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My goal for you is to be as functionally
independent as possible with what you
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love to do in life.
It starts with empathy.
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You have to at least for a moment just
be able to understand what they're going
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through. I am a passionate tennis player.
I was playing in a social, and as I
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served the ball, I ended up with a
tingling sensation on my index finger. So
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I had the MRI done, and it was determined
I had a ganglion cyst that required
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removal by surgery. And he said, there is
a possibility that you may not have use
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of your hand to play tennis
again. But I said, oh no, I'm determined.
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I'll do whatever I have to do to get the
feeling back in my hand so I can brush
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my teeth, comb my hair, wash my hair, to
get myself back on the tennis court.
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Occupational therapists in general are
essentially creative problem-solvers.
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It's helping somebody not only return to
something they love but be able to do
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that themselves.
I don't just care about your range of
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motion today, your strength. I care
about how you're going to use your hand
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for the rest your life. We look at the whole
person. We look at the physical, we look
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at the emotional, we look at the
environmental--we have to really take in
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everything about that person and what's
important to them, and then problem
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solve, how are we going to take care of
that issue? It can start in the neonatal
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intensive care unit and go all the way
up through the entire lifespan.
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Occupational therapists are especially
trained to solve problems to help
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people's lives be better. We have a
stronger skill set in that than any
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other profession.
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I'd like to go back to doing my
photography. I need to be able to lift
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the camera to my eye, so that's what I'm
working on. It's very important for me to
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be independent, and I think the
occupational therapy has made a great,
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great difference.
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My daughter is profoundly deaf, so she
has cochlear implants which help with
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the hearing, and she also has an autism
diagnosis, so she has multiple sensory
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issues. For a child, any child, one of
their occupations is play.
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That's just naturally what they do. Play
is something that you can't always
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teach. So we incorporate play into
function. I like how you're drinking
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your juice, Julie. Taking turns, which is
a huge play skill and peer interaction--
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figuring out how both sides of my body
work together and how that is all
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integrated into our brain neurologically.
The sensory integration is just what my
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daughter needs to facilitate all her
motor skills, her balance, her vestibular
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system, and it just made a dramatic
difference. The results are a child
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finding themselves. Not catering to what is
inhibiting them but to what is stengthening them.
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You ready? 1, 2, pull up. I see
Scott engaged more, I see him lift his
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head up, I see him attend to things. Give me one more hit with the soccer ball.
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Thank you, that's awesome. All right, let's
try something else. For me, OT is the
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ultimate problem-solving profession,
because every day I have a chance to
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engage with somebody like Scott and I'm
going to figure out how to break through.
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I can use things that are really
familiar to him. He's a race car driver, so
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I can use the steering wheel. If it's
something that he knows about, he's going to be like,
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oh yeah, that's mine, I know what that is.
Every idea that she's had I've never
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even thought of. Just like we were
practicing over on the mat, we're
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going to practice on keeping your head up. We're
going to practice sitting up on your own. You
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got it? Nice. He didn't move, he
wouldn't do anything, and we've only been
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here three weeks and I would have never
thought we would have made it this far.
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It's going great, he's doing good. You got
it.
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COPD, the major symptom besides not being
able to breathe, is fatigue. Every step
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you take, your lungs are working harder.
So I knew that it was just a very short
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matter of time that I'd be in an
assisted living facility. And I just--I
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couldn't bear that. I have a cozy little
apartment. I've made it a home and I want
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to stay here. In order to, you know,
maintain her independence and be able to
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live where she wants to live, we spent a
lot of time talking about, what do you
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value and how do you see your life
changing? Oh, this looks so comfortable!
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We can adjust the height. Okay. And I did
put some non-slip rubber grips on the
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bottom. As an occupational therapist
doing home modifications in the
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community, I feel it's very important to
develop that rapport with people and
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develop that trust so that together we
can come up with those solutions and
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make a difference. What Carly has done
using the tools of occupational therapy to
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ensure that I don't get exhausted, has
improved my quality of life. And when
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that happens, you're a happier person.
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Dennis was getting ready to move out of
a nursing home, and was bored in his
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room, and he would color lots of pages
in his coloring books, and just wanted to be
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able to go out and do things on his own.
So we worked a lot on social skills in the
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natural setting, ordering what he wants,
managing the money, and not having
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people do so much for him.
I'm learning about money a little bit. How
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to count the money and everything. I think it's
really great seeing them interact with
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people in the community and not focusing
on mental illness, but focusing on
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enjoying myself around other people that
are doing something similar to me. And
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it feels really good that OT has that
ability to help people really realize
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that potential for themselves. My future is maybe living a long life if I
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could, and down the line maybe get in the
community, and paying bills, and getting
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my apartment, and setting goals and
stuff like that. What did you watch today?
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I was in Atlanta, and I had got drunk. And I
was laying on the sidewalk and somebody
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took a picture of me. And that was the first
time I really looked at myself
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and said, I need the help. Because when I
looked at the picture, I could take me
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out of the picture and see the chalk line. I
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came in and it gave me a chance to get
myself together.
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To have a foundation in a program that I never tried before in my life.
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It reeducated me, and helping me learn
to function, was the best thing about
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OT for me. When I get to put a room
together knowing that a new resident
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coming in, I know I'm giving him the same
opportunity that was given to me when I
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came here. My hopes and dreams is to be
happy. That I'm part of society. That I'm
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contributing.
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I have a chronic illness that put me in a deep
depression, so that brought me to a whole new
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understanding of life. You ever make cookies
before, or you started doing it when you
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came here? I start making them when I
came here. Yeah. What makes OT a little bit
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different? What's something that you like?
You give us the opportunity to say how we feel, what we feel.
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To go out, go to meetings. You know, cook in the kitchen. I love saying
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that, cook in the kitchen. What's always
been the most important is seeing them
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progress, and know the things that we've
done here are helping them get their
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lives back. I'm proud that I could say
this is home. The evidence is really
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strong now from the scientists in neural
plasticity that using real-life
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situations will give better changes on a
neurological level. You'll see more
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improvement when we use occupation in
our treatment.
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With different therapy it's helping
retrain my brain to send the correct
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signals. If I do it enough, my brain should
kick in and I should be able to do it on
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my own.
Lisa's arm is supported in a mobile arm
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support. We have some functional
electrical stimulation, and then I'm
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triggering the stem so it triggers once
she grasps, and then as soon as she makes
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her way across her body and over here
into the bag, I let go of the trigger
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and Lisa focuses on opening and
extending her fingers. Yes, very good.
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I'm trying to tap into everything Lisa enjoys
doing. This is something that's important
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to Lisa. She enjoys make-up. I came
here to get more intense therapy and
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using my hand, I know it's not going to be
perfect, but little by little.
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I joined the Marine Corps with the
infantry, actually on the front lines
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doing patrols, doing that, that's what I
did. We were on our last patrol in
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Afghanistan, and day one of that patrol
is when I stepped on the IED. It blew up.
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The charge was right underneath my left
and right leg, how they were spread open,
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so it split me in half. And it was 28
minutes from blast to me getting put on
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the medevac and put into a medical coma,
which is really quick considering how
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far out we were from the medevac site. So
when I got to Walter Reed for a week or
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two or more, I was doing three surgeries
a week. And the OTs would come into my
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room and we'd do ADLs--stuff that I was
gonna use all the time. So I was very
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eager to learn it. OT got me to the point
where I could be independent, drive
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myself, be in my own wheelchair, get up
and down the hills, and use prosthetic
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legs. It was full speed ahead.
The quicker you could start getting all
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this stuff and become more
independent, you just feel like yourself
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again. Not only was the OT helping him
regaining his independence, that also
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helps me find my balance of being a wife
and a mom. So as they're helping him, it's
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also helping our entire family. Pretty
amazing stuff that the OTs can do.
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Patrick and I went for a walk on a
beautiful spring day. We had very little to
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worry about, and we had our whole life in
front of us. And now we are both lying
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in ICU beds. And could it be true that
we're both amputees? To our occupational
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therapists: You walked in our rooms and
gave us our first shower, after five
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weeks of bed baths. You instantly made us
fall in love with you and your
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profession. Over the course of these last
three years, you have equipped us with a
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myriad of skills and tools that helped
us reclaim our lives.
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Thank you for dedicating much of your
lives to this unique profession of
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occupational therapy. Where science,
creativity, and compassion collide.
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you
