Occupational therapy

All content is checked by medical journalists.

Occupational therapy is a form of medical treatment that supports people with limited capacity to act. Its aim is to enable patients to cope better with everyday activities. Read everything about the course of occupational therapy, when it is helpful and what risks it entails.

What is occupational therapy?

Occupational therapy is a form of therapy that supports sick or injured people in coping with their everyday lives. It should enable the patient to take care of himself as much as possible, to participate in society and thus to gain a better quality of life.

The occupational therapy is carried out by specially trained occupational therapists. These always work holistically and take into account not only the patient's illness-related limitations, but also social and financial factors. The following goals of occupational therapy can be summarized:

• Definition of individual goals, the wishes and possibilities of the patient
• Promotion and improvement of movement coordination, sensory and emotional perception
• Development of physical and mental prerequisites for an independent and fulfilled life
• Improving the quality of life by developing existing skills
• Reintegration into the personal, social and, if necessary, professional environment

Not only adults sometimes need occupational therapy: children with developmental disorders also benefit from it. You will be treated by specially trained children's occupational therapists who also involve parents and other caregivers in the therapy. The aim of occupational therapy in childhood is above all to promote the age-appropriate development of independence and the ability of a child to act.

Indication key

Occupational therapy must be prescribed by a doctor as a therapeutic measure. The so-called indication code, a combination of letters and numbers that the doctor specifies on the prescription, describes the medical reason for using occupational therapy. The therapist may not add any missing information at all or only after consulting the doctor.

History of the job title

On January 1st, 1999 the law "Law on the Occupation of Occupational Therapists (Occupational Therapists Act - ErgThG)" came into force. This replaced the previously official job title of "occupational and occupational therapist". However, the term "occupational therapy" is still sometimes used today as a synonym for occupational therapy. The occupation of the occupational therapist or labor educator is an independent training occupation.

The term occupational therapy was coined much earlier. It comes from the Greek word "érgon". Literally translated, this means something like work, work, craft, activity or occupation.

When is occupational therapy carried out?

Occupational therapy is carried out as a helpful, supportive measure, for example in geriatric medicine, pediatric and adolescent medicine, but also in psychiatry and orthopedics. It serves, among other things, to enable the patient to resume a professional activity.

Occupational therapy in orthopedics and rheumatology as well as after accidents

The following diseases of the musculoskeletal system restrict patients in everyday life and may therefore require occupational therapy:

• Broken bones
• chronic back problems
• Disorder of gross or fine motor skills
• Paraplegia
• Amputation injuries
• arthrosis

Occupational therapy in neurology

Patients with diseases of the nervous system are often considerably restricted in their ability to act. Examples of neurological disorders that occupational therapy treatments can help with include:

• stroke
• traumatic brain injury
• Cerebral palsy (movement and posture disorder after brain damage)
• Parkinson's disease
• multiple sclerosis
• Signs of paralysis
• Polyneuropathy (nerve damage)

Occupational therapy in psychiatry

In psychiatry, for example, patients with the following diseases benefit from occupational therapy:

• Anxiety disorder
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Stress and adjustment disorder
• Personality disorder
• Conduct disorder
• Depression, mania
• psychosis
• Addictions (e.g. alcohol, drugs, medication, gambling)

Occupational therapy in geriatric medicine

Aging people in particular are often restricted in their independence due to the aging process itself as well as diseases (multimorbidity). Social isolation or a lack of tasks also limit the quality of life of older people. Sudden changes such as the death of a partner or a loss of familiar surroundings can intensify this tendency and put a considerable strain on the patient. Occupational therapy measures help you get used to and adapt to changing living conditions. Occupational therapy is also used for diseases with changes in personality and memory problems, for example with dementia.

Occupational therapy in children

Early development support always makes sense, especially with children. Waiting too long can make abnormal or unhealthy behaviors worse. Parents should also be trained to support their child in age-appropriate development. The following clinical pictures in childhood make occupational therapy necessary:

• Developmental disorders or delays (e.g. after premature birth)
• Perception disorders (information in the brain is used and evaluated differently)
• physical handicap
• graphomotor disorders (difficulty writing)
• Visual or hearing impairment
• mental disability
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• autism

What do you do in occupational therapy?

The therapeutic process of occupational therapy is basically divided into three steps:

• Evaluation (assessment and definition of a goal)
• Intervention (planning a treatment and its implementation)
• Outcome (evaluation of the therapy results)

Once the occupational therapist has assessed the patient's situation and agreed the therapy goals with him, he selects a therapy method that is suitable for the intervention. The following approaches are available to him:

• Competence-centered relevant to everyday life
• subject-related expression-centered
• interactional
• perception-related action-oriented

Competence-centered methods relevant to everyday life

Competence-centered occupational therapy is one of the most common approaches. The patient should regain lost skills with the support of the occupational therapist. This includes manual activities such as sawing, sewing and basket weaving, but also activities for coping with everyday life and leisure activities such as cooking, games or dealing with authorities. Exercises and games that train memory are also used.

Subject-related, expression-centered methods

With this therapeutic approach, the patient should learn to express inner feelings creatively and to sensitize himself to his well-being. The occupational therapist lets the patients paint or do handicrafts here, either alone or in a group. Usually he also gives a topic for this. For example, he asks a depressed patient to create a picture with colors that will bring him joy.

Interactional methods

This therapeutic approach is used to encourage patients to deal with other people and to promote togetherness in a social structure. The interactional occupational therapy therefore naturally takes place in partner or group work. The occupational therapist gives the group a task, for example a joint craft project or a role play. Then he observes the group in the work phase: How are conflicts resolved? Who is looking for which role in the group? How do the patients communicate with each other? The therapist then reflects on the work process together with the patient and works on it.

Perception-related, action-oriented methods

Here the occupational therapist conveys his sensory and body perceptions to the patient. Very simple exercises are helpful, such as massaging the hands with a "hedgehog ball", touching and recognizing materials, sensations of vibrations or warm and cold experiences in a water bath. Through these new experiences, the patient should learn to consciously absorb sensory experiences and classify them correctly. This therapeutic approach is mainly used with psychiatric patients or children with developmental disorders.

Occupational group treatments

Some occupational therapy measures are carried out as part of group treatments. For example, content that was developed in individual therapy can be tried out and trained in the group. This includes, for example, exercises in everyday skills, but also exercises in brain performance training for people with corresponding disorders or dementia. To be trained:

• Social skills
• Conflict resolution
• coping with stress
• Planning ability
• Perception training
• concentration
• memory

What are the risks of occupational therapy?

In principle, occupational therapy is not associated with any particular risks. Health problems usually only arise if the patient is more stressed by the occupational therapy exercises than can be expected from him.

Excessive demands on the part of the therapist or unrealistic expectations on the part of the patient can quickly lead to frustration. In the case of excessive demands, it is difficult to motivate patients, so in such a case the treatment goals should be redefined together with the patient.

What do I have to consider after occupational therapy?

If your doctor has prescribed occupational therapy for you, he will usually be able to recommend a suitable occupational therapist. Remember that the success of the treatment depends largely on your cooperation. Therefore try to approach the exercises in a motivated and open manner, even if it sometimes takes some effort.

Talk to your occupational therapist regularly about your wishes, goals and fears - this is the only way he can adapt the treatment to your individual ideas. You can often try out the exercises that the occupational therapist has shown you outside of the sessions and continue training. Make sure you do not exceed your personal limit. Instead, set yourself small goals that you can expand with occupational therapy.

Tags:  skin nourishment Diagnosis