2. Occupational Therapy
Treatment Process
Shamima Akter
BOT, MRS (candidate)
Lecturer,
Department of Occupational Therapy
Bangladesh Health Professions Institute
Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed
Chapain, Savar
5. Referral
It can be provided by doctor, nurse, physiotherapist,
relatives of patient, patient himself, social work,
community based rehabilitation technician and
occupational therapist.
7. Build up rapport
ο It also means therapeutic relationship or therapeutic
use of self.
8. Assessment
Assessment refers to the process of gathering as much
information as possible about a client. Assessment is
an important aspect of the occupational therapy
process, as it enables the therapist to gather thorough
information, so that he/she is able to plan appropriate
and relevant treatment for the client.
9. For example:
ο‘ To identify functional problem use Functional
Independence Measure (FIM)
ο‘ To determine motor problem use Goniometer for
measuring Range of Motion and
ο‘ Modified oxford muscle grade scale for measuring
muscle strength
ο‘ Modified Asworth sclae for measuring hypertonicity
10. Treatment plan
Now that the therapist has developed a list of client
problems and strengths, and established treatment
priorities, they are ready to develop a treatment plan.
A treatment plan is an important part of treatment as
it ensures that the therapist has an idea of how they
can address the treatment priorities in the timeframe
that they have.
11. Problem Statement
ο Client has difficulty to do upper half dressing
independently due to:
- Unable to put on right hand into sleeve for limited
range of motion in shoulder and elbow
12. Therapeutic goal
a) Long-term goal
Client will be able to do upper half dressing
independently (FIM 7) after accomplishing 90
treatment sessions.
b) Short term goal
Client will be able to achieve 145 degree shoulder
abduction to reach for sleeves after accomplishing 5
days treatment sessions.
13. Treatment
ο Grading activity to improve range of motion
ο‘ practice reaching activity from 1 cm away (which
needs to abduct shoulder 10 degree)
ο‘ practice reaching activity from 2 cm away (which
needs to abduct shoulder 20 degree)
14. Treatment implementation
Treatment implementation means to give the treatment. This is
where occupational therapists actually use their treatment skills
to assist the patient to achieve their aims and objectives. You
will learn many types of treatment that you can implement over
the next 5 years. For now it is important just to realize where
this stage fits in the OT process. Occupational therapists have a
broad education in the medical, social behavioral, psychological,
psychosocial and occupational sciences which equips them with
the attitudes, skills and knowledge to work collaboratively with
people, individually or in groups or communities.
15. Treatment evaluation
When we talked about occupational therapy beliefs about
humans in an earlier lecture, we found that OT believes that
humans are all unique and that they change. Therefore it is
important to be flexible in the implementation of a treatment
plan. There are many things that can change while we are
treating a patient which influence our treatment. It is important
to recognize these changes and to change our treatment
accordingly. This process is called evaluation.
16. References
ο Pedretti LW 1996, Occupational Therapy:
Practice skill for physical dysfunction, 4th ed,
Mosby-Year Book, Inc, Philadelphia
ο Trombly CA 1996, Occupational Therapy for
Physical Dysfunction, 5th ed, Mosby Company,
Philadelphia
ο Hagedorn R 1992, Occupational Therapy:
Foundation for Practice, 1st ed, Churchill
Livingstone, New York.