.   Second, occupational therapists can help identify and address prevailing psychosocial issues; often times new amputees have a significant psychological transition due to their loss of freedom associated with loss of mobility. The main psychosocial intervention is to help give the individual skills and techniques to combat anxiety that might arise from the new condition- potential include going over every day scenarios with the patients, assuaging concerns over obstacles, and helping them to address weaknesses in their approach.    Third, an occupational therapist can help an amputee with prosthetic training: Although prosthetics provide important assistance to amputees, patients often times need help in adjusting to them, including exercises to increase flexibility and range of motion for its proper use. Fourth, occupational therapists can assist in the area of task analysis.  Many patients may have questions on needed methods and techniques to perform previous tasks that were much easier; therapy can be addressed to individual tasks as a means to increase confidence and ability to undergo these tasks.  Finally, occupational therapists play a key role in education- this educational function is wide ranging from answering basic physiological questions to more complex questions related to coping with a limited range of motion.

Sources

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2011). The occupational therapy role in rehabilitation for the person with an upper-limb amputation.  Available at: www.aota.org/Practitioners/PracticeAreas/Rehab/Tools/39922.aspx.